A: The Pluggin Marketplace is an interactive, public-facing social equity ecosystem and transactional platform. It is designed to connect public sector buyers, prime contractors, and local small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs), micro-businesses, and Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprises (VCSEs).

You are being asked to join because the contracting authority (the "Local Buyer") has mandated that all social value, localization of spend, and community benefits committed under this contract must be transacted, tracked, and verified through Pluggin’s Dual Impact Collaboration Model (DICM) Engine.

A: Across a growing number of contracting authorities, compliance with the Pluggin Marketplace is a contract performance condition. To submit a compliant bid, tenderers must explicitly commit to onboarding as an approved supplier on the Pluggin Marketplace and issuing a Social Purchase Order (SPO) within their bid.

A: Local public buyers hold absolute statutory autonomy under the Procurement Act 2023 and the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 (and the Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Act 2023 where applicable) to define contract performance conditions.

Under the Procurement Act 2023, buyers transition from evaluating the "Most Economically Advantageous Tender" (MEAT) to the "Most Advantageous Tender" (MAT), which permits them to mandate specific, objective verification mechanisms to audit contract delivery. The Pluggin Social Purchase Order (SPO) is a lawful, proportionate, and non-discriminatory contract performance condition connected directly to the subject matter of the contract.

• A: In public procurement law, the Call-Off Autonomy Principle dictates that while a framework agreement sets the administrative rules for procurement, the individual call-off contract is a legally binding agreement solely between the Local Buyer and you, the Supplier.

  The Local Buyer is the sole contracting authority legally responsible for validating social value delivery within its geographic jurisdiction. Therefore, the Local Buyer has the legal right to mandate the Pluggin SPO at the call-off stage, regardless of whether it is an default condition of the broader national framework.

A: No. There is absolutely no charge to any sized business to join and operate within the Pluggin Marketplace, or indeed the whole Pluggin Ecosystem. 

A: You can refer to the tender guidelines issued. Standard supplier social value portals are static credential databases disconnected from mainstream buying, only used for pre-qualification. Therefore your social value will not contractually connect-into our live UK contracts Dashboard buyers are now using. 

A: If you intend to deliver your social value commitments through existing subcontractors, they must register on the Pluggin Marketplace as well. Registration is entirely free for local SMEs, micro-businesses, and VCSEs. 

A: The Pluggin Social Purchase Order (SPO) is a digital, contractually binding procurement commitment built by a supplier within the Pluggin Marketplace and then submitted within their bid.

The SPO is a process, beginning with a Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound social value contribution proposal to support the impact from one or many pre-approved charities or social enterprises, or SMEs.

The SPO once accepted by the buyer, is locked within the service level agreement of each supply contracts as a Collaboration Agreement and acts as the data-bound ROI for taxpayers.

A: The DICM Engine is the Pluggin Marketplace's core technology, which operates as a verification ledger that connects, captures, measures, and promotes the localised contribution a supplier makes towards achieving community impact linked to taxpayer spending.

A: Within your tender guidance it will state if they will accept your non-localised social value, or insist that social value needs to be developed within and support local strategic objectives within the Pluggin Marketplace area you are bidding into.

Hyper-localised social value, as a contribution to existing local activities delivering impact buyers want to sustain, is central to Pluggin and more buyers are now insisting on a Pluggin SPO as Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound social value in their tenders. Therefore, many suppliers are pivoting towards how best to utilise Pluggin to support this buyer demand.

A: No. The SPO is simply a cost-free S.M.A.R.T social value collaboration framework that fits into a supply contract, not a tax or an additional fee paid to the contracting authority.

There are no costs associated to submitting and then operating SPO locked social value within contracts. Quite the opposite, you no longer have to pay to create and submit then track the social value you deliver within contracts - Pluggin does it all for free.

A: We don't, it's the named charity/social enterprise beneficiary of social value in the SPO who reports when your contribution has been received - in full or in-part.

This verification is strictly community-based, instead of you self-reporting and with a proxy-value within spreadsheets. It's live and in real-time where named SPO beneficiaries use the DICM Engine to update - which automatically updates the contract on the buyer Dashboard. 

A: Generally, no.

Local buyers are now mandating the Pluggin SPO to prove localised supplier contributions (money, equipment or/and skills share) towards buyer approved local organisations delivering impact. Buyers want to see evidence of where and how suppliers are supporting local impact - not impact 100 miles away.

However, within the tender guidelines buyers issue, they may stipulate acceptance of Pluggin SPO evidence from other parts of the UK - which we will assist in collating. 

A: None. Suppliers create the SPO and submit then contract-lock their commitments.

From there, the Pluggin Marketplace tracks the SPO with the charity/social enterprise named within the SPO - meaning that suppliers are then receiving community confirmation in line with the SPO locked-into the Service Level Agreement with public authorities.

The Pluggin Marketplace captures data relating to delivered volunteer hours, or direct receipts of money or equipment set-out within the SPO - charity/social enterprise beneficiaries in the SPO upload/input this evidence directly.