If you bid for public sector work, you’ll know how important social value has become to your score in recent years. From January 2027, the emphasis will shift. Preparing now will increase your chances of winning new contracts and help you avoid last-minute stress.

In August 2026, the government published a new Social Value Model in Procurement Policy Note (PPN) 026. You can read the official press release here. From 1 January 2027, central government buyers must use it for contracts worth £1m or more. Your social value response must now explain how you’ll create good British jobs and build skills in the communities you serve. The logic is that additional British jobs and skills delivered through local communities will drive UK growth and productivity.

Preparing to deliver this may take time, which is why we’re highlighting this important change now.

Focus on British jobs and skills

The new model will replace the broader approach set out in PPN 002, narrowing the focus to just two outcomes:

• Create good British jobs: how you’ll create lasting jobs on securing the contract, and how you’ll offer fair working conditions and pay more than the legal minimum, with benefits reaching local people and communities
• Develop British skills: how winning the contract will result in training and retraining, in-work progression, and building a talent pipeline through apprenticeships and work placements within the communities affected by the contract

The government has also highlighted the groups it most wants suppliers to reach. These include young people not in education, employment or training (NEETs), care leavers, and people with long-term health conditions or disabilities.

For central government contracts worth £1m to £5m, social value must now account for at least 10% of the total score. For contracts worth £5m or more, the minimum is now 20%.

There’s some flexibility for smaller firms, though. Because the contract threshold has been raised to £1m, the new rules won’t usually apply to the lower-value contracts many SMEs and social enterprises bid for.

Your preparation starts now

The new PPN model will apply to any central government procurement where the buyer publishes its tender notice on or after 1 January. This gives you less than three months to prepare how you’ll respond.

Apprenticeship programmes, partnerships with local colleges, and work placement schemes can take months to set up and agree internally. Yet we’re already seeing some public sector tenders frame social value questions around jobs and skills. There really is no time like the present to address this change.

If you’re tracking opportunities in your bidding pipeline that are due out in the first half of 2027, you’ll probably be doing capture work for them now or very soon. That work will include your social value story, so you must prepare with this change in mind.

Social value KPIs

Under PPN 026, buyers must turn your social value commitments into measures they track throughout the contract. For contracts worth £5m or more, they must also set at least one social value KPI and report on it publicly at least once a year.

Buyers will also take poor performance against those KPIs into account when deciding whether to exclude a supplier from future tenders.

There’s no room to make promises you can’t keep.

Five actions you can take now

• Take stock of what you already do. Many organisations deliver more on jobs and skills than they realise. That may include apprenticeships, graduate schemes, and fair pay policies. Pull the details together now so you have solid evidence.
• Find your gaps. Map your current activity against the two outcomes and six award criteria highlighted in PPN 026. Where are you strong? Where will you struggle to score?
• Build partnerships early. Local colleges, employment charities, and care leaver networks can help you reach the groups buyers care about. If you haven’t done so already, start having those conversations now and strengthen relationships so you can demonstrate meaningful local outcomes when bidding.
• Brief your leadership team. Your commitments will need budget, HR support, and senior sponsorship, so start those discussions now as well.
• Plan how you’ll measure success. Make sure you know how you’d report on a social value KPI and start that process as soon as you can.

Further details this autumn but the direction is clear

The Cabinet Office plans to publish more detailed guidance this autumn, including sub-criteria and a list of community programmes that buyers can point bidders towards. What we do already know is that jobs and skills now sit at the heart of social value for central government, with a strong emphasis on delivering those benefits in the communities where contracts are delivered. The weighting on this indicates how important it’s going to be.  

If you’d like to talk through how these changes may affect your upcoming bids, we’d be happy to hear from you.