Thought Leadership

The Government has published PPN026, the new guidance on social value for commissioners. Did your recommendations change their thinking? With nearly a million young people aged 16-24 not in employment, education or training (NEET), the government's decision to reward contractors for jobs and skills creation is, to some extent, understandable. But as is so often the case with policy, the devil is in the detail. Narrowing the definition of social value to jobs and skills seems to mean every other social value consideration - improving health and wellbeing, environmental sustainability, support for vulnerable or underserved communities, for example – is out. And the removal of any social value weighting for contracts of £1m or less raised the prospect of profit maximising private sector companies with better resources outscoring social enterprises, which are constituted to create social value. Our members had plenty to say about it, so in response we launched a survey to collect these views and whittled down the responses to a set of four recommendations for government. Now new guidance for commissioners has arrived in the shape of Procurement Policy Note (PPN) 026 has arrived. So were the concerns of our members addressed? Reinstating supply chain diversity as a scored outcome Verdict: win. Outcome 1 ('Good jobs') in PPN 026 recognises the link between VCSEs in the supply chain and the creation of good jobs; "activities to increase the number of SME, scale-ups and VCSEs in the supply chain" is part of the criteria. Prioritising contracts of £1m and under for SMEs and VCSEs Verdict: not mandatory but strongly suggested. It's not explicitly stated that smaller contracts should go to VCSEs and SMEs, but a section in PPN 026 with the subheading 'Direct contract awards' states "You do not need to apply PPN 026 if awarding a public contract directly to a supplier of your choosing without a competitive tendering procedure." At the same time, the guidance also recognises the inherent value of VCSEs (something we have been lobbying for consistently), stating "Some organisations, such as VCSEs, can deliver social value as standard practice". Adding weight to the case for commissioning social enterprises is Annex E of PPN 026, which directs commissioners to "ensure you follow expectations set out elsewhere, such as the National Procurement Policy Statement". As we previously reported, this recognised social enterprises "are more likely to generate diverse and thriving local economies, creating jobs and economic growth" and stated that the number one requirement for economic growth in the NPPS is to "maximise procurement spend with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and VCSEs". Require subcontracting transparency Verdict: unclear. Back in 2018 (in PPN01/18) the Government told commissioners it wanted to "level the playing field and increase the visibility of supply chain opportunities to assist suppliers, including SMEs, in bidding for work in its supply chains". This would also help social enterprises see who they were up against, in part to see if those suppliers could be considered to offer social value. The new guidance states that PPN 026 replaces all previous PPNs on social value, so, at first glance, it would seem that transparency has disappeared. However, under the Procurement Act (2023), suppliers must provide details of their sub-contractors. The new guidance says PPN026 does not replace the requirements included in other guidance documents or legislation. Require independent verification of KPIs Verdict: loss. While there is specific mention of KPIs, and confirmation that "evidence of poor performance against the social value KPIs can be used to exclude them from bidding on future contracts," there is nothing advocating mandatory independent verification of these. If the commissioner is especially diligent, they may scrutinise social value reporting, as PPN026 advises ensuring "that the monitoring and reporting of social value outcomes is appropriate." Slightly better news is that there will be Ofsted like ratings for the KPIs (such as 'good', 'requires improvement', 'inadequate' etc.) and that these may be public. Commissioners are advised to publish them on the Central Digital Platform, and for bigger contracts of £5m+, contract performance notices should be published every 12 months. In other news There will be a defined list of 'Community Programmes' held nationally which bidders can make commitments with. These will be established jobs/skills programmes helping people with barriers to employment. We'll be interested to see who is on that list of providers (will they all be national charities/big employability programmes?) and how it will develop. Smaller, locally rooted VCSEs need a route in, given their knowledge and relationships -and the list shouldn’t become a substitute for engaging with the wider local sector. That this is the 26th Procurement Policy Note suggests that changes to guidance will continue. As such, Social Enterprise UK will continue to engage with government to lobby for policy that benefits our members.

Social Enterprise Day is just around the corner, and this year it will take place on Thursday 19 November. It's a global day created to raise the profile of the social enterprise community, and for this year's campaign we're going to be doing something a little different!  Shout about your impact in your community Growth in every postcode and hope in every heart...These words may sound familiar to some of you; they were said by Prime Minister Andy Burnham, setting out his vision for the country. However, for this to be made a reality, it has to involve the businesses on the ground making real change for communities - the UK's social enterprise movement!  For this year's Social Enterprise Day campaign, we'd like to bring social enterprises together in a simple online campaign to shout about the differences you are making in every single part of the United Kingdom. It's a chance to demonstrate your impact to the community you're based in, raise the profile of your work, and join together with other social enterprises to show how in pretty much every postcode you are there - changing lives and showing that another way of doing business is possible. Let's show everyone the power of social enterprise in every community! How to get involved on 19 November We've created an editable social media graphic on Canva, to demonstrate that social enterprises are working all around country, and across nearly every sector, and to also shine a spotlight on your impact. CLICK HERE TO EDIT AND DOWNLOAD YOUR CAMPAIGN GRAPHIC All you need to do is click on the above link and: Insert an image into the location pin - this can be a picture of your work in action, the products or services you deliver, or of your team In one line sum up your mission and impact in the first text field Write your location into the second text field Then get sharing on your social media channels! We'll be focusing on LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook for this year's campaign. If you've not yet got a Business Canva account, and don't want to pay for one, you can use a personal email address to access the editable file for free.For the body of your post, you could say something along the lines of: Happy #SocialEnterpriseDay! We're a social enterprise, proudly based in [insert location]. [Insert line about your work: Through our cafe, we have supported x amount of people build confidence and gain new skills in the area/ We provide accessible, patient-centred care through our community health services etc]. We're part of a movement of over 100,000 social enterprises. In every part of the country, social enterprises, like us, are changing lives, empowering communities and showing that another way of doing business is possible. Let's celebrate them today, and every day! Thank you to all our [customers/partners/service users] for supporting us. Find out more about our work here [link to your website].It's a simple action, but if we get enough organisations posting, we'll show the huge diversity of social enterprises in the UK (maybe even in every postcode!), the problems they're tackling, and the solutions they are bringing. Please do tag Social Enterprise UK in your posts so we can track the reach of the campaign:LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook  What if your business operates nationally? We know that many social enterprises do not work in a single location operating across counties, nationally and even internationally. Dont' worry though, you can still get involved and here's a few ideas how... You could choose to focus on a single project in a specific area such as one community health project you're running, a recycling service based in a particular area, or one of your sites. Of course, you can always post multiple times about different areas you work in throughout the day. You can also create a slide show, editing a few versions of the template graphic and sticking them together to showcase your impact across the country! When to post What's crucial to make this campaign as impactful as possible is that we all post at the same time on Social Enterprise Day. Share your post at 10am on 19 November across your social media channels such as LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook and be sure to like and comment on those of friends and colleagues in the sector!  Do let us know if you've any Social Enterprise Day plans. Use #SocialEnterpriseDay and let's take over social media with our positive stories of hope, commnunity, and impact across every postcode. If you've any questions about getting involved, please email internalcommunications@socialenterprise.org.uk.

Addressing the cost-of-living crisis is the right thing to do, but an increase to the National Living Wage is going to be challenging for some social enterprises, writes Head of Public Affairs Jovan Owusu-Nepaul. After much anticipation, Chancellor John Healey delivered his first budget with Prime Minister Andy Burnham at the helm. After a tumultuous year, the British economy now finds itself moving towards greener pastures, with our economy outperforming many of our G7 counterparts. However, we all know that this set against the uncomfortable backdrop of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and the on-going war in Iran. At Social Enterprise UK, we recognise the impact these challenges are having on our members. Social enterprises are rooted in their communities, trading to deliver social and environmental good, and often providing essential services where they are needed most. It is welcome that the Government has recognised the need to address the cost-of-living crisis and provide greater certainty for businesses. Measures to support small and independent businesses through business rates relief will be welcomed by many of our members. However, given the substantial social value social enterprises deliver, we would have liked to see further progress towards extending the tax reliefs available to charities to social enterprises. We hear, listen, and support members in their calls for the government to do more. Following your feedback, we recently wrote to the government asking them to restore social value weightings to contracts of £1million or less (relating to PPN 026).  We also suggested extending business rates relief for social enterprises, and the explicit recognition of social enterprises as part of the government’s growth strategy. This budget shows there is still much more to do. We will continue to advocate, campaign and demand the Treasury does more to support social enterprises.  We know that many members will have concerns about increases to the National Living Wage. Fair pay will always remain our priority; however, many social enterprises who deliver vital public services often operate within fixed, multi-year government contracts that do not adequately account for rising employment costs. The Government must ensure that these organisations are properly supported to pay their staff fairly without compromising the services on which communities depend. This Budget demonstrates that there is still more to do for the government to aptly recognise the economic growth social enterprises represent and to ensure our sector has the support needed to thrive. Social Enterprise UK will continue to work with members, MPs, civil servants and the Government to champion our sector, advocate for meaningful policy change and ensure social enterprises are fully recognised as part of the UK’s growth and public service ambitions. Image credit - Simon Walker / HM Treasury

Grid access, funding and revenue certainty are holding community energy back, an evidence session for the Social, Cooperative and Community Econonmy heard. Although many community energy social enterprises have been patiently plugging away for many years to create locally owned projects that yield a range of social and environmental benefits, they're now at the centre of a major government initiative. Established in law in 2025, Great British Energy (GBE) will invest more than £8.3bn over this Parliament to accelerate the country's transition to clean power. GBE's Local Power Plan aims to "revolutionise the UK's local and community energy sector". There are more than 600 community energy organisations in the UK, and more than half are community benefit societies, co-operatives or community interest companies, according to Community Energy England. Some 140 manage a community benefit fund, distributing almost £4m. They include Ambition Community Energy CIC, which, over seven years, built the tallest onshore wind turbine in England, in Lawrence Weston, near Bristol. The profit it makes from selling energy to the grid is being reinvested in the community, including helping local people experiencing fuel poverty. It will also support an Energy Learning Zone, the base for a skills academy for people aged eight to 80. As well as a just transition to clean energy, it was this kind of social value that attendees of the latest meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Social, Cooperative and Community Economy wanted to see recognised. Chaired by Patrick Hurley MP, the evidence session brought together community energy groups, investors and national bodies, alongside Great British Energy and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. Attendees set out the obstacles holding the sector back, and their ideas for overcoming them. Connecting to the grid Ailsa Clark, founder of InspirAlba, a Campbeltown social enterprise that helps rural communities in Argyll and Bute build sustainable businesses, said the cost of joining the grid queue is a major barrier. To secure a connection, developers often have to put money down early, including financial security against the cost of network works, which they can lose if the project is cancelled. "Most community or municipal-owned developments are unable to take the risk of putting a big chunk of money down well in advance to get themselves in the queue," she said. Helen Seagrave, Director of Local Energy at Great British Energy, responded by saying that GBE is looking at how it can de-risk community projects, including by acting as a partner in them. Funding volunteer-led organisations Many community energy organisations are run by volunteers, and the Local Power Plan mainly funds individual projects rather than the organisations behind them. "I don't think we're going to get to scale if we're relying on the goodwill of fabulous people to give up their spare time," said Michaela Cryer, Managing Director of Younity (a partnership between Midcounties Co-op and Octopus Energy). "We need more paid support to really get these projects moving." Even established groups are stretched. Afsheen Kabir Rashid, CEO of Repowering London, said the co-op relies on grants for 90% of its income. "It's very hard to manage an enterprise based on project funding," she said. Revenue certainty To raise money through community shares, bonds or loans, projects need a reliable long-term income. The feed-in tariff used to guarantee that, but it closed in 2019. Its replacement, the Smart Export Guarantee, only requires suppliers to pay something above zero, and Contracts for Difference, which give large developers a guaranteed price for 15 years or more, exclude projects under 5MW. Deals with suppliers are short term too. "From a supplier's perspective, the market is only there for three years," said Barbara Hammond, CEO of Low Carbon Hub, who described the lack of revenue certainty as the biggest barrier. The difference certainty makes is clear in Kintyre. Fyne Energy, where Clark is a director, developed and built three community-owned turbines with a combined capacity of 6.9MW. They were projected to earn around £750,000 a year for local housing, employability and community projects, but are now making £1.2m to £1.5m a year. The turbines still receive feed-in tariff payments, which give them a guaranteed income floor, and they also sell their power. When wholesale prices soared during the energy crisis, that extra revenue went straight to the community. Measuring community wealth, not just megawatts Attendees argued that the Local Power Plan should be judged by the community wealth it creates, not just the megawatts it adds. Hammond said the plan is there "to scale that impact, not to scale the input". Matthew Vickers, CEO of Community Energy England, said community energy brings together "two streams of value that not many places do": benefits for the place, and for the energy system, because local generation can reduce the need for new grid infrastructure. The clearest message was that community energy should be treated as part of Britain's economic and social infrastructure, not simply another way of generating electricity. That means patient capital, investment in local organisations as well as installations, community ownership of larger schemes, public procurement that values social impact, and a clear role for Great British Energy. The evidence will feed into the APPG's inquiry, including the community energy chapter of a report due in 2027.

Survey respondents give strong backing for government supply chain diversity and reserving contracts below £1m for VCSEs and SMEs. Social enterprises also think the new definition of social value is too narrow. When we first published our response to the government's social value changes in August, we received a lot of feedback on social media, particularly on a post by our CEO Peter Holbrook. It was clear that members and stakeholders felt very strongly about this, and, as the national voice for social enterprise, we needed to represent those views to government. To clarify those views, we launched a survey. Open for a week, the survey had 95 responses; 66% of respondents told us they were social enterprises, 16% identified as charity or VCSE, 4% were cooperatives, and 14% of responses were from other kinds of organisations. More than two thirds of respondents bid for public sector contracts (70%), with a majority bidding for contracts under £1m (55%). The social value weighting for contracts for £5m or more doubled to 20% recently, but just 9% of respondents bid for these. The most common responses to the social value changes we initially received resulted in four main asks. We included these in the survey to ensure our stakeholders thought we'd got it right. They were: Reinstating supply chain diversity (listed in PPN002), as many social enterprises benefit from being subcontracted by suppliers winning larger contracts. Subcontracting transparency. Independent KPI verification, so that promises made on social value creation were kept. "Suppliers should not win contracts on promises nobody checks," wrote survey respondent Heidi Fisher of Make An Impact CIC,. £1m contracts or less offered to VCSEs and SMEs first. This was also reflected in feedback we got from the survey. DHU Healthcare, which provides a range of NHS services in the Midlands, wrote "Organisations such as Community Interest Companies are established to create community benefits and reinvest surpluses for social purpose. Procurement should provide a proportionate way to recognise the underlying business model and the social value it generates, alongside measurable contract-specific commitments." The four asks got strong support in the survey. We asked respondents to rate them from 1-5, with 1 being not important and 5 being essential. The average scores are listed below: New social value definition too narrow The survey also surfaced an additional recommendation for government. Whilst recognising that job opportunities and skills creation were important (and indeed, plenty of social enterprises are set up specifically to offer this), the new definition of social value was too narrow for our respondents. Several noted that it did not align with the Public Services (Social Value) Act, which requires commissioners to offer contracts producing economic, social and environmental benefits to communities. Mastercall Healthcare, which provides NHS services in the Northwest of England, articulated this very simply: "Social value should be defined broadly enough to recognise the full contribution organisations make to the communities they serve. In health and social care this should include reducing health inequalities, improving population health and wellbeing, environmental sustainability, community engagement and co-design, local reinvestment and support for vulnerable or underserved communities. Local communities should also have a meaningful role in defining what social value and local benefit mean to them." When we asked respondents if social value should be defined more broadly than jobs and skills, 73% said yes. What happens next? We’ll be delivering your recommendations to the government, along with a letter to the Cabinet Office, which has been signed by social enterprises that paticipated in the survey. The letter was addressed to Minister for the Cabinet Office Louise Haigh MP (pictured above with PM Andy Burnham and Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds) and Mark Ferguson MP. Picture by Lauren Hurley / No 10 Downing Street, published under a Creative Commons licence.

Atif Choudhury, co-founder of award winning social enterprise Zaytoun and CEO of Calling All Minds has been awarded an honorary doctrate from SOAS for his substantial contribution to social enterprise and development. Zaytoun, which took home the Consumer Facing Social Enterprise of the Year Award in 2025, has been supporting the resilience of Palestinian communities through fair trade for over 21 years with all profits being reinvested to supporting those producers living under occupation in the West Bank. Calling All Minds is a newer social enterprise which provides neurodiversity and disability inclusion support through specialist human expertise and purpose-built accessibility technology.  Commenting on his honorary doctrate, Atif said: “For me social enterprise was never meant to make capitalism look kinder. At its best, it asks a much harder question: who is the economy actually working for? That question has run through much of my own work, from creating fairer routes to market with Palestinian farmers through Zaytoun CiC to removing barriers to participation for disabled and neurodivergent people through Calling All Minds. Inequality and exclusion are not inevitable. They are shaped by choices, systems and structures,C which means we can make different choices and build different systems. Social enterprise challenges us to build an economy rooted in community, where value is measured not only by what we extract, but by what we co-produce and what we enable people and communities to become.” “The future belongs to leaders who understand that inclusion is not about inviting people into old systems. It is about changing the systems themselves.” Find out more here

Are you developing solutions to the causes or consequences of homelessness? This programme could be for you.   This free 9-month programme from the School for Social Entrepreneurs is designed to support charities, social enterprises and community organisations tackling housing insecurity.   It’s designed to help organisations build resilient business models with a focus on:  generating trading activity  building confidence  strengthening networks  Participants will benefit from diagnostic support, tailored capacity-building sessions, peer coaching, expert support and opportunities to connect with potential customers and partners in the housing market.  There are also grants of either £7k or £10,000 to help you put learning into practice.  If your work impacts someone’s ability to find and maintain a stable home, then find out more about this programme on our website.  Applications close on 16th November 2026 at 12pm.  Sign up for an online information session and find out more here The programme is delivered by School for Social Entrepreneurs in partnership with Computershare Investor Services PLC. Computershare operates The Deposit Protection Service (The DPS), one of the government-approved schemes that protect tenancy deposits for landlords and tenants in the private rented sector in England and Wales.    

Has the government got it right on social value? Fill in our short survey to tell policy makers what you think. The government has recently announced changes to the way it spends money on goods and services to create social value. We really do welcome Andy Burnham’s emphasis and dedication to social value, but alongside good policy changes such as doubling the social value weighting to 20% on contracts of £5 million or more, there are also some concerning aspects. There’s a new £1 million threshold below which social value requirements no longer apply, and the definition of social value itself has also been restricted to only look at jobs and skills. Social enterprises are set up to deliver social value; it’s in their DNA.  This narrowing of its definition and limitation of its scope could have a detrimental impact on those organisations who are best placed to deliver the PM’s promise of ‘growth in every postcode’. Let's show government why we must stand up for social value! Government has said it will publish technical guidance in autumn 2026 ahead of implementation in January 2027, and has left the door open for further evidence, which is why we need to hear what you think. We now have a narrow window of time to come together as a movement of businesses with social value at their heart to share our concerns and campaign for change. We’ve put together a short 5-10 min survey and will use responses to form a set of recommendations for the UK government while the guidance is still being finalised. Please complete the survey before 5pm on Monday 21 September. We'll publish the recommendations once all responses have been collated and considered. TAKE THE SURVEY AND SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS AND EXPERIENCES Please note this survey is now closed Your responses will also form the basis of an letter to the PM, which we will open for signatures later this month. Let’s stand up for social value so that it lives up to its potential!