New Cabinet Office guidance guarantees bidders a minimum score for 'good jobs and skills' if they commit to a Community Programme. The list of programmes needed to contact one has not been published, and carries no date.
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
In short. On 28 October 2026 the Cabinet Office published the practitioner guidance for PPN 026, the Social Value Model, five months after this site's September teardown found the model deferred its own sub-criteria, target cohorts and scoring method to a document that did not yet exist [3] [4]. The guidance delivers all three [1] (pp.20-27). But its scoring template guarantees a bid "a minimum score of 6" out of 10 if it "support[s] one or more Community Programmes" with a dated letter to that programme's "listed contact" [1] (p.13), while a bid that does not must have every criterion "fully addressed" to reach the same mark [1] (pp.28-29). The List of Community Programmes a bidder would need to find that contact "will be published... in the future" [1] (p.13), with no date of any kind attached. Two documented mistakes: four stars.
Five months ago this site tore down PPN 026, the Cabinet Office's rewritten Social Value Model, for telling procurement officers to score bids on "good British jobs and skills" using sub-criteria, target cohorts and metrics that did not exist yet, promised only for "autumn 2026" [4]. On 28 October, with autumn running out, the promised guidance landed: a 32-page document that, for the first time, tells commercial teams what to actually score [1]. GOV.UK's own "Updates to this page" log records it plainly: "Added the document: Guidance on using PPN 026: The Social Value Model" [3].
What arrived, and what it fixes
Annex B of the new guidance sets out the sub-criteria PPN 026 withheld in August: eight ways to "create good jobs or apprenticeships", eleven on "fair working conditions", four on "fair pay", and a matching set for the Training, In-work Progression and Talent Pipeline criteria under the Skills outcome [1] (pp.20-26). It names the eight target cohorts PPN 026 had left to "future guidance": NEETs aged 16 to 24, people transitioning from education, people with long-term health conditions or Special Educational Needs, care leavers, people on probation, victims of domestic abuse, and veterans [1] (p.27). And Annex C supplies the evaluation methodology PPN 026 never had: a five-band score-allocation model running 0, 1, 3, 6 and 10, with written definitions for each band [1] (pp.28-29). On the finding that mattered most in September, this is a real fix, delivered inside the season the Cabinet Office named for it.
The shortcut that needs a directory that does not exist
Read the scoring bands closely and a second gap opens up where the first one closed. A bid can reach the second-highest band, a score of 6, two ways. One route: every award criterion, sub-criterion and additional criterion is "fully addressed", the response is of "a good level of quality, detail, clarity, and relevance with no concerns", and it "leaves no doubt of the suppliers' capability to deliver what is required" [1] (p.29). The other route needs none of that rigour on the main criteria: the response "supports one or more Community Programmes evidenced by a dated letter... confirming that, subject to award of contract, the tenderer will support the programme", and "all relevant additional award criteria have been addressed" - "addressed", not "fully addressed" [1] (p.28). Section 4.3 spells out the effect in plain terms: "a supplier committing to support a Community Programme that also meets all the Implementation Criteria should receive a minimum score of 6, but can still score additional points" [1] (p.13).
To take that route, a bidder needs a "dated letter... to the Community Programme's listed contact" [1] (p.11), using the template letter the guidance itself supplies in Annex D, addressed "to the Community Programme Contact" [1] (p.30). Both depend on knowing which Community Programmes exist and who their listed contact is. That depends, in turn, on the one resource the guidance does not supply: "A List of Community Programmes will be published to support this guidance in the future. It will provide information on existing schemes that suppliers can support" [1] (p.13). "In the future" is the entire timeline. PPN 026's original sub-criteria and cohorts were at least pinned to "autumn 2026" [2] (p.6); the List that unlocks the easier scoring path is not pinned to anything.
The guidance does not treat this as a future refinement. Commercial teams are told to start now: during the Plan stage, step seven of the lifecycle table instructs them to "encourage suppliers to build relationships with Community Programmes during preliminary market engagement" [1] (p.4) - a stage that happens before a contract is even advertised, under rules that take effect from 1 January 2027 [1] (p.3). Officers are asked to start a process today that the guidance has no published way to finish.
The claims, tested
| The document's own words | What the evidence actually shows | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| "The Social Value Model is designed to avoid creating barriers to entry for new market entrants, SMEs, and VCSEs" [1] (p.13) | The same page guarantees a minimum score of 6 to bids backed by a dated Community Programme letter, a lower evidentiary bar than the "fully addressed" standard required without one [1] (pp.13, 28-29) | A built-in advantage for suppliers who already have, or can quickly build, a community relationship, which newer and smaller entrants are least likely to have on day one |
| "A List of Community Programmes will be published to support this guidance in the future" [1] (p.13) | No month, season or year is attached anywhere in the 32-page document; PPN 026's original deferred items at least carried "autumn 2026" [2] (p.6) | A second deferral with a vaguer deadline than the first one it replaces |
| Sub-criteria, target cohorts and an evaluation methodology are now fully specified [1] (pp.20-29) | Confirmed: all three items this site flagged as missing in September are present, in detail, within the promised autumn window [4] | Delivered as promised |
The mistakes, counted
A guaranteed score floor runs through a route that does not yet operate (1). Bids backed by a Community Programme letter clear the second-highest scoring band on a lower bar, "addressed" rather than "fully addressed", and section 4.3 states plainly that meeting the Implementation Criteria plus a Programme letter "should receive a minimum score of 6" [1] (pp.13, 28-29). No bidder can take that route until the List of Community Programmes exists, and the guidance names no date for it.
The deferral has no deadline, where the one it replaces at least had a season (2). PPN 026's original gaps were due "autumn 2026" and the Cabinet Office met that [2] (p.6) [3]. The List of Community Programmes carries no comparable commitment, despite commercial teams being told to start building supplier relationships with those programmes now, during market engagement that happens before the rules even take effect [1] (pp.3-4).
Credit where due
The guidance does what it set out to do on the finding that mattered most: a working, detailed scoring system for the Social Value Model now exists, and it exists on schedule. Annex C's five-band methodology gives officers written definitions for every score, not the open-ended discretion PPN 026 left them with in August [1] (pp.28-29). The guidance also wires in real enforcement teeth for underperformance: a supplier falling short on its social value commitments can be named in a published contract performance notice and, under sections 71 and 26-27 of the Procurement Act 2023, excluded from future procurements [1] (p.17), a sanction with a statutory basis rather than a hope.
Verdict
Four stars, from two documented mistakes. The Cabinet Office closed the gap this site found in September almost exactly as promised, with sub-criteria, target cohorts and a scoring method that officers can actually use. But in doing so it opened a narrower one: the clearest route to a strong score runs through a directory of Community Programmes that does not exist, has no publication date, and is already being recommended to suppliers as something to pursue before the rules it serves even take effect.
Sources
- Guidance on using PPN 026: The Social Value Model, Cabinet Office, published 28 October 2026
- PPN 026: The Social Value Model, Cabinet Office, published 5 August 2026
- PPN 026: The Social Value Model, GOV.UK publication page, Cabinet Office, updated 28 October 2026
- PPN 026: criteria not written yet, Tracked Changes, 20 September 2026