Social Value: 20% of the score.
No local presence. No evidence. Now what?
I recently assessed a tender from the supplier side where social value carried 20% of the marks. That's a fifth of the score, and from 1 January central government buyers are due to apply the same weighting on contracts of £5m and above.
For a smaller supplier it's a challenge, but not an insurmountable one. It may even be one where flexibility is a winning theme.
The approach. Start from what your business already does, not what sounds impressive. Audit hiring, training, local spend and pay, existing social programmes. Then fill the gaps with partners who have genuine local roots, spoken to early, with real conversations behind every name. Evaluators can tell a partnership from a logo.
The risks. Every commitment becomes a contractual obligation the day you win. The biggest risk isn't scoring badly. It's scoring well on promises you can't keep. I'd rather offer fewer commitments I can evidence than more I can't.
The commercials. Social value isn't free. Staff time, management overhead and partner costs all have to sit inside the price. At 20%, a strong answer can justify that investment, but only if the cost is built into your business model from the start.
The reporting. If you can't measure it, you can't report it, and you can't use it as evidence next time. The collection process needs to exist before contract start, not be assembled the week the report is due.
None of this is glamorous. All of it is decided before the buyer reads a word. It's the Capability test in CASE: can you deliver what you promise, not just write it down.
Chapter 12 of Selling to the UK Public Sector covers how to build it from what you already do.