Government Contracts Will Score Skills Twice as High from Jan 27

NFRC Members who bid for public sector roofing work, directly or as subcontractors, should take note now.

What's Changing?

• Social value weighting doubles to 20% on contracts worth £5 million or more (up from 10%).
• Contracts worth £1m–£5m keep the current 10% weighting. Contracts under £1m are exempt — a deliberate move to reduce burdens on smaller bidders.
• The eight existing social value themes (carbon reduction, crime reduction, workforce health, etc.) are being cut to just two: "good jobs" and "skills."

The Skills Criterion

The new skills outcome covers three areas:

1. Training and retraining
2. In-work progression
3. Building a "talent pipeline"

Government has flagged 45 days of work experience as a strong example of what it wants to see, echoing a pledge made by now-Prime Minister Andy Burnham before he took office. Illustrative examples in the PPN include apprenticeships, work placements, and workplace adaptations. Nothing obliges a bidder to deliver these, but points are awarded to those who do.

Target groups for support have shifted too. The new PPN prioritises young people not in education, employment or training (NEET), those moving from education into work, people with long-term health conditions or disabilities, and care leavers. Prison leavers and kinship carers, named in the current model, are not included in this version.

• If you bid on contracts over £1m, expect skills and jobs commitments to carry significantly more weight than before, and to matter more than broader sustainability or community credentials did previously.
• Offering apprenticeships, work placements or structured training routes will strengthen your bids. Delivering these typically means partnering with a college or training provider. NFRC can help connect Members with apprenticeship and labour schemes via Head of Careers, Ruth Scarrott
• Contracts over £5m will need at least one published social value KPI, reported on annually. Poor performance against it can count against a supplier in future tenders, so any commitments made in a bid should be realistic and deliverable.
• Detailed guidance on scoring, plus a government-compiled list of approved "community programmes" bidders can back, is due in autumn 2025. NFRC will update Members once this is published.
• This builds on the shift to Most Advantageous Tender (MAT) scoring introduced under the Procurement Act 2023, which already opened the door for firms to compete on more than price. The new PPN sharpens that further toward jobs and skills specifically.

More information on the latest apprenticeship funding packages can be found here.