What is social value in a UK tender?

Social value is the wider benefit a contract brings to people, the economy and the environment beyond the goods or services themselves. Buyers ask bidders to commit to things such as local jobs, apprenticeships, spending with local businesses, volunteering and carbon reduction, and score those commitments as part of the evaluation. The Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 requires public bodies to consider it, and the Procurement Act 2023, in force from 24 February 2025, keeps it in the picture through the award criteria a buyer chooses.

What are the National TOMs, and is this the official calculator?

The National TOMs (Themes, Outcomes and Measures) are a framework with proxy values, published and licensed by Social Value Portal. This calculator is not the official TOMs and does not use the licensed proxy values. It uses simple placeholder values that you can edit, so the result is an indicative estimate only. If a buyer requires TOMs reporting, use their platform and their values.

What are the PPN 06/20 social value themes?

Procurement Policy Note 06/20 introduced the Social Value Model for central government with five themes: Covid-19 recovery, tackling economic inequality, fighting climate change, equal opportunity, and wellbeing. This calculator splits your total across those five themes and lets you move each measure to a different one. PPN 002 is the later note for in-scope central government contracts, so check it for the current model wording.

How much of the score is social value?

It depends on the buyer. PPN 002 requires in-scope central government contracting authorities to apply a minimum 10% weighting to social value. Councils, NHS bodies and other buyers outside its scope set their own weightings, which can be higher, lower or built into the quality score. Always use the weighting in the tender documents and set it in the slider.

Does a bigger total mean a higher score?

Not directly. Evaluators usually mark the quality of your answer: how specific, measurable, deliverable and relevant to the buyer's priorities your commitments are, and whether you have evidence of doing it before. A modest set of well-evidenced, local commitments can outscore a large list of vague promises. Use the total to sense-check that your offer is proportionate to the contract value.

How should I choose the proxy values?

If the tender gives values or a required method, use those. Otherwise use figures you can defend: the salary and on-costs of a role, the wage cost of volunteering hours, your training cost per hour, or a published carbon price. Keep them conservative and be ready to explain them. The defaults here are round placeholders, not evidence, so change them to match your own business.

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Social value calculator: estimate what your tender commitments are worth

Enter your jobs, apprenticeships, local spend and other commitments. See an indicative value in pounds, split by theme, with assumptions you can edit. Runs in your browser.

Free, no sign-up PPN 06/20 themes Nothing leaves your device

1. The contract

Contract value

Contract length

years

Local authority or region

Social value weighting (share of the total score)10%

2. Your commitments

Local jobs created (FTE jobs)

Apprenticeships and traineeships (starts)

Work placements (placements)

Local SME spend (£)

Volunteering hours (hours)

Staff training hours (hours)

Carbon reduction commitment (tCO2e)

Community donations (£)

Local SME spend and donations are in pounds across the whole contract. Carbon is tonnes of CO2e you commit to save.

3. Assumptions (edit any value)

These proxy values are our own indicative placeholders. The National TOMs proxy values are licensed by Social Value Portal and are not used here. This is not the official TOMs framework and its figures are not official TOMs figures. Replace them with the buyer's values if the tender gives any.

Local jobs created
Value per FTE job
£
Theme
Apprenticeships and traineeships
Value per start
£
Theme
Work placements
Value per placement
£
Theme
Local SME spend
Value per £1 spent
£
Theme
Volunteering hours
Value per hour
£
Theme
Staff training hours
Value per hour
£
Theme
Carbon reduction commitment
Value per tonne
£
Theme
Community donations
Value per £1 donated
£
Theme

Total indicative social value

£111,600

11.2% of contract value, about £37,200 a year

Indicative estimate from editable assumptions. Not official TOMs figures.

Split by PPN 06/20 theme

Covid-19 recovery£20,000 (18%)
Tackling economic inequality£60,000 (54%)
Fighting climate change£4,000 (4%)
Equal opportunity£19,000 (17%)
Wellbeing£8,600 (8%)

Largest contributor: Local jobs created (£42,000).

What this is worth in score

Social value is 10% of the score, so up to 10 marks in 100. Each 10% more of the social value marks you win adds 1.0 points to your total.

Buyers mark the quality and evidence of your answer, not the pound figure, so a big total does not earn full marks by itself.

This is still generic. Pro writes the scored narrative.

A figure is not an answer. Evaluators score how specific, deliverable and measurable your commitments are. Below is a basic template filled from your numbers, as an example of the starting point.

Example only: first 80 words of a template answer

Over the 3-year contract we will deliver measurable social value in the local area. We commit to 3 local jobs, 2 apprenticeships or traineeships and 6 work placements, spend £100,000 with local SMEs, and give 200 volunteering hours and 400 hours of staff training. We will cut 50 tonnes of CO2e and donate £5,000 to community causes. Progress will be reported to you each quarter against agreed measures, with named owners for every commitment.

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How social value is scored in UK tenders

Buyers score social value as part of the evaluation, using a weighting set out in the tender documents. For in-scope central government contracts, PPN 002 requires a minimum 10% weighting. Other buyers set their own. The Procurement Act 2023 came into force on 24 February 2025, and buyers still choose and publish their award criteria up front.

PPN 06/20 introduced the Social Value Model with five themes, which this calculator uses for its split: Covid-19 recovery, tackling economic inequality, fighting climate change, equal opportunity, and wellbeing. PPN 002 is the later note for in-scope central government contracts, so check it for the current wording.

What the calculator does, and does not, do

It multiplies each commitment by a value you can see and edit. Jobs, apprenticeships, placements, local spend, volunteering, training, carbon and donations each have a £ value per unit in the assumptions panel.
It is not the National TOMs. The National TOMs proxy values are licensed by Social Value Portal. The defaults here are our own round placeholders, so the total is an indicative estimate and not an official TOMs figure.
It does not predict your score. Evaluators mark the quality and evidence of your answer. The pound figure helps you check your offer is proportionate and gives you numbers to write with.

Turning the numbers into marks

Strong answers are specific: who delivers each commitment, where, by when, how it is measured and how you will report it. Tie every measure to the buyer's own priorities and local area, and show you have done it before. See our social value response guide and how to answer tender questions. To see how much the weighting matters against price and quality, use the tender scoring calculator, or browse live UK tenders to find your next bid. See also pricing.

Sources: PPN 06/20 (GOV.UK); PPN 002: Taking account of social value (GOV.UK). The calculator is a model; the buyer's published criteria and required method always win.

Social value calculator FAQs

What is social value in a UK tender?
Social value is the wider benefit a contract brings to people, the economy and the environment beyond the goods or services themselves. Buyers ask bidders to commit to things such as local jobs, apprenticeships, spending with local businesses, volunteering and carbon reduction, and score those commitments as part of the evaluation. The Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 requires public bodies to consider it, and the Procurement Act 2023, in force from 24 February 2025, keeps it in the picture through the award criteria a buyer chooses.
What are the National TOMs, and is this the official calculator?
The National TOMs (Themes, Outcomes and Measures) are a framework with proxy values, published and licensed by Social Value Portal. This calculator is not the official TOMs and does not use the licensed proxy values. It uses simple placeholder values that you can edit, so the result is an indicative estimate only. If a buyer requires TOMs reporting, use their platform and their values.
What are the PPN 06/20 social value themes?
Procurement Policy Note 06/20 introduced the Social Value Model for central government with five themes: Covid-19 recovery, tackling economic inequality, fighting climate change, equal opportunity, and wellbeing. This calculator splits your total across those five themes and lets you move each measure to a different one. PPN 002 is the later note for in-scope central government contracts, so check it for the current model wording.
How much of the score is social value?
It depends on the buyer. PPN 002 requires in-scope central government contracting authorities to apply a minimum 10% weighting to social value. Councils, NHS bodies and other buyers outside its scope set their own weightings, which can be higher, lower or built into the quality score. Always use the weighting in the tender documents and set it in the slider.
Does a bigger total mean a higher score?
Not directly. Evaluators usually mark the quality of your answer: how specific, measurable, deliverable and relevant to the buyer's priorities your commitments are, and whether you have evidence of doing it before. A modest set of well-evidenced, local commitments can outscore a large list of vague promises. Use the total to sense-check that your offer is proportionate to the contract value.
How should I choose the proxy values?
If the tender gives values or a required method, use those. Otherwise use figures you can defend: the salary and on-costs of a role, the wage cost of volunteering hours, your training cost per hour, or a published carbon price. Keep them conservative and be ready to explain them. The defaults here are round placeholders, not evidence, so change them to match your own business.

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