What is social value in public procurement?

Social value is the wider economic, social, and environmental benefit a supplier generates by delivering a public contract — beyond the goods or services bought. Examples include local jobs, apprenticeships, SME supply-chain spend, and carbon reduction. In UK central government it is a scored award criterion worth at least 10% of the total.

What is the minimum social value weighting in government contracts?

Central government must apply a minimum 10% weighting of the total evaluation score to social value. The requirement was introduced by Procurement Policy Note 06/20 in January 2021 and retained under the current PPN 002 model, mandatory from 1 October 2025. Many buyers weight it higher, often 15-20%.

What are the Social Value Model themes?

The current Social Value Model (PPN 002, mandatory 1 October 2025) is organised around the government's missions and eight measurable outcomes, covering areas such as fair work, skills, sustainable procurement, and employment for people facing barriers. The previous PPN 06/20 model used five themes: COVID-19 recovery, tackling economic inequality, fighting climate change, equal opportunity, and wellbeing.

How does the Procurement Act 2023 change social value?

The Procurement Act 2023, in force from 24 February 2025, requires authorities to have regard to maximising public benefit (section 12) and lets them award on the most advantageous tender rather than lowest price (section 19), giving social value clearer room in evaluation. The 10% weighting itself remains a policy requirement under the relevant procurement policy note, not the Act.

Why does social value favour SMEs?

Social value rewards specific, deliverable commitments tied to the contract and local area. Local employers with genuine community roots can credibly promise apprenticeships, local supply-chain spend, and community impact that large generalists offering generic statements cannot. At 10-20% of the score, this can outweigh a marginal price or technical disadvantage.

Evaluation and scoring

Social value

Written by Justin Cesman, CEO of Skim. Last reviewed: 22 June 2026

Definition: Social value is the wider economic, social, and environmental benefit a supplier's delivery of a UK public contract generates beyond the goods or services bought — local jobs, skills, carbon reduction, community impact. Central government must score it at a minimum 10% weighting of the total evaluation.

Key takeaways

Social value is the wider economic, social and environmental benefit a public contract delivers beyond the goods or services purchased — measured, not asserted.
Central government must apply a minimum 10% weighting of the total evaluation score to social value, a requirement first introduced by PPN 06/20 in January 2021 and retained under the current PPN 002 model.
The Social Value Model sets the criteria buyers score against. The current model (PPN 002, mandatory 1 October 2025) is organised around the government's missions and eight outcomes; the previous PPN 06/20 model used five themes.
At 10-20% of the score, social value can decide between two technically equal bids — specific, measurable commitments beat generic statements.
Social value favours SMEs: local employers with genuine community ties can make concrete, deliverable commitments that large generalists struggle to match.

How it works

Social value entered UK public procurement through the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012, in force from January 2013, which required authorities in England and Wales to consider how the services they commission could improve the economic, social, and environmental wellbeing of an area. The Act set the duty to think about social value, but not how to score it.

Scoring arrived with Procurement Policy Note 06/20, in force from January 2021, which made social value a mandatory award criterion for central government departments, executive agencies, and non-departmental public bodies — at a minimum 10% weighting of the total score. It introduced the first Social Value Model, built around five themes: COVID-19 recovery, tackling economic inequality, fighting climate change, equal opportunity, and wellbeing.

PPN 06/20 was replaced by PPN 002, published on 24 February 2025 — the same day the Procurement Act 2023 came into force — and mandatory for in-scope central government procurements from 1 October 2025. The updated Social Value Model is reorganised around the government's missions and eight measurable outcomes — covering fair work, skills, resilient supply chains, sustainable procurement, crime reduction, and employment for those facing barriers — and keeps the minimum 10% weighting. Procurements that commenced before 1 October 2025 still use the older five-theme model, so bidders should check which version applies to each tender.

For bidders, social value is no longer a tick-box exercise. Buyers want concrete, deliverable commitments tied to the contract and the local area: how many apprenticeships will be created, what share of supply-chain spend will reach SMEs, what the carbon reduction target is. Under PPN 002 those commitments are increasingly written into the contract as key performance indicators and reported against, so an undeliverable promise becomes a delivery risk, not just a scoring one.

Under the Procurement Act 2023

Reviewed 22 June 2026

The duty to consider social value comes from the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012; the scoring weight comes from Cabinet Office procurement policy notes, and which one applies depends on when the procurement started. Procurements that commenced before 1 October 2025 follow PPN 06/20 and its five-theme Social Value Model; procurements from that date follow PPN 002 and the new mission-based model — both keeping the minimum 10% weighting for central government. The Procurement Act 2023, in force from 24 February 2025, reframes the wider context: section 12 requires contracting authorities to have regard to the importance of maximising public benefit, and section 19 lets them award on the most advantageous tender (MAT) rather than the lowest price, giving social value clearer room in the evaluation. The Act does not itself set the 10% figure — that remains a policy requirement under the relevant PPN.

Sources: Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 (legislation.gov.uk) · GOV.UK — PPN 002: Taking account of social value in the award of central government contracts · Procurement Act 2023 (legislation.gov.uk)

Why it matters for bidders

Social value is a scoring differentiator that favours SMEs. At a minimum 10% weighting — often 15-20% in practice — it can decide between two technically similar bids, and local employers with genuine community ties can make specific, measurable commitments that large generalists offering boilerplate cannot. Being small and local is an advantage here. The mistake most bidders make is writing aspirational social value; the evaluator is scoring deliverability against named outcomes. Published award notices show which suppliers a buyer has rewarded before, and the buyer's own priorities are usually signalled in the most advantageous tender criteria — read together, they tell you which outcome to lead on. That award-data discipline, drawn from teams who have won £3bn+ in UK and EU public contracts, turns social value from a box to tick into points you can actually bank.

How Skim helps

Skim's Buyer Intelligence agent surfaces the buyer's published social value priorities and the outcomes they have rewarded in past awards, while its Bid Analysis agent checks your proposed commitments against the local economic profile — so your social value is specific, measurable, and aligned to the model version that applies to the tender, rather than generic statements an evaluator has seen a hundred times.

Buyer Intelligence agent · Bid Analysis agent

Frequently asked questions

What is social value in public procurement?: Social value is the wider economic, social, and environmental benefit a supplier generates by delivering a public contract — beyond the goods or services bought. Examples include local jobs, apprenticeships, SME supply-chain spend, and carbon reduction. In UK central government it is a scored award criterion worth at least 10% of the total.
What is the Social Value Act 2012?: The Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012, in force from January 2013, requires public authorities in England and Wales to consider how the services they commission could improve the economic, social, and environmental wellbeing of an area. It created the duty to consider social value but did not set a scoring weight.
What is the minimum social value weighting in government contracts?: Central government must apply a minimum 10% weighting of the total evaluation score to social value. The requirement was introduced by Procurement Policy Note 06/20 in January 2021 and retained under the current PPN 002 model, mandatory from 1 October 2025. Many buyers weight it higher, often 15-20%.
What are the Social Value Model themes?: The current Social Value Model (PPN 002, mandatory 1 October 2025) is organised around the government's missions and eight measurable outcomes, covering areas such as fair work, skills, sustainable procurement, and employment for people facing barriers. The previous PPN 06/20 model used five themes: COVID-19 recovery, tackling economic inequality, fighting climate change, equal opportunity, and wellbeing.
How does the Procurement Act 2023 change social value?: The Procurement Act 2023, in force from 24 February 2025, requires authorities to have regard to maximising public benefit (section 12) and lets them award on the most advantageous tender rather than lowest price (section 19), giving social value clearer room in evaluation. The 10% weighting itself remains a policy requirement under the relevant procurement policy note, not the Act.
Why does social value favour SMEs?: Social value rewards specific, deliverable commitments tied to the contract and local area. Local employers with genuine community roots can credibly promise apprenticeships, local supply-chain spend, and community impact that large generalists offering generic statements cannot. At 10-20% of the score, this can outweigh a marginal price or technical disadvantage.

Sources

Related terms

Evaluation criteria

Evaluation criteria, called award criteria under the Procurement Act 2023, are the factors and weightings a buyer publishes to score tenders — covering quality, methodology, staff, price and social value — and decide the most advantageous tender. Criteria must relate to the subject-matter of the contract.

Most economically advantageous tender(MEAT)

The most economically advantageous tender (MEAT) is the legacy award basis under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, requiring buyers to award on the best combination of quality and price rather than lowest price alone. The Procurement Act 2023 renames it the most advantageous tender (MAT).

Quality score

A quality score is the mark a public sector evaluator awards to the non-price (technical) elements of a tender, assessed against published award criteria — usually on a 0–5 or 0–10 scale with written descriptors — and often weighted at 40–70% of the total evaluation.

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