The PPN 002 Social Value Model, explained for suppliers

What PPN 002 is, and when it applies

PPN 002 replaced the 2020 Social Value Model and became mandatory from 1 October 2025 for in-scope central government procurements — departments, executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies. Many other public bodies apply the same structure or something close to it.

It carries a minimum weighting of 10% of the total marks available. The only exception is where preliminary market engagement shows this would significantly reduce competition because the market is not yet mature in delivering social value, in which case 10% of the quality score may be used instead.

The eight policy outcomes

The model is organised around the Government's five missions. Each outcome has Model Award Criteria (MACs), sub-criteria, and Standard Reporting Metrics you will be measured against after award.

Four features that change how you should write

Each of these is an opportunity for a smaller supplier, and each is routinely missed.

You are scored on the plan, not the number

The guidance is explicit that evaluators score how your method statement and implementation plan meet the award criteria and sub-criteria, and that volumes are not evaluated. This is the single most useful thing an SME can know about the model. For five years, smaller suppliers lost social value marks to bigger competitors quoting bigger numbers. A credible, well-resourced, proportionate commitment from a ten-person company can now outscore a vague large figure from a national one.

Buyers are encouraged to pick one outcome

Except on larger or more complex procurements, authorities are encouraged to focus on a single policy outcome. Read which one they have selected and go deep on it. Material about other outcomes consumes word count that should be spent on the criteria actually being scored.

Corporate policy is not an answer

The guidance states that responses must set out how you will deliver, not restate corporate responsibility statements. A sustainability policy pasted into a social value answer scores nothing.

Commitments follow you into the contract

The model question asks for commitments that are specific, measurable and time-bound, and delivery is tracked through the Standard Reporting Metrics. Under the Procurement Act 2023, performance against KPIs on contracts over £5 million is published at least annually. Promise what you will deliver in a bad year, not a good one.

The rule that decides your score: additionality

Social value marks are for what happens because of this contract that would not otherwise have happened. The charity work you already do is context, not commitment. The apprentice you were going to hire anyway is not additional.

Write every commitment in this shape:

If a sentence does not fit that shape, it is background. Background is allowed, briefly, but it earns no marks.

The five-part answer

1. Understanding — the specific local or sectoral issue this contract can affect, evidenced with data about the buyer's area or population. Naming a real statistic about their locality is the fastest credibility you can buy.
2. Commitments — the specific, measurable, time-bound things you will do, each mapped to the award criteria and sub-criteria.
3. Implementation plan — who delivers each commitment, when, with what resource, through which partners. This is where the marks are, and where most answers stop too early.
4. Measurement and reporting — the Standard Reporting Metrics you will report against, how data is captured, how often the buyer sees it.
5. Governance and risk — who is accountable, what happens if a commitment slips, how it is recovered.

Where smaller suppliers actually have the advantage

Three outcomes reward things an SME can do faster than a large employer:

• Outcome 3 — you are the diverse supply chain the policy is aimed at, and you can commit to payment terms a large supplier's finance function will not sign off.
• Outcome 1 — genuine culture commitments such as Living Wage accreditation, enhanced sick pay or published pay gaps can be agreed in a single board meeting, because your board is in the room.
• Outcome 6 — the wraparound support around a placement is the differentiator, and small employers do it better. Naming the mentor and the check-in schedule shows you understand that placing someone is the easy half.

The five ways social value answers lose marks

• Describing the past. What you have done is context. The marks are for what this contract causes.
• Unmeasurable commitments. "Support local employment" cannot be scored or reported.
• Unowned commitments. A commitment with no named owner and no resource reads as a wish.
• Ignoring the named outcome. If the buyer selected one, answer that one thoroughly.
• Over-promising. A missed commitment can now be visible to every future buyer.

Sources

• PPN 002: The Social Value Model — Cabinet Office, February 2025
• PPN 002: Guide to using the Social Value Model — Cabinet Office, February 2025
• The Procurement Act 2023: a short guide for suppliers — GOV.UK