2026 marks a defining chapter for whatimpact, the National Social Value Marketplace®.
Over the past eight years, we have steadily evolved from a partnership platform into something far more ambitious: a national infrastructure that enables social value to be planned, delivered, and evidenced with confidence across public sector procurement.
In early 2025, we took a decisive step forward by opening access to the marketplace nationally. That decision reshaped how organisations engage with social value, and it now underpins everything we are building in the year ahead.
Today, more than 300,000 VCSEs across the UK are mapped within the platform. Their skills, services, and community reach are visible in a single system, enabling suppliers, funders, and contracting authorities to move beyond informal networks and fragmented engagement.
The marketplace now supports multiple matchmaking routes, all aligned to the Government’s Social Value Model and the updated TOM System. This gives organisations the structure they need to form partnerships that are compliant, transparent, and genuinely strategic.
Alongside this, our Impact Reporting Tool has been designed to shift reporting away from surface-level activity and towards evidence. Outcomes and supporting data are captured against individual contract numbers, enabling suppliers to demonstrate not just what they gave, but what changed as a result of their commitments.
We have also begun applying AI-driven analysis to social value reporting at scale. By aggregating large volumes of impact data, organisations can now start to see trends, reach, and outcomes across portfolios rather than isolated projects. This opens the door to better decision-making for both procurement teams and grant funders.
Our Volunteering Management Hub has been purpose-built for government contract delivery. It enables organisations to create, manage, and evidence volunteering activity that is directly connected to procurement commitments, while also allowing employees to propose locally relevant opportunities rooted in lived experience.
Another critical development is the ability for local authorities, procurement bodies, and central government teams to facilitate activity within their own contract environments. Offers, matches, and impact can now be viewed at supply-chain level, giving contracting authorities visibility without duplication or inefficiency. This is the national marketplace model operating as it was always intended.
What we are delivering in 2026
The year ahead focuses on scale, integration, and deeper visibility across the ecosystem.
Q1 2026
Single Sign-On integration with Social Value Portal will go live, creating a more seamless experience across platforms.
On 11 March, we will host the VCSE Summit 2026. This will be the largest national VCSE training event of its kind, bringing together over 1,000 organisations. The programme is focused on procurement readiness, social value requirements, bid confidence, and long-term capability building, with speakers from central government, local authorities, national sector bodies, and VCSE networks.
Q2 2026
Our new dashboard technology will be released, providing a clear view of partnerships, outcomes, and geographic reach across contracts.
New grant programmes will also be launched through the marketplace, expanding routes for both local and national funding to reach community organisations efficiently.
Q3 2026
School-level data will be introduced, with a particular focus on areas of highest deprivation. This will enable suppliers and authorities to target educational settings where support is most needed and where social value investment can have lasting impact.
Further integrations with complementary platforms will continue to strengthen connectivity across the social value ecosystem.
Q4 2026
The marketplace will expand to include SMEs seeking trade partnerships, opening up broader supply-chain collaboration alongside VCSE engagement.
With additional tools and increased visibility, the platform will continue to scale into a complete national partnership infrastructure.
Looking forward
2026 is about moving from potential to permanence.
A single system that supports social value delivery, grant making, and CSR partnerships at national scale, while still enabling hyper-local action where it matters most.
Thank you to every VCSE, supplier, funder, and contracting authority who continues to shape this work with us.
The next phase is already underway.
