The new Procurement Act went live on 24 February, bringing a wide range of changes for how contracting authorities in the UK approach public procurement, including greater transparency, flexibility and central oversight. 

One of the biggest changes, which has gained a lot of interest from the procurement community, is the introduction of greater flexibility in the evaluation criteria that can be used when awarding contracts: specifically, the transition from MEAT (Most Economically Advantageous Tender) to MAT (Most Advantageous Tender). 

This change seems small (a one-word difference), but its impacts could be significant, and it reflects a broader interest in aligning procurement processes with sustainability and social value outcomes. The Procurement Act was preceded by the launch of the government’s new National Procurement Policy Statement, which outlined how public procurement can be used to drive wider policy outcomes, such as promoting economic growth, supporting SMEs, and enabling Net Zero. 

For businesses aiming to secure public contracts, the introduction of MAT adds a new set of expectations. Awarding bodies are moving away from purely economic metrics to adopt a holistic view of what ‘advantageous’ means. This means your tender is no longer judged by cost-efficiency alone but by its ability to generate social, economic, and environmental impact.

In this article, we explore what the shift from MEAT to MAT might mean in practice, and how it can be used to improve social value scoring and reporting.

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The  National Procurement Policy Statement 

Let’s start with the new NPPS, which is the document that grounds how contracting authorities should be thinking about public procurement, and how it might drive wider policy outcomes. The NPPS shows how procurement can align to the government’s five missions, and wider industrial strategy, and outlines that most contracting authorities need to consider the NPPS when awarding their contracts. 

In particular, the NPPS lays out the following core objectives for authorities to consider:

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• Contracting authorities should drive economic growth and strengthen supply chains by giving SMEs and VCSEs a fair chance at public contracts, creating high quality jobs and championing innovation.
  
  
• Contracting authorities should deliver social and economic value that supports the Government’s missions including by working in partnership across organisational boundaries.
  
  
• Contracting authorities should ensure the right commercial capability and standards are in place to procure and manage contracts effectively and to collaborate with other contracting authorities to deliver best value.

Given that contracting authorities need to consider these factors, the most natural way for them to do so is via their competition processes: using a MAT approach, which accounts for them. This means thinking about how they are actively considering SMEs, VCSEs and supplier diversity, partnership and collaboration, and skill development in their evaluation criteria. 

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A greater focus on data and transparency

A common complaint about social value in procurement is that it has become a ‘tick box’ exercise. Many buyers struggle to develop meaningful, category-specific questions, and suppliers, particularly SMEs, find it difficult to respond. 

Currently, compliance with social value commitments is rarely monitored, and there is no national approach for tracking implementation of social value or measuring its impact. 

The launch of the new Act - and a greater focus on wider social and economic outcomes - is a good time for contracting authorities to explore developing targeted, clear, and category-specific social value criteria for their procurements. We would also encourage reporting on the use of these criteria in tenders to monitor compliance and implementation, alongside creating a system for buyers to report and track progress against defined social value KPIs.

Without clear and measurable outcomes, social value will continue to feel like a tick-box exercise, recycling conventional ideas instead of developing specific solutions with meaningful, measurable outcomes.

This is not easy. If we look at simple metrics to indicate a company’s corporate and social responsibility performance, there is a wide range of things we could use: ​​

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• Maternity, Sick Leave and Carers leave Policies: Examining the availability and generosity of leave.
• Gender Pay Gap: Analysing pay disparities between male and female employees, aiming for equal pay for equal work. 
• Pension Contributions: Assessing the adequacy of employer pension contributions.‍
• Community Involvement: Measuring engagement in local community initiatives, such as job creation, charitable activities, and partnerships with local organisations.‍
• Supply Chain Practices: Assessing suppliers' adherence to ethical standards, including fair labour practices, human rights, and sustainability standards such as the ISSB.‍
• Carbon Footprint: Assessing carbon footprint difference from industry benchmarks.

Contracting authorities and suppliers have the opportunity to design clearer, more specific and more realistic reporting processes for these kinds of social outcomes, but this requires thinking hard about what they want to achieve, before moving to the best way of measuring that outcome.

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Putting it into practice

Here is an example of what detailed, specific reporting can look like for a given social value outcome: this one focused on youth employment and skills.

Youth employment has become an acute issue over the recent decade. In July to September 2024 there were 946,000 people aged 16-24 who were not in employment, education or training, representing 12.3% of all 16-24 year olds. This category has been named ‘NEETs’ (Neither in employment, education or training) and the Get Britain Working White paper has made this demographic a clear focus. One of the methods  governments are trying to do this is by encouraging government suppliers to offer opportunities to NEETs when delivering on their contracts.

However the challenge for suppliers is finding the right talent at a point where they’re ready to engage in their projects. This issue has created a response from organisations like Extro Creative, whose holistic approach to supporting young people into employment opportunities has had great success.

This case study outlines how 20 young NEETs completed their programme with 14 entering employment and 4 going on to higher education. 

The positive social impact of this programme is clear to see but how would an authority ask for proof of this impact, and how might a  supplier communicate it? 

This is a growing challenge with the range of different policy outcomes and methodologies adopted by different contracted authorities. 

Below we have included a table to show how this activity can be reported on in a range of ways to best suit the needs of the authority. It covers a number of different reporting frameworks, along with the relevant classification identifier for that framework, and indicative metrics:

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• TOMs (Themes, Outcomes and Measures): A framework that allows authorities to measure the wider value of their social programmes, used particularly by local authorities.
• MACs (Model Award Criteria): Assessment criteria with clear reporting approaches for a number of different social value ‘missions’, used by Crown Commercial Service in their frameworks.
• NPPs (National Procurement Policy Statement): The new strategy document outlining the government’s strategic priorities for public procurement, including how they relate to their core missions.
• SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals): The United Nations' 17 global goals designed to achieve a more sustainable future for all by 2030.

As shown below, we can report our desired social value outcomes in a number of different ways, across these frameworks:

What can buyers and suppliers do next?

The transition from MEAT vs MAT is a step towards establishing fairness and sustainability in the supply chain. Awarding bodies are increasing their emphasis on how much a supplier aligns with their missions and therefore demands clearer reporting to determine this.  This change will actively modify tenders, which will have further specifications related to social value categories and departmental expectations, and thereby its evaluation. In this period of transition, organisations need further guidance and resources on how they can put their best foot forward. The depth and breadth of this need will be more clear with the further implementation of the New Procurement Act.

PUBLIC supports public authorities and suppliers to make their commercial and funding processes more effective, efficient and sustainable. Get in touch to see how we can help you solve your biggest commercial challenges.

Variegate Growth CIC is dedicated to helping businesses unlock the full potential of their Social Value commitments in the UK’s public sector landscape.

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