Social value model · central government procurement
The social value model: PPN 002 now, PPN 026 from 2027
The social value model is the scored award criterion central government buyers use in tenders, set today by PPN 002 at a flat minimum of 10% of the score.
PPN 026, published on 5 August 2026, applies to procurements whose tender notice is published on or after 1 January 2027: a £1m floor, 10% and 20% tiers, and two outcomes in place of eight.
Both are Cabinet Office policy binding buyers, not law binding suppliers.
The instrument
A scored criterion, not a statement of values
Social value in central government procurement is a scored award criterion worth a stated minimum share of the total, and it is where two otherwise equal bids are separated.
The duty behind it is older than any notice: section 1(3) of the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 requires an authority to consider how a services procurement might improve the economic, social and environmental well-being of the relevant area.
That is a duty to consider, before the procurement starts, and it applies to services contracts; Wales is carved out by section 1(11).
The Procurement Policy Notes turn the duty into a number: PPN 002 says in its paragraph 16 that it extends beyond the Social Value Act.
PPN 002 was published on 13 February 2025 and applies to procurements commenced under the Procurement Act 2023 on or after 1 October 2025; before that, buyers could use it or keep PPN 06/20.
PPN 026 was published on 5 August 2026 and describes a narrower model.
Neither notice binds a supplier directly: a supplier meets the model only when it bids for an in-scope contract whose buyer applies it.
Not at selection, where a Carbon Reduction Plan is pass or fail.
At award: a weighted share of the score that separates technically equal bids.
Then in the contract, as terms and KPIs.
Who it binds
The same buyers, a different floor
| PPN 002 (in force) | PPN 026 (from 1 January 2027) | |
|---|---|---|
| Buyers | Central government departments, executive agencies and NDPBs (¶3) | The same (¶4) |
| Contract test | Any covered, above-threshold procurement under the Act (¶6); no pound figure of its own | Covered procurements of £1m or more total contract value, inclusive of VAT (¶5) |
| In pounds | £135,018 for a central government goods, services or works contract from 1 January 2026 | £1m — roughly seven times higher |
| Excluded | Below-threshold procurements; private utilities; MoD defence and security contracts under section 7 of the Act | Private utilities (¶5); contracts whose primary purpose is overseas delivery, such as embassies (¶7) |
| Applies from | Procurements commenced on or after 1 October 2025 (¶7) | Procurements commenced on or after 1 January 2027 (¶10) |
| Other authorities | “May wish to” apply it | The same |
PPN 002 sets no monetary figure: its paragraph 6 applies it only to a covered procurement under the Act, “that is to say, above-threshold”.
Above-threshold means the Act’s own Schedule 1 amount, which PPN 023 puts at £135,018 for a central government goods, services or works contract from 1 January 2026, and £207,720 for sub-central buyers.
PPN 026 adds a floor of its own, so a £400,000 departmental services contract that must carry a scored social value criterion today need not carry one at all once the new notice applies.
The test is total contract value, not annual value, and it is not the carbon threshold: PPN 006 tests a contract above £5 million a year including VAT.
PPN 026 does not repeat PPN 002’s defence and security carve-out; whether that brings such contracts in turns on the Act, and no located document settles it.
The weighting
Ten per cent today, twenty above £5m from January
PPN 002 paragraph 10: in-scope organisations must apply a minimum 10% weighting, or an equivalent measurement, of the total score for social value.
There are no bands and no second tier in it.
PPN 026 paragraph 13 adds one: 10% for contracts from £1m to under £5m, and 20% at £5m or more.
Both are minimums; a department can weight social value higher.
What the percentage is of is the clause people misread: under an absolute methodology, such as Price per Quality Point or a Value for Money index, it is a percentage of the non-price criteria, the overall quality score.
On a PQP evaluation where quality is 40% of the decision, 20% of the quality score is 8% of the whole.
The verb changes too: PPN 002 says buyers must apply the minimum, PPN 026 says they should, and neither document explains the change.
That is a textual fact, not evidence that social value has become optional; paragraph 14 of PPN 026 still requires the steps to be taken in accordance with the Act.
Checker
Which model, and what it must weigh
The checker applies the two notices to one procurement.
The date that matters is when the tender notice is published: PPN 026 paragraph 10 says a procurement is considered to have commenced at that point.
A procurement noticed on 31 December 2026 runs the eight-outcome model for its whole life; one noticed the next working day runs the two-outcome model.
The transition runs the other way from the one people expect: buyers are encouraged to move early, and may keep the previous edition for procurements already commenced if the new model would require disproportionate resources or invalidate market engagement (paragraph 11).
So the new model can arrive early at the buyer’s discretion, and the old one cannot be relied on to persist; read the notice, not the calendar.
The Act’s own commencement, 24 February 2025, was set by S.I. 2024/959, and new notices are announced on the Civil Service Procurement Pathway.
PPN 002 or PPN 026 · which model, what weighting
Who is buying?
Evaluation methodology
Notice published on or after 1 January 2027 and £1m or more: the two-outcome model (Good Jobs, Skills), with a minimum 20% weighting (¶13).
At £5m or more, at least one social value KPI should be set in addition to the three or more required by section 52(1) of the Act, published and reported at least every 12 months (¶17).
Poor performance against it can count towards exclusion from future tenders (¶18).
Minimum social value weighting: 20% of the total score.
Sources: PPN 002 ¶¶3, 6, 7, 10; PPN 026 ¶¶4, 5, 7, 10, 11, 13, 17, 18; PPN 023 Annex A. Minimums, not caps.
Indicative only; the buyer’s tender documents govern.
Nothing you enter is stored or sent.
Thresholds in the Act differ by contract type; £135,018 is the central government goods, services or works figure from 1 January 2026.
The model in force
Five missions, eight outcomes, seventeen criteria
| Mission | Outcome | Model award criteria |
|---|---|---|
| Kick start economic growth | 1 · Fair work | 1a–1e |
| Kick start economic growth | 2 · Skills for growth | 2a |
| Kick start economic growth | 3 · Resilient, innovative and flexible supply chains | 3a–3b |
| Make Britain a clean energy superpower | 4 · Sustainable procurement practices | 4a–4b |
| Take back our streets | 5 · Support the reduction in crime | 5a |
| Break down barriers to opportunity | 6 · Employment and training for those who face barriers to employment | 6a–6c |
| Break down barriers to opportunity | 7 · Creating a pipeline of opportunities for the contract workforce | 7a–7b |
| Build an NHS fit for the future | 8 · Increasing productivity through physical and mental wellbeing | 8a |
A buyer selects an outcome and its criteria from the menu, and PPN 002 paragraph 13(b) requires the choice to relate to the subject matter, be proportionate, and respect equal treatment and non-discrimination.
That breadth is deliberate: a construction contract and a software contract can each find something that genuinely relates to what is bought, which is what section 23 of the Act requires of any award criterion.
The Cabinet Office’s 26-page guide to using the social value model sets out how outcomes are selected and evaluated today.
Under PPN 002 paragraph 11, every commitment made in the bid must be reflected in the contract as terms, KPIs or performance indicators.
Under paragraph 12, local jobs created to perform the contract must be advertised on the government’s Find a Job website.
The environmental one
Outcome 4, and what it measures
Outcome 4 is “Sustainable procurement practices: reducing carbon footprints, minimising waste, and promoting the use of clean energy and green technologies”, under the clean energy mission.
Criterion 4a asks for additional environmental benefits in the performance of the contract, including working towards net zero greenhouse gas emissions and the use of clean energy and green technologies.
Criterion 4b asks suppliers to influence staff, suppliers, customers and communities through the contract to support climate and nature protection.
It comes with measurement, which is what separates a scored criterion from intent: a carbon reduction claim in MTCDE is built from the government conversion factors on the basis of the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard.
Of the eight outcomes it is the only environmental one, and the one the new model has no analogue for.
A supplier answering 4a well needs the same inventory a company builds for Scope 3 and carbon accounting.
Outcome 4 · standard reporting metrics
- Annual carbon reduction, in MTCDE
- Water use reduction, in litres
- Waste diverted from landfill, in tonnes
- Green space created, in square metres
Source: PPN 002 Social Value Model
The new model
Two outcomes, six criteria — all of it
| PPN 026 outcome | Model award criteria |
|---|---|
| 1 · Good Jobs | 1a create and/or retain high quality jobs · 1b fair working conditions · 1c fair pay |
| 2 · Skills | 2a training and retraining · 2b in-work progression · 2c talent pipeline |
PPN 026 opens by redefining the term: social value for central government contracts is “taking account of how a supplier will work for our communities to provide good British jobs, skills and opportunities in every postcode”.
Annex A’s notes name four target cohorts so far: people not in employment, education or training; those transitioning from education to employment; those with a long term health condition or disability; and care leavers.
Further communities facing barriers to employment are to be set out in the supporting guidance.
Annex A also carries the sentence that shows how the model is meant to be read: “45 days of work experience is exactly the kind of social value the Prime Minister is seeking to see delivered through this policy.”
Set the two tables side by side and the change is a count: five missions become none, eight outcomes become two, seventeen criteria become six.
The two that survive in substance are the employment ones; everything else in PPN 002 has no analogue in PPN 026.
On the largest contracts the weighting doubles at the same moment the field it can be earned across shrinks by two thirds, and the floor for carrying a criterion at all rises to £1m.
What has no successor
No environmental outcome, stated no wider than the text
Reading Annex A of PPN 026, no outcome and no model award criterion takes the environment, net zero, carbon, climate, emissions, waste or sustainability as its subject.
Clean energy does appear once: Target Skills “will be identified from skills shortages set out in government skills strategies (e.g. skills for clean energy jobs is an example that in-scope organisations could consider)”.
That is the one route by which an environmental subject can re-enter — through outcome 2, as a skills question, with no metric, and only where a buyer chooses it.
Three things the documents do not say, and this page does not say either: that PPN 026 supersedes PPN 002, that PPN 002 is withdrawn, or that the government removed environmental social value.
PPN 026 paragraph 11 refers only to “the previous edition”, and PPN 002’s landing page carried no supersession or withdrawal notice as at 10 September 2026.
The statute is unchanged: section 1(3) of the 2012 Act still names environmental well-being.
The honest position is narrower and more useful than a headline: two models, one applying from a date, of which the later contains no environmental outcome.
The carbon question
Where carbon can still count in a tender
| Route | Instrument | Competitive? |
|---|---|---|
| Social value award criterion | PPN 002 outcome 4 — on procurements commenced before 1 January 2027 | Yes, scored |
| Social value award criterion | PPN 026 — no environmental criterion | Not available |
| Condition of participation | PPN 006 | No — pass or fail, never scored or compared |
| Contract schedule | PPN 016 | No — an optional delivery mechanism |
| The specification | Section 23 of the Act — a requirement scored as technical quality | Yes, where the buyer writes it in |
From January, on the published documents, carbon performance stops being something a supplier can score points for under the social value model of a central government tender.
PPN 006 remains a pass or a fail: a 2030 net zero target and a 2050 one both pass, and neither gains an advantage.
A buyer who wants low-carbon delivery can still write it into the requirement, where it is scored as quality rather than social value; that route was always there.
Suppliers advising on net zero or writing an ESG strategy should keep the carbon work: it still clears PPN 006 and still counts wherever a specification asks for it.
The teeth
A published KPI, and grounds to exclude you later
PPN 026 paragraph 16 requires every social value commitment to be monitored and measured through contractual mechanisms, such as KPIs communicated to contract managers.
Paragraph 17: for contracts with an estimated value of £5 million or more including VAT, at least one social value KPI should be set, in addition to the three or more required by section 52(1) of the Act.
Section 52(3) requires all KPIs to be published on the central digital platform and reported at least once every 12 months through the contract performance notice, alongside section 71 and regulation 39 of the Procurement Regulations 2024.
Paragraph 18 supplies the consequence: evidence of poor performance against social value KPIs can be taken into account in considering whether there are grounds to exclude suppliers from future tenders.
Over-promise on social value to win one contract, and the public record of missing it can count against you on the next.
The data behind those KPIs needs the same discipline as any reported metric; ESG data management and ESG governance cover the controls.
Frameworks and the Act
Assessed twice, and bounded by statute
PPN 026 paragraph 6: for framework contracts, social value should be assessed at framework and call-off, under guidance promised for autumn 2026.
Footnote 3 explains why: for social value to be assessed at call-off it must also have been assessed at framework level, to satisfy section 46(8) of the Act.
That differs from PPN 006, which reaches frameworks through the value of the individual call-off.
Paragraph 8 applies the notice only where a criterion can be chosen that is relevant, proportionate, creates no unnecessary burden or barrier, and does not discriminate against treaty state suppliers.
Paragraph 14 names the statute: section 23(2)(a) and (d) on subject matter and proportionality, section 12(2) and (3) on equal treatment, and section 90 on treaty state suppliers.
Section 90 is a real limit on a “British jobs” model: a criterion that in substance favoured UK suppliers over treaty state suppliers would run into it, and no located document says how the two are reconciled.
The National Procurement Policy Statement, issued under section 13 on 13 February 2025, sits alongside both notices; the Act’s explanatory notes describe each provision in plain terms.
Before January
What to change in a bid library
| Action | Why | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Find every response that answers PPN 002 outcomes 3, 4, 5, 7 or 8, and mark it for procurements commenced before 1 January 2027 only. | From January those questions are not asked under PPN 026. |
| 2 | Build evidence for the six criteria that remain: posts created locally, pay, working conditions, training, progression, talent pipeline. | PPN 026 Annex A |
| 3 | Read each tender for its evaluation methodology before deciding effort. | 20% of the total and 20% of quality are very different budgets. |
| 4 | Treat every commitment as a KPI you will publish and report on. | PPN 026 ¶¶16–17 |
| 5 | Keep the carbon evidence. | It still has to clear PPN 006 and still scores where written into a specification. |
| 6 | Diary the PPN 026 guidance. | Sub-criteria, the evaluation methodology and the List of Community Programmes change how a response is written. |
Test yourself
Eight social value claims, true or false
Each statement circulates in bid teams and commentary, and each answer names the paragraph that settles it.
The pattern behind most of the false ones is one thing: a fact about one notice restated as a fact about the other.
Read the notice that applies to the procurement in front of you, which turns on the date its tender notice was published.
Social value model: true or false?
The social value threshold today is £1 million.
PPN 002 already has a 20% tier for contracts over £5m.
Under a Price per Quality Point evaluation, the 10% minimum is 10% of the quality score.
PPN 026 applies from 5 August 2026.
A place on a framework settles social value for every call-off.
PPN 026 states that it supersedes PPN 002.
Carbon is an outcome in the PPN 026 model.
On a £6m contract from 2027, a social value KPI is published and reported at least yearly.
0 of 8 answered.
Nothing you choose is stored or sent.
Still to come
What is promised, and what the record does not say
PPN 026 paragraph 12 says associated guidance will follow in autumn 2026, carrying the sub-criteria, the evaluation methodology and the Resource for bidders: List of Community Programmes.
Anything said about how a PPN 026 response will be scored is unsourced until that guidance is published.
Annex A also promises guidance on inherent social value, such as the wider community benefits of retaining local jobs.
Not established: whether an environmental outcome returns, and what formally happens to PPN 002.
Where a change would show is the Cabinet Office’s procurement policy notes index and PPN 002’s landing page; the Welsh Government publishes its own procurement policy notes.
The notices sit beside the wider UK reporting map on ESG frameworks in the UK, ESG standards, ESG criteria, the ESG pillars and what ESG is.
For listed suppliers the disclosure side is on the UK SRS deadline and UK SRS legislation; EU groups have CSRD and UK SRS compared, ESRS and the ISSB framework; reporting reform is on modernising corporate reporting.
Other procurement-adjacent regimes — SECR reporting, ESOS requirements and the UK CBAM — and the roles that manage them, from ESG manager to sustainability recruitment, are covered elsewhere on the site; dated changes are logged on our news page and on the regulation timeline.
Frequently asked
The social value model, answered
What is the social value model?
The Cabinet Office’s menu of outcomes and model award criteria that central government buyers use to score social value in a tender.
The model in force is set by PPN 002; a new model, PPN 026, applies to procurements whose tender notice is published on or after 1 January 2027.
It is a scored award criterion, not a pass or fail test.
What is the minimum social value weighting?
Under PPN 002, a flat minimum of 10% of the total score at every contract value in scope.
Under PPN 026, from 1 January 2027, a minimum of 10% for contracts from £1m to under £5m and 20% at £5m or more.
Under an absolute methodology such as Price per Quality Point, the percentage is of the quality score, not the total.
What is the threshold for the social value model?
PPN 002 has no pound figure of its own: it applies to any covered, that is above-threshold, procurement under the Procurement Act 2023, which for a central government goods, services or works contract is £135,018 from 1 January 2026.
PPN 026 adds its own floor: £1m total contract value inclusive of VAT.
When does PPN 026 apply?
To procurements commenced on or after 1 January 2027, and a procurement commences when its tender notice is published.
A procurement noticed before then can keep the previous model, and buyers are encouraged to move to the new one early.
Does PPN 026 replace PPN 002?
PPN 026 refers only to “the previous edition” of the model and does not name PPN 002 as superseded, and PPN 002 carried no supersession or withdrawal notice as at 10 September 2026.
In practice, procurements commenced from 1 January 2027 use the new model.
What are the outcomes in the PPN 026 social value model?
Two outcomes and six model award criteria.
Outcome 1, Good Jobs: create or retain high quality jobs, fair working conditions, fair pay.
Outcome 2, Skills: training and retraining, in-work progression, talent pipeline.
Neither outcome is environmental.
Is there an environmental outcome in the social value model?
In PPN 002, yes: outcome 4, sustainable procurement practices, with criteria on net zero and on influencing staff, suppliers and communities on climate and nature.
In PPN 026, no outcome or criterion takes the environment as its subject; the only mention of clean energy is as an example of a skills shortage.
Is the social value model a legal requirement for suppliers?
No. Procurement Policy Notes bind central government buyers, not suppliers.
A supplier meets the model only when it bids for an in-scope contract whose buyer has applied it.
The statutory duty in the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 is a duty on authorities to consider social value in services procurement.
What happens to social value commitments after award?
They become contractual.
Under PPN 002 every commitment is written into the contract as a term or KPI.
Under PPN 026, contracts of £5m or more carry at least one social value KPI in addition to the Act’s three, published on the central digital platform, and poor performance can count towards excluding a supplier from future tenders.
How does the social value model relate to Carbon Reduction Plans?
They are different notices doing different jobs.
PPN 006 makes a Carbon Reduction Plan a pass or fail condition of participation for contracts above £5 million a year including VAT, and plans are never scored.
The social value model is a scored award criterion with its own thresholds.
Sources
Primary sources
Every figure, date and status on this page traces to the instrument’s owner.
Secondary commentary is never the source for a number.
- Cabinet OfficePPN 002: Taking account of social value in the award of central government contracts
The model in force: buyers (¶3), covered procurements only (¶6), from 1 October 2025 (¶7), a flat minimum 10% (¶10), commitments into the contract (¶11), Find a Job (¶12).
- Cabinet OfficePPN 002: The Social Value Model
Five missions, eight outcomes and seventeen model award criteria; outcome 4 and its reporting metrics.
- Cabinet OfficePPN 026: The Social Value Model
Published 5 August 2026: the £1m floor (¶5), frameworks (¶6), overseas delivery (¶7), commencement (¶10), transition (¶11), the 10%/20% tiers (¶13), the KPI duty (¶¶16–18) and Annex A.
- Cabinet OfficePPN 026 (PDF)
The same text, for citation.
- legislation.gov.ukPublic Services (Social Value) Act 2012, section 1
The statutory duty to consider economic, social and environmental well-being in services procurement.
- legislation.gov.ukProcurement Act 2023, section 23 — award criteria
Criteria must relate to the subject matter and be proportionate.
- legislation.gov.ukProcurement Act 2023, section 52 — key performance indicators
The three or more KPIs of section 52(1), and their publication and reporting at least every 12 months under section 52(3).
- legislation.gov.ukProcurement Act 2023, section 90 — treaty state suppliers
The non-discrimination limit on any “British jobs” criterion.
- legislation.gov.ukProcurement Act 2023, section 4 and Schedule 3 — valuation
How the £1m and £5m contract values are estimated.
- Cabinet OfficePPN 023: 2026 threshold amounts, Annex A
£135,018 for a central government goods, services or works contract from 1 January 2026.
- Cabinet OfficePPN 006: Taking account of Carbon Reduction Plans
The carbon condition of participation: £5 million a year, never scored.
- Cabinet OfficeNational Procurement Policy Statement (13 February 2025)
The policy statement issued under section 13 of the Act.