For the past six months, whatimpact’s National Social Value Marketplace has been part of Social Value Taskforce’s VCSE working group, consisting of third, private, and public sector representatives – together creating a thorough leadership piece, a white paper, on how to remove barriers from VCSEs in public sector procurement and related social value. We at whatimpact have been proud to bring a strong set of VCSEs from our platform to the table.
For too long, VCSEs have not had a strong enough voice in public-sector procurement and social-value conversations. That’s now changing—VCSEs are finally in the spotlight, thoug
h challenges remain.
Government initiatives—from the Social Value Act and PPN 06/20 to the National Procurement Policy Statement—aim to give VCSEs a greater role in public contracts. That’s fantastic, but we must also think of the 95 % of VCSEs who don’t seek direct contracts. They act as suppliers to Tier 1–3 contractors or operate as social-value delivery partners through donations and volunteering.
Public-sector buyers now recognise that enabling these local connections needs coordination. After years of undelivered social value by suppliers, facilitation methods now range from personalised support and Excel sheets to listing sites and brokerage systems. Tender evaluations increasingly reward clear, locally relevant social-value plans with named VCSE partners and collaboration models.
This growing focus on connecting suppliers with local VCSEs has massive potential for society.
Every NPPS outcome can be achieved with VCSE support. Companies need VCSEs to train their teams, deliver services that promote diverse employment, reduce waste and pollution, and, keep their staff healthy and motivated.
VCSEs also run local interventions that build community strength, health, inclusion, and safety. Inviting these organisations to be social-value delivery partners simply makes sense.
When public buyers use their purchasing power to create additional social value through VCSE partnerships, they ensure crucial services, support, and interventions that are available not only for communities but also for their own staff and other direct stakeholders. But how these partnerships are facilitated really matters. Without effective coordination and strategic intent, opportunities scatter and impact is weak.
For social value to be sustainable, suppliers need freedom to design approaches that fit their own capabilities, contract length, and size.
We see the most impact-driven partnerships between government suppliers and VCSEs when suppliers are not restricted to short lists or instant donation requests. For smaller contracts, quick donation or volunteering matches can work. But for larger, long-term contracts, partnerships should create new, scalable projects that make measurable differences.
Suppliers managing dozens or even hundreds of contracts across the country cannot keep responding to ad-hoc small requests in each location. Social 
value will only become embedded in supplier operations when they are allowed to be strategic and ambitious.
Social-value activities should also be guided by area-specific deprivation data, not just by individual resource requests from a few VCSEs.
That said, we must also empower VCSEs to be more active partners—co-creating programmes and local interventions with suppliers and councils. We need a level playing field for both small and large, new and established, local and nationwide VCSEs to access supplier partnerships.
VCSEs should be encouraged to ask themselves:
- What could we achieve with sustained, long-term support?
- Which projects can deliver scalable impact?
- How can we attract resources from local companies, retailers, grantmakers, the public—and finally, procurement-related suppliers?
Public-sector procurement alone cannot solve all social challenges. The focus should be on areas where add-on, contract-specific partnerships can make the greatest difference.
True impact isn’t measured by donated pounds or volunteer hours—it’s measured by proven benefits to people. Inputs and outputs can sound impressive, but they don’t prove change. If the effort to coordinate an activity creates less value than the investment itself, the impact may even be negative.
“Making social value simple” is an appealing slogan, but big impact often requires effort, co-creation, collaboration, and long-term planning. Oversimplifying risks makes social value smaller, short-term, and less meaningful.
At whatimpact, we’re making strategic social value achievable for suppliers of all sizes—and accessible for every VCSE, from small community groups to nationwide service providers.
We offer a public-sector, hyper-local marketplace that connects VCSEs and suppliers on one unified platform with a full partnership-management system. Too much time and money are currently lost to overlapping platforms, multiple logins, and restrictive VCSE listings.
Our system provides qualitative data fully compliant with the Government Social Value Model and TOM System framework, generating evidence of real benefits to people to complement monetised measures and other KPIs. This approach demonstrates the tangible difference that procurement-related social value creates and brings transparency to VCSE-led interventions. Volunteering management is focused on contractual obligations that at the same time inspire volunteers themselves.
Looking ahead, we’re thrilled to be launching the first nationwide VCSE Summit in March 2026. Our goal is to strengthen the VCSE role in public-sector procurement and social value, and to empower VCSEs in resource-raising and co-creation with private-sector partners.
If your organisation would like to learn more about this full-day online event—or explore sponsorship and collaboration opportunities—please reach out to me at tiia@whatimpact.com.
Read more about whatimpact here:
It’s Time to Digitally Empower the VCSE Sector, Not Hold It Back!
