Apprenticeships, training and work placements will count for double in bids for large government contracts from January 2027, with skills becoming one of just two social value measures used by Whitehall to score its suppliers. A new procurement policy note (PPN), published by the Cabinet Office this morning, doubles the minimum social value weighting to 20 per cent on contracts worth £5 million or more. It cuts the previous eight social value outcomes suppliers could be measured against, including cutting carbon emissions, reducing crime and improving workers’ health, to just two: “good jobs” and “skills”. Government contracts worth between £1 million and £5 million keep the 10 per cent social value threshold. Those worth less than £1 million are exempt altogether. Ministers said this was to reduce burdens on small businesses bidding for government contracts. The new rules will apply to procurements from January 1, 2027. Detailed guidance on how bids from potential suppliers will be scored is not due out until the autumn. Louise Haigh, first secretary of state, today said securing government contracts had “for too long” been “a tick box exercise that fails to deliver the positive change that people feel in their pocket and see in the places they live”. The new rules would “ensure the £90 billion that is spent each year through government contracts supports British jobs, skills and people in every postcode”, she said. Points mean prizes The new ‘skills’ outcome has three award criteria covering training and retraining, in-work progression and building a “talent pipeline”. The pipeline criterion says: “For example, 45 days of work experience is exactly the kind of social value the prime minister is seeking to see delivered through this policy.” The figure echoes a pledge made by Andy Burnham in June, before he became prime minister, that public contracts would require “a much greater supply of 45-day work placements and apprenticeships for young people”. Forty-five days is the minimum for a T Level industry placement, though the PPN does not mention T Levels. Nothing in the document obliges a supplier to deliver a single apprenticeship or placement, but points are awarded to bidders that offer them. The model being replaced named apprenticeships at levels 2, 3 and 4 and above, T Level industry placements, supported internships and “recognised qualifications”, and included a criterion on engaging schools and colleges through mentoring, placements and careers guidance. The new model so far only says “illustrative examples include apprenticeships, work placements or workplace adaptations”. Target groups have also changed. Prison leavers and kinship carers, both named in the current model, are absent from the latest PPN, which covers young people not in education, employment or training (NEET), those moving from education into work, people with a long-term health condition or disability, and care leavers. Anchor institutions Suppliers that offer apprenticeships or work placements typically need a college or training provider to deliver them. Analysis by procurement data firm Tussell shows 36 “strategic suppliers” took £24.7 billion of public procurement spending in 2024-25, led by construction and facilities management firms including Balfour Beatty, Kier and Mitie. One of the new criteria awards points to suppliers that “co-design solutions” with “anchor institutions”, a term that is often attached to further education colleges and universities. Buyers will also have to attach a list of “community programmes” to their tender documents. This will be a government-compiled menu of existing schemes that bidders can offer to back in return for social value points. The list is due with the autumn guidance. Contracts worth £5 million or more must carry at least one social value KPI, published and reported on annually. Poor performance against it can count towards excluding a supplier from future tenders. Government has been attempting to lever apprenticeships through procurement since 2015, when a policy note set a benchmark of 3 to 5 per cent of a supplier’s workforce being apprentices. It was withdrawn in 2023 and never replaced.