Social value questions in tenders: how to answer under PPN 002, with examples

PPN 002 applies to central government departments, their executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies. For procurements under the Procurement Act started on or after 1 October 2025, they must give social value a minimum weighting of 10% of the total score, or an equivalent measure. It does not apply to below-threshold procurements, to private utilities, or to Ministry of Defence defence and security contracts.

Councils, NHS bodies and housing associations are not bound by it. The note says other contracting authorities “may wish to apply” its approach, so outside central government the ask varies from tender to tender. Our guide to social value in council, NHS and housing tenders covers that side.

The PPN 002 Social Value Model groups eight outcomes under five missions:

• Kick start economic growth: fair work; skills for growth; resilient, innovative and flexible supply chains.
• Make Britain a clean energy superpower: sustainable procurement practices.
• Take back our streets: reducing crime through community cohesion, awareness and action.
• Break down barriers to opportunity: employment and training for people facing barriers; creating a pipeline of opportunities.
• Build an NHS fit for the future: physical and mental wellbeing for productivity.

A tender will usually pick one or two outcomes that relate to the contract. Answer the ones it picks, not the ones you would prefer.

The model is unusually direct about this. The minimum requirement to score points is a “specific, measurable and time-bound commitment”. Around it, the buyer expects:

• a method statement explaining how the commitment meets the award criteria;
• the people it will reach: a named group, or a method for defining one, and how you will reach them;
• how you will involve your staff, suppliers and community in delivering it;
• how you will publish your commitments and your performance;
• a timed project plan, with metrics, the tools you will use to monitor them, governance with named escalation points, and a way of improving as you go.

Where the model has a standard reporting metric for what you are offering, use it. For the fair work, employment and pipeline outcomes, it also asks for the total number of people working on the contract, counted in roles, not full-time equivalents.

PPN 002 says that all social value commitments made by suppliers during the procurement must be reflected in the contract, as contract terms or key performance indicators. That changes how the answer should be written. The question is not “what sounds generous?” but “what will we deliver, measure and report, every quarter, for the life of this contract?”

Read the whole pack, not only the social value question. In Qualifications Wales’s facilities management tender, the environment and social value question is worth 5 of 100 quality points. But the specification ties the contract to the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 and the Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Act 2023, asks for local and SME sub-contracting and the Real Living Wage, and sets annual KPIs on waste, carbon and local spend. The question is small; the obligations are not.

An invented illustration, not a client example:

The second version is shorter to promise and harder to deliver, which is exactly why it scores.

• Commitments you cannot resource. They will be in the contract.
• Borrowed outcomes. A figure from another contract is evidence of what you have done, not a commitment for this one. Say which is which.
• The wrong unit. If the model asks for roles, do not give full-time equivalents.

1. PPN 002: Taking account of social value in the award of central government contracts (paras 3, 6, 7, 10, 11), page updated 5 March 2025. www.gov.uk/government/publications/ppn-002-taking-account-of-social-value-in-the-award-of-contracts/ppn-002-taking-account-of-social-value-in-the-award-of-central-government-contracts-html
2. PPN 002: The Social Value Model. www.gov.uk/government/publications/ppn-002-taking-account-of-social-value-in-the-award-of-contracts/procurement-policy-note-002-the-social-value-model-html
3. Qualifications Wales, ref. QWL262702: Specification sections 6, 7 and 27 and Response Template 2 Q3, published on Sell2Wales. www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/099768-2026

Read on 23 and 24 October 2026. Guidance and tender documents change; check the current version before relying on any detail. Examples that use a fictional supplier say so.