The Cabinet Office's new rulebook for scoring government contracts on 'good jobs and skills' tells procurement officers to mark bids against sub-criteria that will not be written until the autumn. The threshold that triggers it will jump from £135,018 to £1 million.
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
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In short. On 5 August 2026 the Cabinet Office published Procurement Policy Note 026, a new Social Value Model that "will prioritise British jobs, skills, and opportunities for people facing barriers to employment" [1] (p.6). It raises the contract value that triggers mandatory scoring from the general £135,018 public-procurement threshold to a flat £1 million [1] (p.1) [3] (p.2), and it tells procurement officers to select "sub-criteria to be set out in future guidance" that will not exist until autumn 2026 [1] (p.2), for rules that do not take effect until 1 January 2027. Scope is unchanged from its predecessor: central government only. Three documented mistakes: four stars.
Every central government department buying goods or services above a modest threshold has, since 2020, had to score bidders on the social good their contract could do, not just its price. On 5 August 2026 the Cabinet Office quietly rewrote the rulebook that decides how, for the second time in eighteen months.
A second rewrite, a bigger ambition on paper
Procurement Policy Note 026 replaces PPN 002, itself only eighteen months old, having updated PPN 06/20 in February 2025. Its opening lines set out why: "This Government wants every pound spent on public procurement to support British businesses, boost growth and help build a fairer economy" [1] (p.1), and social value for central government contracts is now defined as taking account of how a supplier will work for communities "to provide good British jobs, skills and opportunities in every postcode" [1] (p.1). The model itself is condensed to two outcomes, Good Jobs and Skills, each with three award criteria set out in an annex [1] (pp.4-5), down from the wider menu PPN 002 offered.
For contracts that clear the bar, the scoring itself gets tougher. PPN 002 required "a minimum 10% weighting (or an equivalent measurement) of the total score" for social value, applied flat across all in-scope contracts [2] (p.2). PPN 026 keeps 10% for contracts between £1 million and £5 million, but doubles it to a minimum 20% weighting for contracts of £5 million or above [1] (p.2). On the biggest deals, this is a genuine tightening.
The bar that decides who gets scored at all just moved sevenfold
Before any of that weighting applies, a contract has to be big enough to count. PPN 002 applied to any "covered procurement" above the general Procurement Act 2023 threshold, described only as "above-threshold" with no figure attached [2] (p.2). That figure is set separately, and revised every two years, by the Cabinet Office's own PPN 023: for a contract "for the supply of goods, services or works to a central government authority not within any other row", the threshold from 1 January 2026 is £135,018 [3] (p.2).
PPN 026 does not use that figure. It sets its own, much higher floor: the new model "applies only to covered procurements valued at £1m total contract value inclusive of VAT... or above" [1] (p.1). That is roughly seven times the general threshold PPN 002 relied on. Every central government contract between £135,018 and £1 million, the exact band PPN 002 currently pulls into mandatory social value scoring, will stop being scored for it at all once PPN 026 takes effect. Neither PPN 026 nor the collection page that hosts it gives any estimate of how many contracts, or how much spend, that removes from scope [4].
Score it now, find out how later
PPN 026 is not just a narrower gate with a bigger prize behind it. It is also, on its own admission, incomplete. Officers are told to select "a relevant delivery outcome from the model in Annex A with its corresponding award criteria (and sub-criteria to be set out in future guidance)" [1] (p.2). For framework contracts, the PPN states that value should be assessed "at framework and call-off, in accordance with the PPN 026 guidance which will be published in autumn 2026" [1] (p.1), a document that does not exist yet.
The PPN's own notes page is franker still. "This model will be accompanied in the future by detailed sub-criteria and practitioner guidance... to help in-scope organisations understand how to apply the model in practice (i.e. how to select outcomes and criteria, evaluate responses and apply metrics to measure performance)" [1] (p.6). Even the list of people the model is meant to help is unfinished: alongside named groups such as care leavers, the note adds "other communities that face barriers to employment to be set out in supporting guidance to be published in autumn 2026" [1] (p.6). The document that tells departments who counts, how to score responses and what to measure is the same document that, as of publication, does not exist.
There is a buffer built in. In-scope organisations do not have to apply PPN 026 until procurements commenced on or after 1 January 2027, and organisations already mid-procurement under the old model "may apply the previous edition during this transition period" if switching would be disproportionate [1] (p.2). That leaves autumn 2026's promised guidance, whenever in the season it lands, with a matter of weeks to reach procurement teams before the new rules are supposed to bite.
The scope that never widened
One thing PPN 026 does not change is who has to follow it. It "applies only to central government departments, their executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies", referred to as "in-scope organisations"; "other public sector contracting authorities may wish to adopt the approach set out in this PPN" [1] (p.1). That is word for word the same scope PPN 002 set in February 2025 [2] (p.1). Councils, NHS trusts, police forces and the rest of the public sector covered by the underlying Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 are invited, not required, to follow a model that a second rewrite has now narrowed rather than opened up to them.
The claims, tested
| The document's own words | What the evidence actually shows | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| The model will "prioritise British jobs, skills, and opportunities for people facing barriers to employment" [1] (p.6) | The same page defers the target cohorts, sub-criteria and metrics needed to act on that priority to guidance "to be published in autumn 2026" [1] (p.6) | The priority is stated now; the means to apply it are not |
| "This Procurement Policy Note (PPN) applies only to covered procurements valued at £1m total contract value... or above" [1] (p.1) | The Procurement Act threshold it replaces for this purpose is £135,018 for central government goods and services contracts [3] (p.2) | A roughly sevenfold narrowing of which contracts get scored at all, with no published impact estimate |
| PPN 026 "applies only to central government departments, their executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies" [1] (p.1) | Identical wording, and identical scope, to PPN 002's February 2025 text [2] (p.1) | A rewrite sold as a fresh model, with the same reach as the one it replaces |
The mistakes, counted
Sub-criteria, target cohorts and measurement guidance are all deferred to a document that does not exist (1). Officers are told to pick "sub-criteria to be set out in future guidance" [1] (p.2), and the PPN's own notes page admits the practitioner guidance covering how to apply the model at all is due only in "autumn 2026" [1] (p.6), against a 1 January 2027 start date.
The qualifying threshold rises roughly sevenfold, with no published estimate of the effect (2). PPN 026 sets its own £1 million floor [1] (p.1), well above the £135,018 general threshold that currently brings central government goods and services contracts into scope [3] (p.2), and neither the PPN nor its GOV.UK page says how many currently-scored contracts that removes [4].
Scope is unchanged from the model it replaces (3). PPN 026 applies to the identical set of central government bodies PPN 002 covered [1] (p.1) [2] (p.1); the wider public sector remains invited rather than required to follow it.
Credit where due
Not everything here is a step backwards. Doubling the minimum weighting to 20% for contracts of £5 million or more is a real increase in what the biggest suppliers must earn on jobs and skills, not a cosmetic change [1] (p.2). Publishing the PPN five months before its own effective date, and explicitly allowing organisations mid-procurement to keep using the old model rather than face a cliff-edge switch [1] (p.2), is a more orderly transition than some of the deadlines this site has found missing elsewhere in government. And the model's stated aim, concentrating on jobs and skills rather than a long menu of loosely-connected social goods, is a defensible simplification, not obviously worse than what it replaces.
Verdict
Four stars, from three documented mistakes. The Cabinet Office has rewritten its Social Value Model for the second time in eighteen months, promising a sharper focus on British jobs and skills while quietly raising the bar for which contracts get scored on them at all, from a general threshold of £135,018 to a flat £1 million, and while telling procurement officers to apply criteria that will not be written until the autumn. None of the wider public sector the founding Social Value Act was meant to reach gains anything from this rewrite; the scope is copied, not extended. A model that cannot yet say who it targets or how it will be measured is a policy announcement, not yet a working rulebook.
Sources
- PPN 026: The Social Value Model, Cabinet Office, published 5 August 2026
- PPN 002: Taking account of social value in the award of contracts, Cabinet Office, updated February 2025
- PPN 023: 2026 Threshold amounts, Cabinet Office, issued November 2025
- PPN 026: The Social Value Model, GOV.UK publication page, Cabinet Office