On the 24th of September 2020 the UK Government published their PPN 06/20 Notice to ensure social value is included in tender evaluation. The introduction of the model means you will have to respond to social value tender questions when bidding on public sector contracts more frequently and be clear on your social value offer.
When looking to tender, your business must demonstrate your ability to meet the required quality standards, cost effectiveness and importantly offer a commitment to deliver social value through the contract.
Buyers are becoming more conscious of social value within tenders. If you can demonstrate a serious commitment to social value that is linked to the buyer’s objectives, you will stand out from others.
Social value tender questions can be difficult to answer. The key to answering is realising the reasons why social value is important. The buyer will identify what Social Value is important to them and their organisation, for example, helping their surrounding communities or help local businesses and ask you to describe your approach to supporting their chosen theme.
The Social Value Model is broken down into 5 themes.
Theme 1 COVID-19 recovery
Help local communities to manage and recover from the impact of COVID-19.
Theme 2 Tackling economic inequality
Create new businesses, new jobs and new skills Increase supply chain resilience and capacity.
Theme 3 Fighting climate change
Effective stewardship of the environment.
Theme 4 Equal opportunity
Reduce the disability employment gap, Tackle workforce inequality.
Theme 5 Wellbeing
Improve health and wellbeing and Improve community cohesion.
The themes leave a lot of flexibility to allow businesses to create social value. By creating local and sustainable jobs, local school, and college visits (career talks, mentoring etc), taking people out of unemployment, and tackling workforce inequality are all economic ways of creating social value.
Adding social value through your business could be through supporting local charities, helping local community’s groups (sports or social groups), ethical suppliers, engaging with the community and promoting social integration.
The Social Value Model offers buyers with a list of ‘Model Evaluation Questions’ for each policy.
Each of the Model Evaluation Questions asks for the following:
- A ‘Method Statement’, stating how suppliers will achieve this and how their commitment meets the Award Criteria.
- A timed project plan and process, including how suppliers will implement their commitment.
The buyers can develop evaluation questions and criteria in cases whereby they have additional needs which relate to the Social Value Model (SVM) policy outcome. In this case the buyer must guarantee that:
- Ensure relevance to the subject matter of the contract
- Respond to intelligence gained through pre-tender market engagement
- Ensure compliance with the principles of equal treatment, non-discrimination, and proportionality.
- Satisfy/achieve specific departmental policy objectives.
Responding to these questions vary widely based on the scope of the work offered and the sector. You must be clear and precise in the detail in addressing social value to show the buyers you understand the requirement and have a clear methodology on how you will deliver and monitor this.
Make sure that all your answers are tailored to the contract you’re bidding for. Don’t answer generically, never make commitments that you can’t realistically deliver on.
Value Match have always practised in social value, and we embed it into all procurement, bid management and resourcing services. We offer specialist training specifically around social value. Discover our range of Social Value training courses.
