Hailed as a ‘social value enabled’ FM agreement, the new £35bn framework supports the  Government’s Sourcing Playbook principles.

This heavily weights ‘quality’ in award criteria and emphasises the importance of social value and optimum pricing for often complex requirements.

Noreen Winhall, commercial director, Buildings at CCS, said: ‘‘The new framework has the Government’s latest policy priorities baked in, enabling better outcomes on key social value priorities like modern slavery, providing opportunities for SMEs and VCSEs, and carbon reduction.’

The CCS will require suppliers to report on the social impact of their work.

As well as being required to attend regular, structured meetings with their customers, suppliers will submit quarterly returns to CCS showing how they are adhering to, as a minimum, baseline requirements for social value activities including modern slavery, carbon net zero, SMEs, under-represented groups, apprenticeships and prompt payments.

The previous agreement delivered savings of around 10% for public sector customers procuring standard facilities management services.