In principle, if a bidder can deliver the contract requirements, they should be capable of delivering the Social Value requirements too, assuming those requirements are proportionate and relevant to the contract. But it is true that SMEs often don’t have the same resources as larger bidders.

Engage with the market: Over the past couple of years, we have seen how important it is to bring bidders of all sizes into the process early on through preliminary market engagement.

Emphasise quality: Buyers should look closely at the qualitative aspect of the proposal and the benefits that the supplier would bring to the community in response to the specific tender.

Focus on local networks: Buyers should include quantified social value around local employment and local spends for SMEs to benefit from their local networks.

Provide clarity: It is key to be clear about your needs and feed them into the individual contract.

The average ‘Social Value-add’ – Social Value delivered relative to total contract size – is around 20% on our platform. So, for a contract value of £150,000, we might see £30,000 of Social Value delivered. But this differs significantly across sectors, with notable variance in areas like health and social care, IT, construction, facilities management, professional services, and others.

We would advise caution when it comes to mandating a particular Social Value-add as this can result in ‘over-asking’ and makes it more difficult to differentiate between bids. Not all opportunities are large enough to deliver a 20% Social Value-add, and some contracts deliver a lot more than 20%, so it’s important to ensure that expectations are proportionate.

Where Social Value Portal manages the evaluation process on behalf of a public sector buyer, the successful bidder becomes contracted directly with Social Value Portal. The data and evidence added to the platform throughout the lifetime of the contract is validated by Social Value Portal to ensure the requirements of the procuring authority are met.

Suppliers also receive:

• 24/5 Technical and social value support through live-chat, email and phone 
• Expert training on live training sessions with the Social Value Portal team 
• Progress tracking with quarterly reporting 
• Project summary reports at the end of contract periods
• Two licences to the Social Value Academy worth £750 
• Marketing toolkit to communicate your Social Value achievements

Social Value Portal's membership offers two options to procurement teams, depending on your requirements. 

Social Value Evaluation Training
In-depth training for procurement teams to conduct evaluations and procurement scoring using the Social Value TOM System.

Social Value Evaluation Service
An additional paid service, where Social Value Portal's Procurement Support team evaluate bids according to your scoring methodology and social value weighting.

Yes. Social Value Portal's Local Needs Analysis provides 15,000+ data points enabling targeted requirements addressing community priorities with TOM System mapping. 

During onboarding, procuring authorities can also tailor their set of TOM System measures to map to the needs of their local area.