Social value in procurement is evolving. With the release of the latest National Procurement Policy Statement, and the accompanying Procurement Policy Notes (PPN001 & PPN002) introducing a new Social Value Model aligned to the UK Government Missions, the timing couldn’t be better to reassess how we approach social value in practice. While the legislative framework is strong, the challenge remains: how do we ensure maximum impact rather than just compliance?

At our recent seminar at the Government Property Conference, held in London, we used live polling to gauge government and private sector delegates on their social value journey. The results were telling — while most participants rated the quality of social value in their contracts as “average” (44 percent), over a third (34 percent) ranked it as poor or very poor, compared to just 24 percent who rated it positively.

A lack of resources was the most common challenge (21 percent) reinforcing that current structures and delivery approaches are not always equipped to achieve meaningful impact. However, culture (15 percent), bureaucracy (12 percent), and leadership buy-in (9 percent) emerged as key barriers to embedding social value, highlighting the need for stronger support from decision makers to focus on delivery.

The case for starting at the end

Too often, social value starts with the “how” — focusing on inputs, activities and outputs such as the number of apprenticeships offered or volunteer hours logged. Procurement frameworks frequently emphasise measurable commitments, making it tempting to focus on visible and easily quantifiable metrics rather than the bigger picture.

While these figures are a common starting point, social value planning should be guided by the end goal — the “what” and “why.” This means understanding key social value drivers and ensuring procurement strategies align with the broader end goal:

• What long-term outcomes are we aiming to achieve?
• How does this procurement contribute to broader social goals, such as reducing inequality or enhancing local economic resilience?
• Are we measuring success based on activities or on real, lasting change?

Using the new Social Value Model, buyers should seek to understand how suppliers will contribute to the Missions and Outcomes — the desired end objective — be it kickstarting economic growth or breaking down barriers to opportunity. By setting out their desired “what” and “why”, suppliers can then develop social value activity that contributes to the overall goal, whilst having the flexibility of delivery depending on contract type or location.

A simple example illustrates this shift. Consider two procurement bids:

• Supplier A offers 100 volunteer hours, 5 new local jobs and 2 apprenticeships.
• Supplier B offers 80 training hours, a degree apprenticeship, 4 local jobs (all at a living wage) and targeted upskilling.

At first glance, Supplier A appears stronger based on volume. However, if the goal is social mobility, Supplier B delivers more impact. Training and upskilling help workers move into higher-paying jobs. A degree apprenticeship creates long-term career progression, while guaranteeing the Real Living Wage ensures economic stability. By focusing on outcomes, rather than ticking off social value inputs, procurement decisions can better serve long-term community needs. These can then be developed into meaningful metrics as part of contract management.

The missing link in social value delivery

One of the strongest themes from our live poll was the importance of collaboration, both within organisations and across supply chains. When supply chain partners align around shared priorities, the impact of social value initiatives grows exponentially.

Traditional procurement models often involve disconnected suppliers, hundreds of clients, and fragmented frameworks with little strategic cohesion. This leads to inconsistent measurement, limited long-term impact, and missed opportunities for meaningful change. In contrast, an allianced delivery model brings suppliers together to tackle common challenges, use uniform metrics and drive joint delivery.

An example of this is the Crown Commercial Services (CSS) Construction Professional Services (CPS) Social Value Focus Group chaired by ArchTam on behalf of CCS, and convening a range of public sector authorities and suppliers. This group is actively working to embed this thinking, promoting ways that procurement frameworks can facilitate long-term, strategic collaboration rather than isolated, one-off buying initiatives.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) estate, which has used the CCS CPS framework to form a supplier alliance, structures its procurement strategy to align supplier objectives, enabling a more cohesive and measurable approach to social value. This model supports initiatives like Forests With Impact, an industry-led social enterprise we are proud to be a founding member of, which is delivering tangible environmental social benefits; creating jobs, enhancing biodiversity, and driving community-led sustainability efforts. Having the clarity of MoJ’s “what” and “why” on developing prisoners and prison leavers employability provides us with the clarity to deliver and support innovative solutions such as Forests with Impact.

When supply chain partners are aligned, procurement moves beyond transactional commitments to deliver legacy outcomes, for example, accessible and sustainable careers for local people, improved community wellbeing and integration, and a fair and equitable transition to net zero.

Unlocking impact through outcomes and collaboration

By taking an outcomes-first approach, we can shift the dial from “average” social value integration to truly transformative impact. Our live poll revealed a key insight: while the challenges were often similar — resource constraints, bureaucracy and leadership buy-in — the strengths were far more diverse. From local recruitment and SME contracting to wellbeing, community and legacy building, it is clear that organisations have a desire to create meaningful, lasting impact. To achieve this, an outcomes-led approach is transformative. One that recognises these unique strengths but actively brings them together through collaboration to maximise social value.

With the latest updates to the UK’s National Procurement Policy Statement (NPPS) and clearer guidelines on social value, the tools are in place. The real challenge now is how we use them.

The post Procuring for social value: Why we should begin with the end appeared first on Blog.

Amani is an assistant social consultant on the Social Impact and Equality team. She specializes in the development of techniques to measure, evaluate and monitor social value outcomes and in the development of robust measurement frameworks for the valuation of non-market goods, specifically focused on community well-being, welfare, and public health.

What inspired you to join the industry? I have always been interested in finding ways to reduce inequality and improve community welfare. I believe projects should work to not only mitigate or minimize negative outcomes but create positive social impact. While pursuing my master’s degree in sociology, I began to think about how the spaces where people live and work can be sites for transformative social change, especially if projects deliver positive impacts beyond the bare minimum. This was my introduction to the relationship between social value, social impact, and the built environment. Shortly after completing my studies, I was hired at ArchTam.

What is your favorite ArchTam project that you’ve worked on and why? My favorite project so far has been the social value work we did for Battersea Power Station Development Company (BPSDC). We developed a bespoke social value measurement matrix to measure the value of BPSDC’s flagship community outreach programs. They were doing amazing work as part of their community outreach endeavors and wanted us to find a way to communicate their impact in terms of social value. We had incredible support from BPSDC, got to interview a lot of amazing people, and hear all about the incredible impact they have been having on local communities – we even measured the social value produced by a local community choir!

For me, the most interesting aspect of the project was determining how to set up this custom framework. The process involved developing our own value bank, conducting primary research, and some trial-and-error. Finding ways to responsibly value traditionally non-market goods like wellbeing and happiness, for instance, can be complicated, and there are serious ethical questions around monetization that arise when constructing a methodology. But the opportunity to investigate precisely these tricky questions is what made this such an interesting project and a great learning experience. Social practioners, especially those interested in social value, need to strongly consider the ethics of monetization and valuation, particularly where data is not readily available, and think carefully about how social value measurement can be customized for every project. It’s not one-size-fits all.

Tell us a story of how your work positively impacted the community. A recent project I worked on alongside my manager involved the preparation of an Equality Impact Assessment (EqIA) for the extension of the Bakerloo line for Transport for London (TfL). EqIAs are critical in order to ensure projects can deliver positive social impacts and that any negative impacts on various equality groups can be identified and mitigated early in the project lifecycle. The EqIA assessment identified several potential beneficial equality effects of the extension proposals, including increased connectivity, indirect and direct employment opportunities created from the scheme, and health and wellbeing impacts on local communities. The report was extremely well received, and we have been asked to conduct a workshop on EqIAs at TfL.

What career advice would you like to share? Learn as much as you can, on the job and off the job. I’m always signing up for MOOCs and webinars to build knowledge on subjects that interest me and striking up conversations with people both within my practice area and outside of it.

The post People Spotlight Series: Meet Amani Bhobe appeared first on Blog.