Social value in procurement

How Crown Commercial Service (CCS) is working with local government to build social value into procurement.

2023 marked over a decade since The Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 came into force. And what a decade it has been.

What’s most remarkable is that the winds of change that have buffeted the sector haven’t stopped many organisations from ensuring that the vision set out in the Act is realised, with local authorities at the forefront of working with supply chains to deliver benefits for local communities.

How Crown Commercial Service (CCS) is working with local government to build social value into procurement.

CCS supports the public sector to get the best deal on the procurement of thousands of goods and services. Ensuring suppliers on our agreements are meeting the needs of potential customers, including on social value, is a key part in developing new solutions.

How local government leads the social value agenda

The measurement of social value that can be generated from procurement has become increasingly standardised across local government, including the  introduction of the National TOMs framework, launched by the Local Government Associations (LGA) National Social Value Taskforce.

TOMs (Themes, Outcomes, Measures) created a new, common language for social value, encouraging greater consistency in reporting. We are now seeing some evidence of more localised and regional variations to the TOMS being adopted where local needs are more specific.

The five key themes that TOMs is built around are promoting local skills and employment; sustainable and responsible regional business growth; building healthier, safer, and resilient communities; decarbonising and protecting the planet; and promoting and enabling innovation.

Potential suppliers to the public sector should factor these elements into their thinking when bidding for contracts.

What CCS and suppliers are doing

We are continually working with our framework suppliers to ensure our agreements better enable you to deliver your local social value outcomes.

CCS can ask suppliers to demonstrate how they work to ensure fair, inclusive and ethical employment practices. This could include evidence that they’ve advertised vacancies in a wide range of locations or that they’ve engaged with VCSE organisations about apprenticeships.

Learn more about social value

Visit our social value page for details of how to build policy considerations into your procurement.