Social value: the 10–20% of your score most bidders throw away

Social value is the additional community benefit a contract delivers beyond the thing being bought. Since PPN 06/20 it has been mandatory to score it on central government contracts, with a minimum 10% weighting, and the practice has spread across councils, NHS bodies and universities — many of which now weight it at 15% or 20%.

On a quality-price split of 60:40, a 20% social value weighting means it can outweigh your entire price advantage. It is routinely the least-prepared part of a bid.

What buyers actually measure

Most UK buyers use one of a small number of frameworks — the Social Value Model themes, the National TOMs (Themes, Outcomes and Measures), or a locally adapted version. The recurring themes:

• Local employment — jobs created, local recruitment, apprenticeships, work experience placements.
• Local supply chain — spend with businesses in the area, SME and VCSE spend, prompt payment.
• Skills and education — training delivered, school and college engagement, career talks.
• Environmental — carbon reduction, waste diverted, biodiversity, sustainable transport.
• Community — volunteering hours, donations in kind, support for local groups.
• Equality and wellbeing — tackling inequality, supporting disadvantaged groups, staff wellbeing.

Many use a proxy-value calculator that converts commitments into a modelled pound figure. Where that applies, ask which calculator and which version — the weightings differ, and the answer tells you where the marks actually are.

Why most social value answers score badly

They are generic. “We are committed to supporting the local community” scores nothing. It contains no commitment, no number and no date.

They describe what the company already does. Buyers want additional value created by this contract. Your existing charity partnership is not attributable to a contract you have not won yet.

They are not local. If the contract is in Sunderland, commitments must land in Sunderland. National programmes described generically read as boilerplate, because they are.

They are unmeasurable. “We will engage with local schools” cannot be evaluated. “We will deliver six careers sessions to two named schools within the first year, reaching approximately 180 pupils” can.

They are undeliverable. Social value commitments become contract obligations, monitored and reported. Over-promising to win wins you a compliance problem for the contract term.

Writing an answer that scores

1. Read the buyer's priorities first. Councils publish corporate plans, economic strategies and social value policies. A commitment aligned to a stated local priority — a regeneration zone, a youth unemployment target — scores far better than a generic good deed.
2. Quantify everything. Numbers, timescales, named locations, named partners. Every commitment should be checkable.
3. Show the mechanism. Not just “two apprenticeships” but which provider, which standard, what duration, who manages them, what happens at the end.
4. Name real partners. A letter of support from a local college or charity converts a claim into a plan.
5. Explain your monitoring. How you will measure, how often you will report, who owns it. Buyers have been burned by unmonitored promises and are looking for the answer to this.
6. Commit only to what survives contract mobilisation. Ask your operations team before you write, not after you win.

If you are a small supplier

Social value is one of the few areas where SMEs have a structural advantage, and most fail to press it. You are probably already local, already employing local people, already spending in the local supply chain. A large national contractor has to manufacture a local story; you have one.

Say it plainly and with numbers: the proportion of your workforce living within ten miles, your local supply chain spend as a percentage, the schools you already work with. That is credible in a way a national programme summary is not.

After the award

Social value commitments are contractual. Expect quarterly reporting, and expect the buyer to ask for evidence. Under the Procurement Act 2023, performance against KPIs on larger contracts can be published — so a missed social value commitment is now potentially a matter of public record that follows you into the next bid.