Procurement Policy Note 026
PPN 026: the new Social Value Model and what it changes
Published 5 August 2026. Applies to procurements commencing on or after 1 January 2027. The threshold moves to £1m, the minimum weighting doubles across two tiers of 10 and 20 percent, and the 33 metric set is cut to a core of six. Every social value library in the country is now written against a model that is being retired.
The four changes that matter
PPN 026 is not a refinement of the previous model. It changes who is in scope, how much the answer is worth, and what the question is. Any one of those alone would justify revisiting your content. Together they make the existing library obsolete for central government work.
It applies from 1 January 2027
PPN 026 was published on 5 August 2026 and applies to procurements commencing on or after 1 January 2027. Anything you tender before then still runs on the old model, which means most organisations face a period where both models are live across a single bid pipeline.
The threshold moves to £1m
The contract value threshold at which the model must be applied moves to £1m, bringing a substantial tranche of smaller procurements into scope for the first time. Suppliers who have never had to write a scored social value response will now be scored on one.
The minimum weighting doubles
The minimum social value weighting doubles, at two tiers of 10 percent and 20 percent. On a close-scored framework competition, a weighting change of that size is frequently larger than the gap between first and fourth place.
Thirty-three metrics become six
The metric set is cut from 33 measures to a core of six. This is the change that invalidates existing content. A library built to answer 33 questions does not answer six better ones, and padding it out to look thorough is exactly what the new model is designed to stop rewarding.
Why cutting 33 metrics to six is the expensive change
A social value library built under the previous model is, in most organisations, a document of several hundred pages assembled over five years. It is organised by metric. Each measure has its own narrative, its own evidence, its own set of numbers, and its own history of what scored well and what did not. That structure is the asset. It is also precisely what stops it being reusable.
When 33 measures become six, the mapping does not survive. Some old measures merge, some disappear, and the six that remain ask broader questions that a narrow answer cannot fill. Suppliers who try to reuse the library will submit answers that are thorough, well evidenced, and aimed at a question the evaluator is not asking. That scores worse than a shorter answer aimed correctly, and it is a hard failure mode to spot from the inside, because the content looks strong.
The underlying material is not wasted. Delivery track record, measured outcomes, local employment figures, apprenticeship numbers, carbon data and community partnerships all carry across. What has to be rebuilt is the structure, the framing and the mapping from evidence to measure. Done once, centrally, that is a contained piece of work. Done inside a live bid, under a deadline, on a submission that also has to be won, it is neither contained nor good.
The scale of the exposure is worth stating plainly. Combining the threshold move with the weighting increase means a supplier bidding a £1.2m central government contract who has never written a scored social value response now faces one carrying up to a fifth of the available marks. That is not a compliance task. It is a bid-deciding section.
How we approach a PPN 026 rewrite
1. Audit what you already have
We map your existing library against the new core measures and mark each piece of content as carries over, needs reframing, or is no longer scored. Most organisations are surprised by how much of the evidence survives and how little of the writing does. The audit is also the point at which gaps become visible while there is still time to fill them with real delivery rather than intention.
2. Rebuild the core responses
We write the core responses against the new measures, using your actual delivery data rather than aspiration. Commitments are set at levels your operations team has confirmed it can deliver, because a social value commitment is a contractual one and the reporting obligation outlives the bid team that wrote it.
3. Embed it so it stays current
A library decays the moment it is finished unless someone owns it. We leave you with a named owner, a refresh cycle tied to your reporting calendar, and a short set of rules for what evidence needs capturing as delivery happens, so the next bid starts from current numbers rather than from a rewrite.
The window
Now to October 2026. Audit the existing library and identify evidence gaps while there is still time to close them through delivery rather than through drafting.
Autumn 2026. Practitioner guidance is expected. This is the point at which the detail of how the core measures are scored becomes clear, and it is the right moment to commit the final wording rather than guess at it.
November and December 2026. Write the core responses and set commitment levels with operations. Finish before the first procurements under the new model open, not after.
From 1 January 2027. Procurements commencing under PPN 026. Suppliers still working from a 33 metric library are answering the wrong questions in a section now worth up to a fifth of the marks.
PPN 026: common questions
What is PPN 026?
Procurement Policy Note 026 is the replacement for the Social Value Model that has governed social value scoring in central government procurement since PPN 06/20. It was published on 5 August 2026 and applies to procurements commencing on or after 1 January 2027. It changes the value threshold at which social value must be applied, doubles the minimum weighting, and reduces the metric set from 33 measures to a core of six.
When does PPN 026 take effect?
It applies to procurements commencing on or after 1 January 2027. Procurements that commence before that date continue under the previous Social Value Model. In practice most suppliers will run both in parallel for part of 2027, because a bid pipeline does not switch over on a single day.
Does PPN 026 apply to the NHS and local government?
PPN 026 applies directly to central government departments, their executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies. The wider public sector, including NHS bodies and local authorities, is not automatically bound by it, but in practice buyers outside central government have consistently adopted the central model as their reference point, and framework operators serving both markets tend to converge on it. Plan on the assumption that it will shape what you are asked for even where it does not formally apply.
Does my existing social value library still work?
Not for procurements commencing from 1 January 2027. Content written against 33 metrics is structured around a different set of questions, and the most common failure mode we expect is suppliers submitting thorough answers to measures that are no longer scored. The library is not worthless, because the underlying evidence, the delivery track record and the measured outcomes all carry over. It is the mapping and the framing that need rebuilding.
When should we start the rewrite?
Before the bid, not during it. A social value library is a shared asset used across every submission, so rewriting it under a deadline means rewriting it badly and then living with it for a year. The sensible window is the last quarter of 2026, once autumn practitioner guidance has landed and before the first procurements under the new model open.
What does PPN 026 mean for social value commitments already in live contracts?
Commitments made under contracts already awarded stand as written. PPN 026 governs how new procurements are scored, not how existing contractual obligations are measured. The practical risk is different: teams delivering against old-model commitments while bidding under the new one need to keep the two reporting sets separate, or the delivery evidence they take into the next bid will be framed against measures the evaluator is no longer using.
Related reading
- Social value strategy for public sector bids
- The TOMs framework explained
- The Procurement Act 2023 and what it changed
- NHS and healthcare bid writing
Figures on this page reflect PPN 026 as published on 5 August 2026 and were last reviewed on 18 August 2026. Practitioner guidance is expected in autumn 2026 and this page will be updated when it lands. Confirm the position against the published note before relying on it for a live procurement.
Get your social value library ready before January
Book a call at bookings.glaxtons.co.uk, or send us the outline below and we will come back with what your current library needs.
PPN 026 readiness
Tell us what you bid for and what social value content you hold today.