PPN002 – It’s A New Social Value Model!

This article was published on the release of PPN 002 in February 2025. In August 2026, a replacement Model, PPN 026, was published to take effect in January 2027. Find out more about PPN 026 here.

On February 13 – just 11 days before the implementation of the Procurement Act 2023 – the government released its long-awaited National Procurement Policy Statement (NPPS) to set out strategic priorities for public procurement. 

At the same time – and to the surprise of most in the sector – it also released PPN02, a new Social Value Model, intended to replace the Social Value Model that has been in effect since January 2021 and PPN06/20. 

To help our readership to quickly get their heads around the changes, we’ve been through the new Model with a fine-toothed comb and compared it to the original to highlight what’s new and what’s staying the same. 

Here is what you should be doing right now:

The old Social Value Model had five Themes as its basic building blocks (Covid-19 Recovery, Tackling Economic Inequality, Fighting Climate Change, Equal Opportunities, and Wellbeing). 

The 2025 version is built around five Missions, which will be familiar to anyone who paid close attention to the 2024 general election campaign. They are the five Missions (“ambitious but long-term goals, a decade long-project to completely transform government”) Labour based its manifesto around:

The Missions in the new Social Value Model are:

1. Kickstart economic growth to secure the highest sustained growth in the G7 – with good jobs and productivity growth in every part of the country making everyone, not just a few, better off
2. Make Britain a clean energy superpower to cut bills, create jobs and deliver security with cheaper, zero-carbon electricity by 2030, accelerating to net zero
3. Take back our streets by halving serious violent crime and raising confidence in the police and criminal justice system to its highest levels
4. Break down barriers to opportunity by reforming our childcare and education systems, to make sure there is no class ceiling on the ambitions of young people in Britain
5. Build an NHS fit for the future that is there when people need it; with fewer lives lost to the biggest killers; in a fairer Britain, where everyone lives well for longer

As these are very broad, strategic political objectives that reach a long way beyond just public procurement, we’ll need to dig into the details to see where the differences and similarities lie. 

Policy Outcomes

Underneath the top level schema, both Models include eight Policy Outcomes that the Themes or Missions are intended to promote. They mostly cross over, but there is some difference. 

Here are the old Social Value Model Policy Outcomes:

And here are the new ones, with key differences highlighted:

There is a new focus on fairness in employment, community cohesion’s role in reducing crime, and ensuring that job creation is sustainable. 

Unsurprisingly, material relating explicitly to Covid-19 recovery has been left out. 

Model Award Criteria

The new Social Value Model has 17 Model Award Criteria, compared to the 2020 version’s 24. Five of the old MACs relate to Covid-19 Recovery goals, so do not have direct analogues in the new version. 

There are six MACs in the new Model which do not correspond closely to pre-existing MACs:

Alongside those subjects highlighted in the comparison of Policy Outcomes, the new MACs introduce a brand-new focus on leveraging public procurement to help reduce domestic violence. 

The rest appear to map more or less comfortably onto one or more of the earlier MACs. This table sets out how the new MACs map onto old MACs:

From Reporting Metrics to Standard Reporting Metrics

The old Social Value Model included 52 reporting metrics at the end of the sections on each of the Policy Outcomes and MACs. 

The 2025 version includes 33 metrics, which are described as “Standard Reporting Metrics”. To understand what this means, we’ll need to dig into some of the new guidance. 

“For each policy outcome the model includes a list of Standard Reporting Metrics. The intent is to standardise the way that frequently offered types of social value are measured, so that suppliers do not have to measure the same type of social value in many different ways.” 

Here are a few of the Standard Reporting Metrics as worded in the Social Value Model:

• 1ai. Number (in roles, not FTE) of employment opportunities created under the contract, by UK region.
• 1aii. Number of apprenticeship opportunities (Level 2, 3, and 4+) created or retained under the contract, by UK region
• 1bi. Number of people working on the contract (aged 16 and above) who have a permanent contract.
• 1c1. Number of people (18-20 years) working on the contract who are paid the above the National Minimum Wage
• 1cii. Number of people (above 20 years) working on the contract who are paid above the National Living Wage.

Does this mean that the range of impacts that can be treated as social value in public procurement contexts is being narrowed down to a shorter, highly quantified list?

That doesn’t appear to be the intention. 

Yes, the goal looks to be greater alignment and standardisation around “mature” areas. As the new Model Evaluation Question’s template wording says:

“If your offer relates to a metric listed in the Social Value Model, you should use the appropriate Standard Reporting Metric.”

We’ll come back to SRMs in the next section on contract monitoring. 

But the new Model also makes it clear – in several places – that there is a lot of room for interpretation and customisation still when it comes to what commissioning authorities want to see from suppliers and how they want it to be reported on. 

For instance, the Model sets out a three-step process for preliminary market engagement:

“1. Select an Outcome from PPN 002 Social Value Model that relates to the subject matter of the contract, is proportionate and non-discriminatory

2. Insert the model social value question into your tender document.

• You are permitted to refine this to suit the condition of the market and your contract, based on feedback in your market engagement.

3. Insert the Social Value Award Criteria and Sub-Criteria corresponding to the Outcome you have selected.

• You are permitted to refine this to suit the condition of the market and your contract, based on feedback in your market engagement. For example, you might omit some of the sub-criteria if they are not proportionate to the contract.”

The new MACs, sub-criteria, and SRMs are not meant as a straitjacket – but as a means of ensuring that where the same things keep coming up, they are talked about and measured consistently. 

Greater Rigour in Social Value Reporting

For the first time, the new Social Value Model makes it plain that social value commitments have to be written into contracts awarded:

“When the contract is entered into, the in-scope organisation should incorporate the social value  deliverables, set out in the winning supplier’s proposals, into the contract and  should consider whether it is appropriate to set social value key performance indicators (SV KPIs).”

Plus:

“Where appropriate to do so, for markets which have a mature social value offering, social value targets should be documented in the contract as SV KPIs.”

These SVI KPIs should reflect the SRMs where possible, but – again – there are exceptions:

“Only where there is not a suitable SRM, consideration should be made of any sector-wide measurement of the deliverable, aligning to existing metrics used by the supplier for economies of scale where appropriate.”

The new Model’s focus on rigour is also reflected in the changes to the wording of model evaluation questions. Here’s the old version: 

The new version is far more detailed in what it asks for regarding plans and methodologies, time-bound, quantifiable commitments, and the specifics of the project plan. Here is the full text:

You’ve Got 7 Months, But Start Your Preparations Early

Commissioning authorities and their suppliers have had a long time to get themselves ready for the Procurement Act. But throwing a whole new Social Value Model into the mix just days before the go-live complicates things. 

Fortunately, there is a 7-month grace period for all the kinks in the new Model to be ironed out, for procurement professionals to understand their new responsibilities, and for social value frameworks to adjust. 

Until then (1/10/25), commissioning authorities can opt to use the 2021 Social Value Model. With five years’ of experience under their belts with that system, it seems highly unlikely that many authorities will make the switch early. 

As a final reminder, here’s the timeline for what is affected by PPN002 and the new Social Value Model:

• Procurement processes begun or contracts awarded before 24/2/25 are not affected by the new Model
• The Model only applies to “above threshold” procurements, as defined in the Procurement Act (£139,688 inc VAT, as of January 2024, for in-scope organisations)
• Between 24/2/25 and 1/10/25, commissioning authorities can choose to use either this Social Value Model or the original one. After 1/10/25, the new one is mandatory