Babyzone Calls for Early Years to Count as Social Value in Public Procurement

Babyzone Calls for Early Years to Count as Social Value in Public Procurement

A £90bn opportunity

Babyzone has written to the Rt Hon Louise Haigh MP, First Secretary of State, welcoming the publication of PPN 026 and the revised Social Value Model. The reforms double the weighting given to social value in major government contracts, aiming to ensure the £90 billion spent annually through public procurement creates tangible benefit in local communities.

The gap in the model

The model currently rewards suppliers for supporting jobs and skills, particularly for young people not in education, employment or training (NEET). Babyzone is calling for early years family support to be recognised alongside this, arguing that the roots of NEET outcomes reach back well before school-leaving age.

Children who are not school-ready at age five are nearly three times as likely to become NEET at sixteen. Yet early intervention spending has fallen 44% since 2010, while late intervention spending has risen by half over the same period.

What Babyzone brings

Babyzone runs free, barrier-free hubs for families with children aged 0 to 5, reaching those who need support most: 74% of families served live in the most deprived areas (IMD Deciles 1–4). The charity argues this kind of provision is measurable and reportable against contract KPIs in the same way as apprenticeship starts.

The ask

Babyzone has urged that the List of Community Programmes due to be published this autumn include early years and family support alongside employment and skills interventions, and has offered to contribute evidence to the guidance and meet with officials.