Procurement Policy Note 002 (PPN 002) is the UK government rule that requires public sector buyers to score social value as at least 10% of the award decision on central government contracts. In plain terms: when you bid for public work, some of your marks now depend on the wider economic, social, and environmental benefit you will deliver alongside the contract itself, not just your price and technical quality. PPN 002 was published on 13 February 2025 and is mandatory for procurements commenced under the Procurement Act 2023 on or after 1 October 2025, continuing and updating the framework first set by Procurement Policy Note 06/20 in 2020. It binds central government departments, their executive agencies, and non-departmental public bodies, and the same approach is increasingly applied to work let by local authorities, NHS trusts, housing associations, and other public bodies that have adopted the standard voluntarily.

For SMEs bidding on public sector work, understanding PPN 002 is no longer optional. It is a scored section of the bid, worth at least a tenth of the total marks. If your response does not address social value in a structured, evidenced way, you give away marks a better-prepared competitor will take. This guide explains what PPN 002 requires, how the scoring works in practice, which sectors are affected, what evidence you need, the pitfalls to avoid, and how to maximise your social value score using the right tools and frameworks.

1. What is PPN 002?

Procurement Policy Note 06/20, published in September 2020 and effective from January 2021, first introduced the Social Value Model for central government procurement. This requirement has been updated by PPN 002 (published on 13 February 2025 and mandatory for procurements commenced under the Procurement Act 2023 on or after 1 October 2025), which aligns social value scoring with the Procurement Act 2023. It maintains the requirement for all central government departments and their executive agencies to evaluate social value as a scored criterion at the contract award stage, with a mandatory minimum weighting of 10% of the total award score.

PPN 002 does not define its scope by a contract value threshold. It applies to procurements commenced under the Procurement Act 2023 by in-scope organisations, which the PPN defines as all central government departments, their executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies. Separately, many contracting authorities outside that list apply social value evaluation as a matter of their own policy, and central government thresholds under the Act still determine which procurements are advertised on Find a Tender. Check the tender documents rather than assuming a value cut-off decides whether social value is scored.

The policy does not prescribe a single scoring formula. What it publishes is the PPN 002 Social Value Model, a menu built in layers: five government missions at the top, eight policy outcomes beneath them, model award criteria beneath each outcome, and standard reporting metrics beneath those. The buyer selects an outcome relevant to the subject matter of the contract and shapes its question from that outcome’s criteria. Bidders must then show that what they are offering is additional to the core contract requirements, and evidence it in the units the reporting metrics use.

PPN 002 is the current governing document, succeeding the foundational PPN 06/20. While PPN 06/20 established the 10% weighting and the Social Value Model, PPN 002 ensures these requirements are applied consistently under the modernised procurement rules of the 2023 Act. In-scope organisations must apply PPN 002 to procurements commenced under the Procurement Act 2023 on or after 1 October 2025. For procurements commenced under the Act before that date, they could apply PPN 002 or continue with PPN 06/20 during the transition period. A PPN is Cabinet Office policy rather than statute, so what binds you on any given tender is the requirement the buyer publishes in its own documents.

2. The five PPN 002 missions

PPN 002 is built on the five government missions, and places eight policy outcomes beneath them. The missions are the policy framing. The outcomes are what a buyer actually scores. Beneath each outcome sit model award criteria, and beneath those sit standard reporting metrics, which fix the unit a commitment gets counted in: a number of people, a number of hours, litres, tonnes, square metres, or pounds of direct spend.

A contracting authority selects an outcome that relates to the subject matter of the contract, then builds its social value question from that outcome’s criteria. The Cabinet Office guide is direct about how many: except on government’s most important contracts, buyers are encouraged to select one outcome. So the practical question on any tender is not which of the five missions appeals to you. It is which single outcome the buyer picked, and whether you can evidence commitments in the units that outcome counts in.

The five missions below carry the names the government uses for them. Three of the eight outcomes sit under Mission 1, two under Mission 4, and one each under Missions 2, 3 and 5.

Mission 1: Kickstart economic growth

Three of the eight outcomes sit here, which makes this the mission you are most likely to meet: Fair work, Skills for growth, and Resilient, innovative and flexible supply chains.

Fair work covers creating and retaining high quality jobs, fair working conditions, fair pay practices, in-work progression to help people move into higher paid work, and identifying and managing the risks of modern slavery. Its reporting metrics are counts rather than money: employment opportunities created by UK region, apprenticeship opportunities at Level 2, Level 3 and Level 4 or above, people on permanent contracts, people paid above the National Minimum Wage and above the National Living Wage, person hours of in-work upskilling and career support, tier 1 and tier 2 suppliers audited or assessed, and staff completing modern slavery training within 90 days.

Skills for growth covers learning and skills development that addresses skills gaps. It is counted as training opportunities by level, excluding apprentices, and person hours of learning interventions by UK region.

Resilient, innovative and flexible supply chains covers building a diverse supply chain that includes new businesses, SMEs and VCSEs, and collaborating on co-design and delivery with communities and anchor partners. Its metrics are direct spend in £ with start-ups, SMEs, VCSEs and mutuals, and the number of engagement activities with communities or their representatives.

Worked example. On a facilities management contract where the buyer has selected Fair work, a response might commit to a stated number of Level 3 apprenticeships in the region the contract is delivered in, a stated number of person hours of in-work progression training, and modern slavery training completed by every member of the contract team within 90 days of mobilisation. The quantities are yours to set and yours to defend. What the model fixes is the unit they are counted in, so a commitment written in any other unit is harder for an evaluator to score.

Mission 2: Make Britain a clean energy superpower

One outcome sits here: Sustainable procurement practices. Its two criteria are delivering additional environmental benefits that support net zero and clean energy, and influencing staff, suppliers, customers and communities on climate and nature.

The reporting metrics are an annual reduction in carbon emissions measured in MTCDE, an annual reduction in water use in litres, an annual reduction in waste to landfill in metric tonnes, green space created in square metres by UK region, and hours spent influencing others on environmental matters.

Worked example. A catering contract might commit to a measured reduction in waste to landfill against a stated baseline year, plus a stated number of hours delivering packaging and food waste engagement with its own suppliers. Note the word additional. PPN 002 requires that any benefit identified as social value is, in the Cabinet Office’s words, “over and above the core deliverable/s of the tender or the contract”. A reduction the specification already demands of you is not social value, and offering it costs you the marks.

Mission 3: Take back our streets

One outcome sits here, and it is narrower than the mission title suggests: Support the reduction in crime through community cohesion. Read at face value, the model gives it a single criterion, influencing staff, suppliers and customers on reducing domestic abuse, and a single reporting metric, hours of learning interventions raising domestic abuse awareness.

Worked example. A security services contract might commit to a stated number of hours of domestic abuse awareness training delivered across its contract workforce and its subcontractors, with attendance logged.

This is the outcome bidders most often answer wrongly. A response that reads the mission title and writes about anti-social behaviour, retail crime or neighbourhood policing is answering a question the model does not ask, and there is no metric to score it against.

Mission 4: Break down barriers to opportunity

Two outcomes sit here: Employment and training for those who face barriers to employment, and Creating a pipeline of opportunities for the contract workforce.

The first covers creating employment and training for people facing barriers, including in deprived areas, increasing the representation of disabled people in the workforce, and identifying and tackling inequality in employment, skills and pay. Its metrics are employment and apprenticeship opportunities for underrepresented groups and for disabled people, broken down by level and by UK region, people with flexible working arrangements, underrepresented groups on training by level and region, and prison leavers receiving learning or upskilling in their first six months.

The second covers removing barriers for young people and underrepresented groups and building a pipeline for the future workforce. It is counted as the number of people from underrepresented groups employed under the contract, and the number of outreach activities.

Worked example. A professional services contract might commit to a stated number of apprenticeship places reserved for candidates from underrepresented groups in the delivery region, plus a stated number of school and college outreach sessions each year. The prison leaver metric is worth knowing about: it sits in the model, few bidders offer anything against it, and it is one of the places a smaller supplier with the right local partnership can differentiate.

Mission 5: Build an NHS fit for the future

One outcome sits here: Increasing productivity through physical and mental wellbeing. One criterion, supporting health and wellbeing in the contract workforce. One reporting metric, hours spent setting up and delivering staff health and wellbeing.

Note what that metric counts. It is effort delivered to the people working on this contract, measured in hours. A corporate wellbeing policy that already exists is not the answer, because the model is asking what you will set up and run for this workforce.

Worked example. A security services contract might commit to a stated number of hours per year setting up and running a mental health support programme for the guarding team on that contract, reported quarterly.

Named commitments buyers look for

Alongside the model itself, buyers frequently ask for a set of named, externally verifiable commitments. Some map directly onto a PPN 002 reporting metric and some do not, and it is worth knowing which is which before you build a response around one:

  • Real Living Wage. A commitment to pay the Real Living Wage Foundation rate, not only the statutory National Living Wage, to everyone working on the contract. Not a PPN 002 metric by name, but it evidences the Fair work criterion on fair pay practices, which does count people paid above the National Living Wage.
  • Apprenticeships and skills. A stated number of apprenticeships created and training hours delivered. This maps directly, at Level 2, Level 3 and Level 4 or above, under Fair work and Skills for growth.
  • Carbon Reduction Plan. A published Carbon Reduction Plan setting out your Scope 1, 2 and 3 baseline and net zero pathway. This comes from a different instrument, PPN 006 (formerly PPN 06/21), not from PPN 002, and on major government contracts it is a condition of participation rather than a scored social value commitment. Do not spend your social value word count on it.
  • Disability Confident. Current Disability Confident status under the Department for Work and Pensions scheme, which runs at three levels: Committed, Employer, and Leader. It supports the Mission 4 criterion on increasing the representation of disabled people, which is counted in employment and apprenticeship opportunities for disabled people.
  • Armed Forces Covenant. A signed Armed Forces Covenant, valued in defence and security procurements. It is not a reporting metric in the PPN 002 model, so treat it as supporting evidence rather than as your commitment.
  • Local and SME/VCSE supply chain. A defined value of subcontract spend directed to SMEs and VCSEs. This maps directly onto the direct spend metrics under Resilient, innovative and flexible supply chains, which are recorded in £.

Key point: the buyer chooses the outcome, not you. The invitation to tender names the outcome, the criteria and the reporting metrics it will score, and the Cabinet Office guide encourages buyers to select a single outcome on all but their largest contracts. Answer the outcome in front of you. Offering commitments against the other seven spends word count on marks that are not available.

3. The TOMs framework and National TOMs proxy values

Start with the part most published advice gets wrong. PPN 002 does not tell buyers to monetise social value, and it does not mention TOMs. The model it publishes is outcomes based. Each outcome carries model award criteria and standard reporting metrics, and those metrics are counts, hours, litres, tonnes, square metres and pounds of direct spend. The terms TOMs, proxy value and Social Value Portal do not appear in the PPN 002 Social Value Model at all. If you take one thing from this section, take that, because a response monetised into a single headline £ figure is not what the PPN 002 model asks for.

The National TOMs (Themes, Outcomes, and Measures) framework is a separate thing, and a genuinely useful one. It is published by the Social Value Portal with the Local Government Association and the National Social Value Taskforce, and it is widely used, particularly by local authorities, NHS bodies and housing associations, many of which name it in their own tender documents. So both frameworks are live in UK public procurement, and they ask different questions. Where a buyer asks for TOMs, answer in TOMs. Where a buyer is applying PPN 002, answer in the PPN 002 reporting metrics. A response written for one does not automatically score the other.

The TOMs framework is structured into themes, outcomes within each theme, and measures, the specific activities or commitments that generate those outcomes. Each measure has a defined unit, for example the number of apprenticeships created, the number of hours of volunteering delivered, or the tonnes of CO2 emissions avoided. Each measure also carries a proxy value, a monetary estimate of the benefit generated by one unit of it. That monetisation is what TOMs adds and what PPN 002 does not do.

Proxy values change between editions, and the edition your buyer names is the one that counts. We do not republish them here, because a proxy value quoted from a guide and not from the buyer’s stated edition is exactly the sort of figure that falls apart under scrutiny. That rule is not specific to this article. Every figure this site prints is published beside the statute, policy note or framework it comes from, which you can read in full on our sources page, and a number we cannot attribute that way does not get printed at all.

How a monetised TOMs score is calculated

Where a buyer does ask for a monetised TOMs total, it is the sum across all selected measures, and for each measure the formula is:

Social value = Number of beneficiaries (or units) × Proxy value per unit

Here is a worked example. The unit quantities and the per-unit values below are illustrative placeholders chosen to show the shape of the arithmetic. They are not National TOMs figures and must not be quoted as such. Substitute the values from the edition your buyer names.

ILLUSTRATIVE ONLY - not National TOMs values

10 apprenticeships (Level 3+) × £8,000 example rate  = £80,000
500 hours volunteering        × £15 example rate     =  £7,500
200 tonnes CO2 avoided        × £70 example rate     = £14,000
5 jobs for disadvantaged      × £20,000 example rate = £100,000

Illustrative total = £201,500

Where this method is in use, the total feeds the social value score, and authorities differ on what they do with it. Some normalise across bidders by dividing each bid’s total by the highest submitted. Others use banding thresholds. The ITT specifies the method, and it is worth finding before you optimise anything.

Under PPN 002 itself there is no monetised total to optimise. The buyer scores your response against the model award criteria for the outcome it selected, and then, in the PPN’s own words, “all social value commitments made by suppliers during the procurement process must be reflected in the contract either as contract terms, key performance indicators, or performance indicators”. The commitment you write is the commitment you are held to.

Under either method, select measures that are relevant to the contract and credible given your capacity. Commitments that look impressive on paper but that the organisation cannot deliver fail at the evidence stage and create post-award problems that outlast the bid.

4. The 10% threshold: what it really means

One of the most common misunderstandings about PPN 002 is the nature of the 10% requirement. The 10% figure refers to the minimum weighting that must be allocated to social value in the overall award criteria, it does not mean that a bidder must achieve a minimum score of 10% on their social value response.

In practice, this means that if a contract is evaluated on the basis of 60% quality, 30% price, and 10% social value, a bidder who scores zero on social value could still theoretically win the contract if their quality and price scores are high enough. However, in a competitive tender where multiple bidders score similarly on quality and price, the social value score becomes the deciding factor. A 10% weighting that you maximise while your competitors do not can be the margin of victory.

The PPN’s own wording is that in-scope organisations must apply “a minimum 10% weighting (or an equivalent measurement) of the total score, for social value”. The Cabinet Office guide names one permitted exception: where preliminary market engagement demonstrates that applying the minimum would significantly reduce competition because the market is not yet mature enough to deliver social value. Where a price per quality point method is used, the guide states the 10% minimum is applied to the quality score.

A contracting authority is free to set a weighting above the 10% minimum, and plenty do, particularly in local government and NHS procurement. The figure that matters is the one published in the award criteria for the tender in front of you, so read it rather than assuming 10%.

Strategies for maximising your social value score

  • Find the outcome first, then look at your own capability. Before writing anything, identify which of the eight policy outcomes the buyer selected and which reporting metrics it uses. If your organisation already runs an apprenticeship programme and the buyer selected Fair work, you are starting from strength. If it selected the crime reduction outcome, your apprenticeship programme scores nothing.
  • Be specific and quantified, in the model’s units. A commitment to 10 Level 3 apprenticeship opportunities in a named UK region scores better than a paragraph about supporting workforce development, because the first can be entered against a reporting metric and the second cannot.
  • Answer the question in front of you. If the ITT selects Sustainable procurement practices, put your effort into a measured carbon, water or waste reduction against a stated baseline. Regional employment commitments, however good, are not what that outcome counts.
  • Demonstrate additionality. PPN 002 requires social value to be “over and above the core deliverable/s of the tender or the contract”. If you are already required to hire 50 staff to deliver the contract, those 50 jobs do not count. The social value is in the additional apprenticeships, training, or community benefit beyond the baseline delivery.
  • Include a delivery plan. Showing how and when you will deliver each measure, with milestones, responsible owners, and reporting timelines, significantly strengthens your score and differentiates your bid from competitors who offer only headline numbers.

5. Which sectors are affected?

PPN 002 applies directly to central government procurement, but its reach is far broader. Any supplier bidding for UK public sector work should expect to meet social value evaluation:

  • Construction and infrastructure. Major projects often set a weighting above the 10% minimum, with measures focused on local employment, apprenticeships, and emissions during delivery.
  • IT and professional services. Government digital and technology contracts increasingly require commitments around skills development, diversity, and local economic impact.
  • Facilities management. FM contracts for government estates and NHS facilities typically include local employment and environmental performance measures.
  • Healthcare and social care. NHS procurement has adopted social value evaluation as standard practice, with emphasis on wellbeing, community health, and equal opportunity.
  • Defence and security. Ministry of Defence procurement applies social value scoring, often weighted towards skills development, regional economic impact, and the Armed Forces Covenant.
  • Education. Schools, colleges, and universities increasingly require social value commitments from contractors and service providers.

The question is not whether social value applies to your bid, but how effectively you respond to it.

6. Evidence requirements and post-award reporting

PPN 002 is not a box-ticking exercise. Contracting authorities are required to evaluate the credibility of social value commitments at the bid stage and to monitor delivery post-award. This means that the promises you make in your tender must be backed by evidence, both at the point of submission and throughout the contract lifecycle.

At bid stage

Evaluators are looking for evidence that your organisation can credibly deliver the social value measures you have committed to. This includes:

  • Track record: Evidence that you have delivered similar social value outcomes on previous contracts. If you are committing to create apprenticeships, evaluators want to see that you have an established apprenticeship programme with named training providers.
  • Organisational policies: Relevant policies such as your social value policy, environmental management system (ISO 14001 or equivalent), equality and diversity policy, and modern slavery statement.
  • Delivery methodology: A clear explanation of how each measure will be delivered, including timelines, responsible individuals or teams, and dependencies.
  • Supply chain engagement: If your commitments involve supply chain partners, evidence that those partners are aware of and committed to delivering their share of the social value targets.

Post-award reporting

Once a contract is awarded, the successful bidder is typically required to report on social value delivery at regular intervals, usually quarterly or six-monthly. Reports must include quantified progress against each committed measure, evidence of delivery (such as apprenticeship enrolment certificates, volunteering logs, carbon audit results), and explanations for any shortfalls against targets.

Many contracting authorities now use digital platforms, such as the Social Value Portal, to collect and verify social value reporting. Failure to deliver committed social value can result in contract management escalation, reduced payments under performance-related clauses, and reputational damage that affects future bids. In serious cases, persistent failure to deliver social value commitments may be treated as a material breach of contract.

Audit risk

The National Audit Office (NAO) and individual contracting authorities have the right to audit social value claims. Bidders should maintain a clear evidence trail for every measure: enrolment records for apprenticeships, timesheets for volunteering, invoices showing local supply chain spend, and emissions calculations with methodology notes. If you cannot evidence it, it did not happen, and your future bids will suffer as a result. Building a clear evidence habit from the start of contract delivery is far easier than attempting to reconstruct records retrospectively.

Practical tip: Start collecting evidence from day one of contract delivery. Do not wait until the first reporting deadline. Set up a shared evidence folder with subfolders for each social value measure, and assign responsibility for evidence collection to a named individual in your delivery team.

7. Common pitfalls that cost suppliers marks

Based on published evaluation feedback and contracting authority guidance, the same errors recur in social value responses. Avoiding them is often worth more marks than adding another measure:

  • Generic narratives. Describing company values and policies without tying them to specific, quantified commitments against named measures. Evaluators score what you will do on this contract, not what you believe in general.
  • Responding to the wrong outcome. Each procurement names the policy outcome it is scoring, often just one. Offering commitments against the other seven wastes word count and signals a lack of attention to the brief. This is the single most common failure, and it is the easiest to avoid.
  • Answering PPN 002 with the old themes. A response organised around COVID-19 recovery, Levelling Up, tackling economic inequality, equal opportunity and wellbeing is answering PPN 06/20, the previous Social Value Model. Those are not the PPN 002 missions. Reusing a bid library written before 2025 without re-mapping it is how this reaches an evaluator.
  • Overclaiming beyond what you can evidence. Commitments go into the contract as terms or KPIs, so post-award reporting is not optional. Committing to what you cannot evidence risks performance clauses and damages your credibility on future bids.
  • Monetising when the buyer did not ask for it. PPN 002 does not use proxy values. Where a buyer does ask for a monetised total, use the National TOMs edition it names, do not carry proxy values over from an older edition, and do not count one activity under several measures.
  • Breadth without depth. Selecting many measures with token commitments against each scores worse than a smaller set of substantial, credible commitments.
  • Ignoring the contract context. Proposing activity unrelated to the contract geography, workforce, or subject matter. A facilities management contract in Manchester should propose local employment in Manchester, not corporate volunteering in London.
  • No evidence-tracking plan. Making commitments without explaining how they will be monitored and reported. Many contracts require quarterly social value reporting, and buyers reward bidders who plan for it from the outset.

8. How CrowMark builds a PPN 002 response

CrowMark is CrowAgent’s bid and tender product. The variant relevant here is CrowMark for Suppliers, which answers tenders, RFPs, RFIs, PQQs and SQs, and it takes on the slowest parts of a PPN 002 response: measure selection, narrative drafting and evidence tracking.

Automatic mission mapping

When you enter your contract profile, including sector, contract value, geography and duration, CrowMark maps your contract to the PPN 002 missions using a rules-based engine, and shows which it selected. The mapping is deterministic, so the same profile always produces the same result, and you can toggle any mission on or off. It is a starting point for your judgement, not a substitute for reading the buyer’s social value question, which is where the selected outcome is actually stated.

Measure catalogue and TOMs-aligned scoring

CrowMark carries a curated catalogue of 19 social value measures, aligned to National TOMs conventions and mapped to the 2025 PPN 002 model of five missions and eight policy outcomes. It is not a full National TOMs implementation, and we say so rather than implying a completeness the product does not have. You can browse measures by mission, filter by sector relevance, and see the unit and value applied to each before selecting it. Totals are calculated in code with unit-aware arithmetic as you add or adjust measures.

AI narrative generation

Once you have selected your measures and entered your quantities, CrowMark generates a draft social value narrative using server-side AI. The narrative is structured around each mission, references specific measures and quantities, and is written in the formal tone expected by public sector evaluators. The language model never computes the figures: any generated prose containing a £ or % that the computed figures do not support is rejected rather than shown. You review, edit, and approve before anything is exported. The AI handles the first draft; your subject matter expertise handles the final polish.

Evidence tracker

CrowMark includes an integrated evidence tracker that lets you log evidence against each committed measure throughout the contract lifecycle. Upload enrolment certificates, volunteering timesheets, emissions calculations, and supply chain spend data directly against the relevant measure. The platform sends monthly email reminders to ensure evidence collection stays on track and generates progress reports that you can send to contracting authorities.

One pass, not a blank page

The workflow runs end to end in a single sitting: contract profile in, missions mapped, measures priced against the TOMs library, narrative drafted, evidence plan attached, response exported. For an SME with no dedicated social value team, the work that changes is the assembly, not the judgement. You still decide which commitments your organisation can actually keep.

Ready to score your next bid? CrowMark handles PPN 002 mission mapping, TOMs-aligned measure scoring, AI narrative drafting, and evidence tracking, all in one platform. Request access

Sources

  • Cabinet Office, PPN 002: Taking account of social value in the award of contracts (published 13 February 2025): gov.uk
  • Cabinet Office, Procurement Policy Note 002: The Social Value Model. Source for the five missions, the eight policy outcomes, the model award criteria and the standard reporting metrics quoted above: gov.uk
  • Cabinet Office, PPN 002 Guide to using the social value model. Source for the single-outcome guidance, the market maturity exception and the price per quality point treatment: gov.uk
  • Cabinet Office, PPN 06/20: Taking account of social value in the award of central government contracts. The previous Social Value Model, referred to above for history and transition only: gov.uk
  • Cabinet Office, Procurement Policy Notes (collection): gov.uk/government/collections/procurement-policy-notes

Last reviewed: 2 August 2026, against the PPN 002 Social Value Model on gov.uk. Mission and outcome names, model award criteria and reporting metrics are taken from that document. Any monetary figures shown in the worked example above are illustrative placeholders and are not National TOMs proxy values; take proxy values from the National TOMs edition your buyer names.

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