A £400bn opportunity – Unlocking social value for a fairer, more resilient UK

This report addresses the structural barriers facing social enterprises delivering health and care services, sets out the interventions needed to embed provider pluralism, and makes the case for social enterprise as a central delivery partner in NHS reform. This report builds on our 2025 publication, Ahead of the Curve on Healthcare, which drew on independent data analysis by Baxendale and demonstrated that social enterprises are already delivering the shifts set out in the Government’s 10 Year Plan. Where that report showed that social enterprise models work, this report examines how the system is failing to support them - preventing them from scaling and, in many cases, actively undermining their ability to continue to operate successfully. It sets out targeted, non-legislative interventions to remove those barriers and unlock the contribution of social enterprises.

In 2016, Social Enterprise UK launched the Buy Social Corporate Challenge – a groundbreaking initiative working with a group of high-profile businesses to collectively spend £1 billion with social enterprises through their procurement. This report covers progress on the Challenge from 2016 - 2025. Find out more about the impact of this programme, the opportunities it's created and how it has transformed the way big businesses use their procurement function. You'll also find out how close we now are to reaching that ambitious £1 billion target!

On Wednesday 25 March 2026, leaders from across the private, public and social enterprise sectors came together at the Strand Palace Hotel to discuss and debate the future of social value, one year after the passing of the Procurement Act and the opportunities it presented to social enterprises. This short report summarises some of the key discussion points which emerged from the workshops, panel discussions and keynote speeches from Professor Mariana Mazzucato, Josh Babarinde MP and Deputy Mayor of London for Environment and Energy - Mete Coban. It brings together an overview of the recent changes to the procurement landscape and the opportunities they provide for VCSEs, and also looks in detail at the main challenges raised by attendees when it comes to embedding social value at the heart of public and private contracts.