Explained: the NHS Social Value Playbook

In July 2025, NHS England published the new NHS Social Value Playbook.

This article breaks down what the playbook says, what social value means for the NHS, and how NHS buyers and suppliers should think about social value when procuring and bidding.

Skip ahead to read about:

• What is the NHS Social Value Playbook?

• What does Social Value mean to the NHS?

  • Net Zero and the NHS Supply Chain

  • Green Plans: Local Action for Net Zero

  • Core20PLUS5: Tackling Health Inequalities

  • ICS Priorities and the Role of Procurement

  • New Policy Drivers: PPN 002, NPPS & the Procurement Act

• How NHS Buyers Should Think About Social Value

  • How Social Value Applies Across the Procurement Lifecycle

  • How to Set Effective Social Value Questions

  • Quick wins for driving Social Value

• How NHS Suppliers Should Respond to Social Value

• Where Social Value Criteria May Not Apply

• Key Takeaways and Core Messages

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📖  What is the NHS Social Value Playbook?

The NHS Social Value Playbook is a practical guide to help NHS buyers and commissioners embed social, environmental, and economic value into their procurement processes.

Building on policies like the Net Zero Supplier Roadmap and the 10% minimum social value weighting, the Playbook responds to calls for clearer guidance on evaluation, KPIs, and supplier expectations.

It aligns with wider public sector reforms, including the Social Value Model 2025 and the National Procurement Policy Statement, ensuring the NHS can use its purchasing power to deliver broader public good in 2025 and beyond.

🌈 What does Social Value mean to the NHS?

For the NHS, social value means using procurement to deliver positive social, environmental, and economic outcomes that go beyond the goods or services being purchased. This includes national public sector priorities, NHS-specific goals like net zero and health equity, and local community needs.

The NHS takes a layered approach, shaped by various legislation, policy, and place-based priorities:

🌱 Net Zero and the NHS Supply Chain

The NHS has committed to reaching net zero emissions by 2040 for the services it directly controls, and by 2045 for the wider supply chain it influences. This is no small feat - around two-thirds of NHS emissions come from its vast network of 80,000+ suppliers.

To drive progress, NHS England launched the Net Zero Supplier Roadmap, setting out clear expectations and milestones for suppliers and NHS procurement teams:

• All NHS procurements must include a minimum 10% weighting on net zero and/or social value;

• Carbon Reduction Plans (CRPs) are now required from all suppliers, regardless of contract value;

• From 2027, the NHS will no longer award contracts to suppliers who cannot demonstrate credible progress toward achieving net zero.

By using its purchasing power, the NHS is not just decarbonising its operations - it's reshaping entire supply chains to support a healthier planet.

💚 Green Plans: Local Action for Net Zero

The NHS doesn't see Net Zero as a purely global ambition - but also a place-based localised issue.

Every NHS trust and Integrated Care Board (ICB) is required to publish a Green Plan - a local blueprint for how it will reduce emissions and build climate resilience. This plan should be tailored to the specific services, estates, and challenges of each organisation.

For procurement teams, Green Plans are an essential reference point. They can help identify which social value themes (e.g. clean energy, climate resilience) are most relevant for upcoming tenders - and ensure contract KPIs support local sustainability goals.

Bidding teams looking to understand more about a specific buyer's green goals can find Green Plans on Trust and ICB websites.

⚖️ Core20PLUS5: Tackling Health Inequalities

In addition to Net Zero, the NHS has a goal of tackling health inequalities. Core20PLUS5 is NHS England’s flagship approach to achieve this - and it's a key priority that social value in procurement can help address.

Learn about the NHS Strategic Suppliers

The model identifies:

• Core20: The most deprived 20% of the population, as defined by the Index of Multiple Deprivation.

• PLUS: Population groups who face worse-than-average access, experience or outcomes, such as ethnic minorities, people with learning disabilities, or inclusion health groups (e.g. rough sleepers, migrants, and sex workers).

• 5: Five clinical areas requiring accelerated improvement - maternity, severe mental illness, chronic respiratory disease, early cancer diagnosis, and hypertension. For children and young people, the focus includes asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, oral health, and mental health.

Whilst NHS buyers aren't required to consider Core20PLUS5 in every procurement, most NHS trusts and ICSs are actively using Core20PLUS5 to shape social value strategies.

🏥 ICS Priorities and the Role of Procurement

ICSs are expected to align procurement decisions with four core aims:

1. Improve outcomes in population health and healthcare

2. Tackle inequalities in access, experience, and outcomes

3. Enhance productivity and value for money

4. Support social and economic development in their communities

These may be written into social value criteria, but will also inform procurement processes and the types of products and services being procured.

Suppliers should therefore consider these four goals when bidding - including when writing social value submissions.

📜 New Policy Drivers: PPN 002, NPPS & the Procurement Act

In addition to being informed by specific NHS goals and legislation, NHS procurement teams are also bound by cross-government legislation like PPN 002, NPPS, and the Procurement Act 2023.

Access Tussell's Procurement Act Hub

The National Procurement Policy Statement (NPPS) insists that public procurement must support the government's 5 key missions:

1. To kickstart economic growth;

2. To make Britain a clean energy superpower;

3. To reduce crime and strengthen communities;

4. To increase opportunities for young people and marginalised groups;

5. To build a future-proof NHS. 

This should be done using the Social Value Model methodology outlined in PPN 002.

🤔 How NHS Buyers Should Think About Social Value

With so many competing priorities, it's easy to get overwhelmed - particularly if you start thinking about Social Value far too late in the procurement cycle.

That's why NHS England's Social Value Playbook offers actionable guidance on how buyers can maximise Social Value output in a scalable way:

🔄 How Social Value Applies Across the Procurement Lifecycle

The NHS Social Value Playbook provides a flowchart outlining how Social Value should be incorporated throughout a procurement. By starting to consider Social Value early, procurement professionals can ensure that suppliers are properly aligned on Social Value considerations.

Learn all about Preliminary Market Engagements 

The lifecycle of Social Value in the procurement process can be broken into seven key phases:

1. Strategy - Develop a Social Value Statement underpinned by your organisation's Green Plan

2. Stakeholders - Engage with internal stakeholders to determine opportunities

3. Pre-market engagement - Engage with the market early, including with SMEs, VCSEs and local firms, to discover what social value the market can offer

4. Specification - Decide which sustainability aspects should be included as part of the technical specification

5. Social Value & CRPs - Include a CRP or Net Zero commitment in the selection questionnaire, include Social Value questions (each question should be weighted at a minimum of 5%), ask suppliers for timed action, and include a modern slavery assessment for medium and high risk procurements

6. Evaluation - When considering bids, take into account the proportionality and deliverability of Social Value responses

7. KPIs - Ensure at least one contract KPI includes Social Value commitments, plus how often, and who will review progress.

Throughout the process, consider national and local policy commitments, goals and targets - including Net Zero, PPN 002, and Core20PLUS5.

❓ How to Set Effective Social Value Questions

Setting Social Value questions is always easier when Social Value has been explored during pre-market engagement. That being said, NHS England lays out the SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound) methodology for writing strong social value questions:

• Specific - 

  • Are the questions related to the contract and reflective of your organisation’s priorities?

  • Has a reasonable word limit been set? Consider capacity of bidding and evaluating teams. Timed action plans should not be included in the word limit.
    
    

• Measureable - 

  • Does the question clearly set out the desired outcomes of the procurement and the expectation of a timed action plan?

  • Has the commissioning/buying team determined essential or desirable criteria to help scoring? Has this been shared with bidding suppliers?

  • Has the commissioning/buying team set model key performance indicators (KPIs)?
    
    

• Achievable - 

  • Is the ask proportionate and specific to ensure bidders can demonstrate a robust approach to delivery?
    
    

• Relevant - 

  • Is the ask relevant to the expertise of bidding suppliers?
    
    

• Time-bound - 

  • Does the ask enable the supplier to mobilise and deliver their social value offer during the term of the contract?
    
    

⌛ Quick Wins for driving Social Value

Still not sure where to start? Try implementing these three proven strategies to improve social value in your category:

1. Run a preliminary market engagement for your procurement - the earlier you engage with the market about social value, the easier it will be to define your social value criteria.
   
   

2. Consider setting aside contracts for SMEs, local suppliers or VCSEs - under the Procurement Act, buyers have new powers to set aside procurements for smaller firms. This aligns with the ICS core priority of supporting community-based social and economic development and the NPPS goal of kickstarting economic growth.
   
   

3. Benchmark and track your spending with VCSEs, SMEs and local suppliers - book in a quick chat with the Tussell team to learn how we can help you with this.

💼 How NHS Suppliers Should Respond to Social Value

The NHS is serious about net-zero and social value, and if you don't take it seriously, you're unlikely to win.

Make sure you use a tool like Tussell to track upcoming Preliminary Market Engagements - these are your best chance to influence the social value criteria of future procurements.

When bidding, do your research to understand local, regional, and buyer-specific concerns. If an NHS authority has already published a social value plan or statement, make sure you read it and see how you can align your offering. You should also make reading their Green Plan a priority (once they're published).

❌ Where Social Value Criteria May Not Apply

While social value is a core consideration in NHS procurement, there are some limited circumstances where it may not be proportionate or applicable.

For example, in medicines procurement, the complexity and critical nature of supply mean that social value is not directly assessed at the tender stage. Instead, suppliers are required to complete the Evergreen Sustainable Supplier Assessment annually, providing assurance of their ongoing sustainability and net zero commitments.

🌅 Key Takeaways and Core Messages

The NHS Social Value Playbook reflects a broader shift in public procurement - one where contracts are not just about cost and compliance, but about delivering lasting value for communities, the environment, and the health system itself. Remember: