What is social value?
Every year the UK public sector spends hundreds of billions of pounds through contracts. Social value asks a simple question of that spending: beyond the thing being purchased, what lasting good does it leave behind for the people and places it serves?
A contract to build a school can also train local apprentices. A facilities contract can employ people furthest from the labour market. A supply agreement can cut carbon and strengthen local businesses. That additional benefit — deliberately planned, delivered, and evidenced — is social value.
The Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 first placed a duty on authorities to consider it. What changed the game was giving that duty a measurable, scored framework — the Social Value Model.
How PPN 002 changed the expectations
PPN 002 and its Social Value Model turned a duty to "consider" social value into a requirement to explicitly evaluate and score it in relevant procurements. Vague, boilerplate promises no longer pass. Authorities must set proportionate criteria; suppliers must evidence tangible, local outcomes.
- A duty to "consider" social value where relevant
- Optional, inconsistent, and rarely weighted
- Generic commitments accepted at face value
- Little expectation of measurement or delivery
- Social value explicitly evaluated and scored
- A minimum weighting applied in relevant contracts
- Commitments must be specific, proportionate & evidenced
- Outcomes must be measured and reported through delivery
Social value is only real where it lands
A national commitment to "create jobs" means little to a specific ward with high youth unemployment and a shortage of apprenticeships. Social value is only meaningful when it responds to the actual needs of the community affected by the contract.
That is why local understanding is central to PPN 002. Authorities are expected to set criteria proportionate to their area's needs; suppliers are expected to target the right outcomes in the right places — and then deliver them.
Without local evidence, commitments drift into generic promises that score poorly and, worse, fail to change anything on the ground. With it, both sides can plan, target, and prove impact where it genuinely matters.
How Social Value Navigator supports impactful delivery
We turn scattered public data into a clear, local picture of need — mapped directly to the Social Value Model, so authorities and suppliers can plan, evidence, and deliver social value that actually lands.
See the real local picture
Deprivation, skills gaps, and community needs mapped by area from sourced public data — the evidence base behind proportionate criteria and targeted bids.
Map to the model you're scored on
Every output connects to the Social Value Model's themes and outcomes, so the evidence you pull is the evidence the tender is scored against.
Evidence and prove impact
Downloadable, fully-sourced area reports back every commitment — so promises are defensible at bid stage and measurable through delivery.
Impactful social value, not paperwork
PPN 002 raised the bar; local evidence is how you clear it. Social Value Navigator gives both sides of the tender the same trusted picture of need — so commitments are proportionate, targeted at the right places, and delivered as measurable outcomes for real communities.
PPN 002 and the Social Value Model
Deliver social value that lands where it's needed.
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