Your ability to access the UK public sector market (worth over £284bn) depends, increasingly, on one question: "is your Contract Social?” Jean Jacques had something to say on this…

The UK government has looked at this question in The Social Value Model and Guide to Using the Social Value Model. We refer to these together below as “the Guidance”. We have commented before on the Social Value Act - here. The Act requires the vast majority of public procurements to assign 10% of the overall bid evaluation score to a bidder’s social value proposal. Markets are very competitive so performing well on this emerging aspect is often likely to mean the difference between winning and losing core business. It will have a huge impact across all areas of public spending, acting as a key gateway requirement to accessing the £>284bn public sector market.

The new Guidance provides helpful commentary on the application of the Social Value Act in tenders. It sets out the three key aspects of social value as economic (for example, employment or training opportunities), social (for example, activities that promote cohesive communities) and environmental (for example, reductions in carbon emissions). We outlined the five themes of the Social Value Model in our previous article: Covid-19 recovery, tackling economic inequality, fighting climate change, equal opportunity and wellbeing.

Read more: The Social Value Act Requirements: More Detail

Authored by Adrian Walker, and Ciara Kennedy-Loest.