"Social value" is the extra social, economic or environmental benefit a supplier brings through the way it works with its staff, suppliers, community or the environment while it delivers a contract. More and more tenders score it, sometimes as one question worth a tenth of the marks. For a one or two person firm it can feel like a question written for someone else. It doesn't have to be.
Who has to score it, and how much
The Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 makes public bodies in England (and some UK bodies in Wales) consider, before they start buying services under the Procurement Act, how the contract could improve the area's economic, social and environmental wellbeing. It doesn't make them score it. Central government goes further through procurement policy notes:
- PPN 002 (updated February 2025) applies to central government departments, their executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies, for procurements under the Procurement Act that commenced on or after 1 October 2025. It applies only to covered (above-threshold) procurements, and requires a minimum 10% weighting of the total score for social value, using the government's Social Value Model.
- PPN 026 (published in 2026) introduces a new edition of the model for central government procurements commenced on or after 1 January 2027. It applies to covered procurements valued at £1 million or more including VAT, with a minimum 10% weighting for contracts from £1 million to under £5 million and 20% from £5 million. It defines social value as how a supplier will provide good jobs, skills and opportunities in communities across the country.
Councils, NHS bodies and others aren't bound by these PPNs but may adopt the same approach, and many ask a social value question on much smaller contracts. Below the thresholds, how much weight it gets is up to the buyer: the tender documents will say.
Whatever the policy, the Procurement Act says award criteria must relate to the subject matter of the contract and be proportionate (section 23), and buyers must have regard to the barriers small firms face (section 12). A buyer shouldn't expect a two-person firm to promise what a 2,000-person firm can.
Writing a good answer as a small firm
Social value answers are scored on what you commit to for this contract, how believable it is, and how you'll show it happened. A small firm can do well on all three by being specific and modest. Ideas that genuinely fit desk-based work:
- Local jobs and skills: a paid placement, internship or apprenticeship for the contract; recruiting fieldwork or event staff locally; mentoring a student or graduate on the project.
- Fair work: paying at least the Real Living Wage to everyone on the contract, including freelancers you bring in; prompt payment to your own subcontractors.
- Supporting local organisations: sharing your skills with a local charity or community group for a set number of hours; buying from local small businesses where the contract needs supplies.
- Inclusion: making your research, training or materials accessible; reaching people who usually go unheard in a consultation.
- Environment: remote delivery to cut travel; digital rather than printed outputs; a simple, honest account of your carbon footprint if you have one.
A shape that works
- Name the outcome the buyer chose from its model or menu, in its words.
- Commit to something measurable: "one paid six-week placement for a local graduate, advertised through the local job centre", not "we support young people".
- Say who does it and when in the contract timeline.
- Say how you'll report it: what you'll measure and when the buyer will see it. Commitments you make are usually written into the contract as terms or performance indicators, so only promise what you'll deliver.
- Give evidence from the past if you have it: what you've done before, with dates and numbers you can prove.
What to avoid
- Generic statements copied from a big firm's website.
- Commitments unrelated to the contract (the buyer can't reward them anyway).
- Numbers you can't back up. A bracketed gap in a draft is better than an invented figure.
- Over-promising. A small, certain commitment scores better than a grand vague one, and won't come back to bite you at contract management.
Bidlark's checklist flags notices that mention social value, so you know before you open the tender pack that there will be a question to write. On Pro, a draft starts from your own facts and leaves brackets where you need to add a commitment.