How to Write Stronger Social Value Responses Under the Procurement Act 2023

With the Procurement Act 2023 now shaping tender models for social care and the NHS, Social Value is no longer a peripheral scoring area. Many councils are moving from 10% to 15–20% weighting, and weak Social Value answers are increasingly the reason high-quality providers fail. To sharpen your bid strategy, it helps to understand how Social Value is actually evaluated alongside quality and compliance. You can also explore wider bid-writing guidance in the Bid Writing Hub.

This article explains what “good” looks like in 2026, common pitfalls to avoid and practical structures for high-scoring responses.

1. Understand how Social Value is scored under the Act

The Act shifts evaluation toward outcomes, transparency and measurable commitments. For Social Value, this means councils expect:

• Quantified commitments (not aspirations)
• Local impact — specific to borough, district or ICS area
• Monitoring methods that prove delivery
• Alignment with the authority’s Social Value priorities

A generic list of “good things we do” will not score. Commissioners want credible, costed, auditable commitments.

2. Use a simple but powerful structure

A reliable scoring framework is:

A. What we will deliver

Clear, tangible commitments for the contract period.

B. How much we will deliver

Numbers, volume, frequency or percentages.

C. Who benefits

The specific people, neighbourhoods, partners or workforce groups affected.

D. How we will measure and report

Methods, data sources, dashboards, frequency and accountability roles.

This moves your response from “intentions” to a contract-ready delivery offer.

3. Examples of high-scoring Social Value commitments

Providers who win consistently tend to offer commitments such as:

• Local recruitment targets (e.g. % of new hires from the borough)
• Guaranteed placements for apprentices or supported internships
• Paid training or qualifications for staff beyond tender minimums
• Community partnerships with local voluntary organisations
• Reducing reliance on agency via structured workforce pipelines
• Environmental reductions backed by measurable baselines

The key: if it cannot be measured, it rarely scores meaningfully.

4. Common pitfalls to avoid

• Recycling the same Social Value paragraph across different councils
• Listing activities without measurable outcomes
• Over-promising without credible delivery plans
• Focusing on organisational CSR instead of localised benefit

Even strong providers lose marks when Social Value feels generic or disconnected from the local context.

5. How to build Social Value into your whole tender

High-scoring tenders integrate Social Value throughout, especially in:

• workforce development
• community inclusion
• PBS and independence outcomes
• digital innovation

Embedding Social Value across answers can lift your overall quality score.

To refine your Social Value responses further, consider reviewing your approach across other bid areas such as compliance, evidence and structure using the Tender Triage Tool.