Better Commissioning Coalition

Social enterprises, local authority councillors, corporate supporters and legal experts recently met with MPs to discuss why existing procurement legislation is failing to deliver the social value it promises – and what needs to change. Why are local authorities not making greater use of the powers they already have to procure from voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations? That question framed the latest meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Social, Cooperative and Community Economy, chaired by Patrick Hurley MP. Social enterprises, councillors, corporate partners and legal experts shared evidence with MPs on the barriers preventing procurement legislation from delivering greater social value through public supply chains. The backdrop for the discussion was the Procurement Act 2023 and the National Procurement Policy Statement, which together set clear expectations that public bodies should use procurement to deliver wider social, economic and environmental outcomes. The challenge under scrutiny was straightforward: if the legislative levers already exist, why are so few councils using them effectively? Is TOMS the wrong tool? A consistent theme was the over-reliance on the Themes, Outcomes and Measures (TOMS) framework as a proxy for social value. Mark Simms, Group Chief Executive of P3, argued that TOMS is poorly suited to people-centred services. He described procurement exercises where required metrics – such as apprenticeship numbers or job creation – bore little relation to the realities of service delivery. This, he argued, disadvantages honest providers while rewarding those willing to over-promise. Sandra Hamilton, Consultant at Stone King LLP, went further, suggesting that people-focused services require a fundamentally different procurement approach. With adult and children’s social care now accounting for an estimated 75% of local authority spending, she argued that a one-size-fits-all market procurement model is structurally unfit for purpose. Bristol City Council has already acted on this insight. Councillor Sibusiso Tshabalala confirmed that the authority has moved away from TOMS entirely, replacing it with contextual measures aligned to contract size and local priorities. Capacity, risk and the guidance gap Anne Epsom, Assistant Director at Surrey County Council, offered a candid local authority perspective. She acknowledged that under-resourced councils often default to TOMS because it is readily available and familiar. Her call was for clearer, centralised guidance: a shared methodology that would reduce the burden on individual officers trying to drive best practice through lengthy internal processes. She also highlighted the persistent gap between what the Procurement Act mandates for central government and what is binding on local authorities – a distinction that undermines consistency and ambition. Levelling the playing field Terry Murphy, CEO of Sheffield Social Enterprise Network, proposed a simple structural change. Rather than requiring social enterprises to repeatedly evidence their social value through lengthy tender responses, commissioners could ask a single, binary question: is the organisation legally required, through its governance, to deliver social or environmental benefit? Verification could be as straightforward as a Companies House check, with a positive answer attracting a score. If social value is embedded in an organisation’s legal structure, Murphy argued, it should not need to be restated in every procurement exercise. Amanda Johnston of Social Enterprise Northern Ireland highlighted another underused lever: government minimum thresholds. A small legislative amendment allowing direct awards to social enterprises below this level, without challenge, could significantly increase access to public contracts at the lower end of the market. Towards honest procurement A broader cultural shift also emerged as essential. Several speakers called for a move from transactional to relational procurement, particularly in complex, people-centred services. Mark Simms reflected on P3’s role in the Covid-era Everyone In programme, where services were mobilised rapidly on the basis of trust and shared risk to safeguard homeless people from infection, often before contracts were finalised. Transparent discussions about costs, risks and delivery constraints enabled faster and more effective responses. He described this as an example of “honest procurement” – focused on problem-solving rather than contractual compliance. Sue Racster from Amey echoed this approach, describing the company’s shift towards more intentional partnerships with VCSEs, shaped by listening to what social enterprises need in practice rather than imposing top-down solutions. Accountability and transparency Finally, Councillor Tshabalala raised the issue of accountability. He proposed the use of civic platforms rooted in neighbourhood forums, enabling communities themselves to verify whether promised social value has been delivered locally. Such approaches could build on existing place-based infrastructure and give residents visibility over commitments made in their name. He also highlighted a persistent imbalance: while councils routinely require suppliers and grant recipients to report on impact, they publish no equivalent account of the social value generated through their own procurement. A standardised framework for annual social value reporting by local authorities, aligned with budget decisions, could close this gap and strengthen public accountability. What happens next The APPG will continue to gather evidence throughout April, with a report expected in late spring or early summer. The aim is to clarify what local authorities can already do under existing legislation – and to identify where further changes to law, guidance or practice are needed to unlock the full potential of social value in public procurement.

Team England is delighted to announce a new partnership with GLL, the UK’s largest charitable leisure social enterprise, as preparations build toward the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games. The partnership brings together two organisations with a shared mission: helping people across England get active, discover new sports and feel part of something bigger. Through its network of Better leisure centres, GLL supports millions of visits every year, and will now play a major role in connecting communities to Team England in the lead‑up to the Games. At the heart of the partnership is the Team England National Sports Weekend, taking place on 18th – 19th July 2026 across GLL venues nationwide. The weekend will open the doors to Commonwealth sports, offering free or low‑cost sessions, coaching and taster activities for local communities. Around 300,000 people are expected to take part, giving families, young people and new participants the chance to try something different, get closer to the spirit of this year’s Commonwealth Games, and meet some Team England legends. Speaking about the partnership, Mark Osikoya, CEO of Commonwealth Games England, said: “We’re thrilled to be partnering with GLL who are an organisation that share our belief in the power of sport to bring people together. With their incredible reach into communities across England, this partnership will help more people feel connected to Team England and inspired by the journey to Glasgow 2026.” Peter Bundey, CEO of GLL, added: “GLL is proud to support Team England and to help open up Commonwealth sports to people of all ages and abilities. The National Sports Weekend will be a fantastic celebration of movement, community and opportunity. We can’t wait to welcome thousands of people into our centres this summer.” GLL has a long track record of supporting both elite and community sports, from backing the London 2012 Games bid to operating Olympic venues in legacy mode.  In 2008 it launched the GLL Sport Foundation, to help talented young athletes facing financial hardship.  To date the Foundation has provided over 35,000 awards and almost £20million worth of support to aspiring sportsmen and women.  About GLL Established in 1993, GLL is the largest UK-based charitable social enterprise delivering leisure, health and community services. Operating under the Better brand, it manages over 250 public sport and leisure centres, 114 libraries and 10 children’s centres in partnership with over 70 government, public agency and sporting body partners. It has 750 leisure members and welcomes 59 million customer visits per year. gll.org

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. The Summit opened with an introduction from Nancy Park, Social Value leader at event partner PwC. She set the tone for the day, stating that “social value is no longer a footnote, it is a differentiator.” Josh Babarinde OBE MP delivered our opening keynote and praised the bold language of the government’s National Procurement Policy Statement (NPPS) and its commitment to maximising procurement spend with VCSEs. Yet he was frank about the gap between ambition and reality: over the last five years, only 4% of public sector contracts were won by social enterprises, and only around 5% of the sector engages in government contracting at all, hinting that he had some idea why that was. As a former social entrepreneur himself, he said he understood the burden of completing a 200-page pre-qualification document as a small organisation with limited resources. His verdict on the ambitions of the Procurement Act were frank: “The Act gave us the tools, the statement gave us the direction, what we now need is the political will to follow through and the cultural change needed across the economy.” The gap between policy and practice proved to be a recurring theme throughout the day. Co-creation, missions and creating a common good economy Our second keynote was delivered by Mariana Mazzucato CBE, Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London, who in a sweeping speech covered everything from the social value inherent in the Notting Hill Carnival to the moon landings. The overarching themes of her speech were the importance of co-creation and lived experience in designing procurement systems, the importance of uniting across sectors to tackle the “wicked challenges” we collectively face, and the need for new economic thinking to underpin systems and create a “common good economy”. She gave a passionate argument for embedding missions as a unifying factor to bring different economic actors together around a common purpose, and also warned of the dangers of the state being too reliant on outsourcing to consultants when it should be empowered to proactively shape markets, not just fix them. But what of procurement?  Professor Mazzucato stressed the vital role of procurement in driving forward towards an economic system that works for people.  It can be a tool to work with communities to shape services and can also serve to unite sectors in a common purpose, creating new markets and directing spend towards the achievement of a particular goal - after all “the first thing they did to get to the moon was redesign procurement.” How is public sector procurement changing and what is the role of the impact economy? Crown Representative for the VCSE sector Claire Dove CBE confirmed that VCSE spend targets set under PPN01 (a procurement notice looking at how central government departments should implement the NPPS) will be subject to quarterly ministerial review and re-profiled upward if insufficiently ambitious. Both she and the Department of Transport’s Robert Vaughan stressed the importance of VCSEs registering on the new central digital platform, noting that a “lack of pipeline visibility” remains a key barrier to more VCSEs being in the supply chain. Jo Jarvis of National Highways recognised progress in more VCSEs being in supply chains, but agreed with Babarinde, who had earlier highlighted the limitations in government department VCSE spend being only recognised on direct contracting. Jarvis also that this should be extended to indirect spend as well, given that so much work is done through sub-contractors. What was apparent from the panel was that this is very much a turning point for how government departments engage with social value and in government being held accountable for purchasing from social enterprises. As Claire put it, “the conversation on how to build in social value is (now) normal.”   The final panel session of the morning looked at how recent developments, such as the creation of the Office for the Impact Economy affect and impact public procurement and social value. Dame Patricia Hewitt opened by stating that “there has been a huge amount of positive change on social value over the recent years.” However, the main focus of the discussion hinged on the reality of the challenges social enterprises are currently facing, and the limitations of the Office for the Impact Economy, with Peter Holbrook saying that it’s “focus on philanthropy and impact investment should be a means to an end rather than an end in itself.” Whilst talk of the impact economy was welcome, there is a danger that government may forget the immediate issues facing social enterprises from the impact of the rise in employer NI contributions to how social enterprises working within the NHS have once again been left out of being funded to meet a new NHS pay deal, which will make it harder for them to compete with other organisations in the health service. Caron Dunlop, speaking from her experience driving social value at Mott MacDonald, said that the Office for the Impact Economy is, “part of a long-term journey to bring change” and that theres is a need to improve contract management, saying that  “contract management is where the gaps are” when it comes to unlocking real social value. Bringing the experiences of those in the room to the front of discussions Workshop discussions highlighted three consistent themes: social value is too often treated as an add-on rather than a core contract requirement; buyers and suppliers need to agree desired outcomes upfront rather than leaving social value to be measured retrospectively; and impact measurement tools such as the TOMs framework risk shifting focus away from real outcomes and towards a tick-box exercise. Some of these insights will be included in a report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Social, Cooperative and Community Economy later this year. A big thank you to our workshop chairs for facilitating the discussions and feeding back to the whole room – Clare Connolly, Gareth Hart, Alison Ramsey and Kate Welch. From rewilding to community energy – combining environmental and social impact What have beavers got to do with social value? This is one of the things we found out from Deputy Mayor of London for Environment and Energy Mete Coban MBE, who not only mentioned the rewilding of London (introducing beavers back to the city - the first two being called Justin and Sigourney Beaver...) but how effective environmental policy is fundamentally linked to improving social outcomes and the lives of disadvantaged communities who are disproportionately impacted by the climate crisis. He talked about how Hackney Light and Power, a community energy scheme, inspired Ed Miliband to create Great British Energy and how investment in renewables and in community energy can empower local communities to take control of their own energy and save money on their bills. Echoing Professor Mazzucato’s comments on the need to co-create and include communities in decision-making, Mete ended his speech by stressing that “how you do policy is important – you’ve got to bring communities into it.” A new way to fund social value Innovation like this was also on show in the final session on new ways to fund social value. Karl Harder introduced Abundance, an investment platform that allows the public to invest in local authority schemes and receive interest on their investment - a low-cost borrowing model for councils that builds trust and creates a “community of place-based citizen lenders.” Matthew Conroy concluded the proceedings by showing how Unity Trust Bank is offering an alternative to mainstream banking with its commitment to investing in social enterprises and other purpose-driven organisations. Thank you to all our speakers and to everyone who took part in the Summit, especially our partners – Fusion21, GLL, PwC and Unity Trust Bank. Big thank you to our fantastic compere, Sarah Crawley Beaumont OBE and to the Strand Palace Hotel for hosting the event. Continue the conversation and join the Better Commissioning Coalition What was clear throughout the summit was that we’re at a pivotal moment when it comes to embedding social value in public and private sector procurement. The ambition is there to use social value as a tool to improve the livelihoods of communities up and down the UK, but the practicalities of embedding it across contracts remain difficult, with too many barriers still in place for both VCSEs and the forward-thinking organisations which look to work with them. The Better Commissioning Coalition seeks to bring together a group of cross-sector experts committed to developing a programme of work that demonstrates what procurement can do when social value is placed at its core. If you’re interested in finding out more or would like to be a part of this timely, exciting new programme, visit this page and fill out the expression of interest form at the bottom.