NHS Social Value Playbook

In 2020, the NHS became the world’s first health service to commit to net zero emissions. This includes the NHS’s large and complex supply chain with c.80,000 suppliers, accounting for c.66% of all NHS emissions.

Following publication of the Delivering a Net Zero National Health Service report, NHS England published the Net Zero Supplier Roadmap to help suppliers align with our net zero ambition between now and 2030. The first milestone committed the wider NHS to including a minimum of 10% net zero and social value weighting in all procurements – worth £35 billion in spend.

In 2022, NHS England published net zero and social value guidance to support NHS organisations to unlock additional social, economic, and environmental benefits through procurement. NHS procurement teams have made excellent process building social value into the commercial lifecycle. Internal feedback and its supply chain indicates, however, that more support is needed to develop the maturity of our approach to social value. NHS buying teams asked for help in question setting, evaluation, and contract management, while suppliers asked for clearer questions related their skills and expertise. This NHS Social Value Playbook sets out practical steps at each stage of the procurement or commissioning lifecycle. The playbook emphasises the flexibility of including Fighting Climate Change as a core requirement to the contract deliverables or as social value theme for suppliers to deliver above and beyond the core offer. It also outlines how creating key performance indicators (KPIs) is critical and provides examples of how to do this.

In 2025, the Social Value Model was updated to align with the Government’s missions and ensure contracting authorities can implement the new National Procurement Policy Statement. The playbook acknowledges updates in the Model and caters for the transition period between February – October 2025.

The playbook comes as the 10 Year Health Plan is published. The focus on sustainability and the reduction of health inequalities in the Plan further emphasises the role of NHS organisations as social and economic anchor institutions. The playbook highlights the positive impact social value can have on health inequalities and outcomes, setting out examples for common areas of spend. It asks commercial colleagues to collaborate with their commissioning, clinical and operational counterparts on social value and sustainability from the outset of the business planning process to ensure the themes and questions meet the needs of the patients or end users of the goods or services.

Key messages

• social value themes should be considered early in the planning process in collaboration with commissioners, operational leads, clinicians, and suppliers to support delivery of broader NHS challenges and priorities
• pre-market engagement is key to ensuring proportionate and relevant questions
• fighting climate change, effective stewardship of the environment or clean energy can be included as a core requirement or a social value theme. See more information in section 3.1
• modern slavery should be included as a core requirement where there is a medium or high risk
• creating social value key performance indicators (KPIs) within the contract is critical to assuring and measuring delivery