There’s a version of social value that a lot of businesses have got very comfortable with. Write a policy. Tick the box on the tender. File it away until the next bid comes round.
That version is about to stop working.
In August, the Cabinet Office published PPN 026, a new Social Value Model for central government procurement. It replaces the previous framework (PPN 002) and it changes something important. Where authorities used to be able to score bids on a broad mix of things, climate action, wellbeing, supply chain resilience, the new model narrows it right down to two things: jobs and skills. That’s it. If you can’t evidence what you’re doing on employment and workforce development, you can’t score on social value at all, however good your environmental credentials are.
What’s actually changing in PPN 026
From January 2027, any in-scope government procurement worth £1 million or more has to weight social value at a minimum of 10%. Above £5 million, that rises to at least 20%. On the biggest contracts, you’ll also need to commit to at least one social value KPI, published and reported on annually. This isn’t a “nice to have” section buried in your PQQ anymore. It’s a meaningful chunk of how bids get scored, and it’s being checked throughout the life of the contract, not just at the point you win it.
Right now this applies directly to central government departments and their agencies. But if you’ve been doing this work as long as we have, you’ll know how this goes. What starts in central government has a habit of working its way into local authority frameworks and into what the big primes expect from everyone in their supply chain. If you supply into public sector contracts anywhere in that chain, this is coming for you whether or not the £1 million threshold applies to you directly.
Why “we have a policy” won’t cut it anymore
The model is built around six award criteria under two outcomes, fair pay and good working conditions, and genuine routes into work and progression for people who currently face barriers to employment. What the guidance keeps coming back to is evidence. Not intentions. Not a statement on your website. Actual, demonstrable practice: who you’re training, who you’re hiring, what happens to people’s pay and progression once they’re in the business.
That’s where most SMEs fall down, not because they’re not doing good things, but because nobody’s ever asked them to prove it in a structured way before. The businesses who’ll do well out of this are the ones who can already point to real numbers and real stories, not the ones who write the best paragraph under pressure two days before a tender deadline.
What to actually do about it now
The detailed guidance on target groups and the list of approved community programmes isn’t due until autumn 2026, so there’s genuinely no rush to have a finished policy document. But there’s plenty worth doing now:
- Look honestly at what you already do on fair pay, training, and giving opportunities to people who’ve struggled to get into work, and start building an evidence trail, not a policy statement
- If you bid for public sector work, even as a subcontractor, map what you do against the six award criteria so you’re not starting from scratch when a tender lands
- Talk to your supply chain now if you’re a prime. Your subcontractors will be asked about this whether they’ve heard of PPN 026 or not
This isn’t about becoming something you’re not. It’s about being able to show, clearly and honestly, what you’re already doing and where you’re genuinely willing to go further.
If you want a second pair of eyes on where you stand against this, or you’re not sure where to start, get in touch. We’d rather have that conversation with you now than help you scramble three days before a deadline.