CleanTender
Social Value CalculatorPro

Calculate your social value score for any UK tender.

Stop guessing your social value commitments. Pick your buyer. The tool routes to the right framework: the National TOMs (Themes, Outcomes, Measures) calculator for councils, housing associations, and academies, or the PPN 002 Social Value Model for NHS, central government, and MoD. It pulls in the published 2024-2026 proxy values evaluators actually score against. £20,500 per local FTE. £244 per tonne of CO₂ saved. £17 per volunteer hour. Then it sizes every commitment to your contract value, so a £10k cleaning job gets modest, deliverable promises and a £5m FM contract gets stretch targets. Output is markdown, ready to paste into the portal.

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Social Value Generator

Framework: …

£125k / yr

NT1Local Employment

1 FTE within travel-to-work area

£20,500

NT22Accredited training

30 hours · BICSc + COSHH

£6,000

NT31Carbon reduction

2.0 t CO₂e via electric supervisor van

£488
Total social value (year 1)£0

21.6% of contract value

How it works

Three steps. About thirty seconds.

01

Pick the buyer

Local council? You get the National TOMs (Themes, Outcomes, Measures) calculator with NT codes. NHS Trust or central government department? You get the PPN 002 Social Value Model with MAC codes. The framework is non-negotiable in UK procurement. Submit a TOMs answer to an NHS bid and you score zero. The tool picks for you.

02

Set value, duration, region

Contract value drives the proportionality engine. Under £100k annual gets 2 to 3 modest commitments and zero apprenticeships. Why? Apprentices cost more than the contract is worth, so promising one is a credibility-tank that evaluators flag. Over £2m gets stretch targets, fleet electrification, multiple apprentices, real-living-wage commitments. Region ties commitments to local impact, which is what UK buyers actually care about.

03

Read it, copy it, paste it

Output streams in formatted markdown. Each commitment carries its framework code (NT1, MAC2.1, etc.), a quantified target, the financial proxy value in pounds, the evidence requirement, and a reporting cadence. Total social value summed at the bottom. Percentage of contract value shown right next to it. That's the answer field your portal asks for.

What it covers

Both UK frameworks. Every soft-FM buyer.

Local councils, parish & town councils

National TOMs framework. The TOMs social value calculator is the standard for council-tier buyers, and it's what your evaluator scores against in 2026.

Housing associations & registered providers

Also TOMs. Some are starting to flirt with hybrid frameworks but TOMs is still the dominant scoring methodology.

Schools, academies, FE colleges

TOMs for most. Multi-academy trusts often align procurement to LGPS or to the local authority that hosts them, which means TOMs codes and TOMs proxies.

NHS Trusts and ICBs

PPN 002 Social Value Model. The MAC codes (MAC2.1 economic inequality, MAC3.1 climate, MAC4.1 equal opportunity, MAC5.1 wellbeing) are mandatory under Cabinet Office procurement policy. Don't try and submit a TOMs answer to an NHS bid. It will score zero.

Central government, MoD, Cabinet Office

PPN 002. Five themes (the original COVID theme retired in 2025). Score weighting is typically 10%, sometimes 20% on health, infrastructure, or defence work.

Universities, police, fire

Mostly PPN 002. Universities are the only mixed bag. Research-council-funded procurement uses PPN 002, but campus-services tenders sometimes use the host council's TOMs. Tool defaults to PPN 002 here. Email us if you need a manual override.

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Free to start. No card required. Run the social value generator against a real contract in minutes.

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FAQs

Common questions

What is a social value calculator?
A social value calculator is a tool that quantifies the wider economic, social, and environmental benefits a supplier will deliver under a public sector contract. The most-used one in the UK is the National TOMs calculator, run by the Social Value Portal, which converts targets like local hires, apprentice weeks, and CO₂ saved into a financial proxy value in pounds. Buyers score these proxy values against contract value to weight your tender response. CleanTender's calculator does the same thing, with a twist: it auto-routes between TOMs and the PPN 002 Social Value Model (which central government uses instead of TOMs), so you don't apply the wrong framework to the wrong buyer.
What is the National TOMs framework?
TOMs stands for Themes, Outcomes, Measures. It's the dominant social value framework in UK local government procurement, run by the Social Value Portal. There are five themes: Jobs, Growth, Social, Environment, and Innovation. Each theme has Outcomes (what changes) and Measures (the NT-coded items you commit to, like NT1 for local employment or NT31 for carbon reduction). Every Measure has a published financial proxy, so your commitments are scored in pounds rather than vibes. CleanTender's TOMs social value calculator uses the v3 framework with 2024-2026 proxy values updated to current BEIS carbon and ONS wage data.
What is the PPN 002 Social Value Model?
PPN 002 is the 2024 update of PPN 06/20, the Cabinet Office Procurement Policy Note that mandates social value scoring on central government contracts. Where TOMs uses NT codes, the PPN 002 Social Value Model uses MAC codes (Model Award Criteria) under five themes since the original COVID theme was retired in 2025. NHS Trusts, MoD, central government departments, police, and fire services all use PPN 002 instead of TOMs. Submit a TOMs answer to one of these buyers and you score zero on the social value section, which is usually 10 to 20 percent of total tender weight.
How is social value scored on UK tenders?
Buyers set a social value weighting (typically 10%, sometimes 20-30% on health, infrastructure, or defence). They evaluate your written commitments against either TOMs proxies or PPN 002 themes, depending on which framework they use. Three things drive the score: 1) Did you use the right framework codes, 2) Are your commitments quantified with proxy values or measurable targets, 3) Are they proportionate to the contract value? Generic answers like "we care about the environment" score in the bottom quartile. Specific, framework-coded, proportionate commitments score top quartile. CleanTender's calculator handles all three.
Why does the calculator block apprenticeships on small contracts?
Because evaluators downscore over-promises. A Level 2 apprenticeship costs the supplier roughly £7,000 over the term. If the contract is worth £10,000 a year, no rational supplier is funding an apprentice from contract margin. Evaluators know this. Promising one signals you don't understand the commercials, which scores you lower than not promising it at all. The proportionality engine baked into the tool blocks apprenticeship commitments below £100k annual contract value and recommends NT12 (volunteer hours) or NT22 (training hours for existing staff) instead.
Is this a free social value calculator?
The full AI version is part of the CleanTender Pro plan (£99/month or £990/year). You can register and try it on one real tender before deciding. There are also four free interactive tools at /tools that don't need an AI engine: a Bid/No-Bid scorer, a PAS 91 readiness checker, a TUPE cost estimator, and a staff hours calculator. They're useful for early-stage qualification work. The social value calculator itself uses an LLM to write the commitments, which is why it sits behind the paywall.
Can I edit the output before I submit?
Yes. The output renders in a Preview pane by default, with an Edit Markdown toggle that swaps to a textarea. Edit anything: tweak the proxy value math, change the evidence wording, swap one NT code for another. The tool gives you a defensible starting point with the framework codes and proxy values right, and you adjust to match your business reality.
What proxy values does the calculator use?
The published National TOMs v3 values for 2024-2026, updated where BEIS or ONS have refreshed underlying figures: • NT1 Local FTE: £20,500 per FTE-year • NT2 Long-term unemployed hire: £24,000 per FTE-year • NT3 Apprenticeship: £7,000 (Level 2) or £15,500 (Level 3) • NT12 Volunteer hours: £17 per hour • NT22 Accredited training hours: £200 per hour • NT25 Biodiversity / ecological enhancement: £10,000 per significant project • NT31 CO₂e tonnes saved: £244 per tonne (BEIS traded carbon, 2024 figure) These are the same proxies the Social Value Portal scores against, so the output is directly comparable to a portal-managed bid.

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