Public procurement through VCSEs, 2019/20 to 2023/24 (summary report)
Published 28 November 2025
Applies to England
© Crown copyright 2025
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/public-procurement-through-vcses-201920-to-202324/public-procurement-through-vcses-201920-to-202324-summary-report
Voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations are crucial contributors to the economy, particularly within the public service sector, where they play a key role in providing essential services to communities. The UK government is committed to delivering social value through its procurement, recognising that VCSEs bring unique strengths, such as local knowledge, agility and a commitment to social outcomes.
This report updates analysis published in 2022 into contracts awarded and invoices paid to VCSEs by the public sector in England, covering five government financial years from April 2019 to March 2024.
It addresses key questions on the total value and share of procurement going directly to VCSEs, what part of the public sector this revenue is coming from, the nature of the VCSE organisations involved, the type of contracts won by VCSEs and a deep dive into eight specific ‘people services’ sectors:
- Health & Social Care
- Legal Advice & Advocacy
- Disability
- Support for Victims of Domestic Violence & Sexual Abuse
- Employability
- Homelessness Support Services
- Offender Rehabilitation
- Youth Services
Please see the full report for detailed analysis of each of these sectors.
Key findings
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VCSEs won 17,656 government contracts worth £24.4bn - 4% of the total value and 6% of the total volume of contracts awarded between April 2019 to March 2024.
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The median value of a VCSE contract was £95,000 in FY23/24, only 13% of VCSE contract awards were £1m or more.
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Local government awards by far the greatest value and volume of contracts to VCSEs than other parts of the public sector, awarding 11,063 contracts worth a combined £11.7bn between April 2019 to March 2024.
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Excluding central government, 79% of identifiable VCSEs work with authorities based in a single region. Those that work in multiple regions, or nationally earn the majority (76%) of VCSE revenue.
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Health & Social Care is by far the biggest sector by absolute value, with VCSEs winning contracts worth £16.7bn. VCSEs, however, hold a higher proportion of the total procurement market in four other analysed sectors – including Homelessness Services and Support for Victims of Domestic Abuse & Sexual Violence
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Frameworks or Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) agreements are a less popular route-to-market for VCSEs (10% of contracts) than non-VCSEs (28% of contracts).
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50% of VCSEs named on public sector contracts have won only a single contract over the period.
Methodology & definitions
Two datasets from Tussell’s database of UK public sector procurement were used in the analysis: Contracts data and Spend data. Data is accurate as of the date of download: 18th September for contracts data and 13th August 2024 for spend data.
Contracts data is drawn from published contract award notices. The report draws on notices published on Contracts Finder, Find A Tender Service, Tenders Electronic Daily (the EU portal) and c. 70 other smaller portals. The total value awarded for a single contract is allocated only to the year in which it was awarded. Charts using contracts data in this report will mention ‘contracts won’ or ‘award value/volume’ in the chart title.
Spend data refers to the supplier invoices published by over 900 different public sector bodies. Charts using spend data in this report will mention ‘spend value/volume’ or ‘invoices’ in the chart title.
Spend data may also include some information on grants. Buyers are not required to publish grant payments on their invoices; however, some choose to do so. In FY23/24, around 13% of public sector spend value included invoice descriptions and categories relating to grants. This figure is higher among VCSEs, where 27% of spend with VCSEs in FY23/24 related to grants.
The primary method of identifying VCSEs is through the ‘Supplier Type’ field, drawn from Moody’s data on suppliers (originally sourced from the ‘Company Type’ field on Companies House), matched to Tussell’s database of invoices and contracts. Organisations with the type ‘Charitable Organisation’ and ‘Non Profit Organisation’ are marked as VCSEs. Additionally, Community Interest Companies are identified using a search for suppliers with ‘Community Interest Company’ or ‘CIC’ in their registered name.
Since the previous report, improvements have been made in the collection of data and the identification of VCSEs. A large proportion of this improvement can be attributed to a database of VCSE suppliers provided by Social Enterprise UK, commissioned by DCMS.
Contracts awarded to VCSEs
Between April 2019 and March 2024, VCSEs won 17,656 contracts, worth a total of £24.4bn from the public sector in England. The total value of VCSE contracts has seen some annual change but remains around an average of £4.8bn per year.
The total volume of contracts awarded to VCSEs saw a 65% spike in FY21/22, remaining at a heightened level of around 4,000 contracts per year.
The median value of a VCSE contract was £95,000 in FY23/24, only 13% of VCSE contract awards were £1m or more. The median value of contract won by a VCSE saw a 41% drop in FY20/21, year 1 of Covid, to £60,000 but has been increasing year on year since.
Figure 1. Value of contracts won by VCSEs - April 2019 to March 2024 [Source: Contract data]
| Year | Value of contracts (£bn) |
|---|---|
| 2019/20 | 5.8 |
| 2020/21 | 5.3 |
| 2021/22 | 4.1 |
| 2022/23 | 4.3 |
| 2023/24 | 4.8 |
Figure 2. Volume of contracts won by VCSEs - April 2019 to March 2024 [Source: Contract data]
| Year | Volume of contracts |
|---|---|
| 2019/20 | 2,378 |
| 2020/21 | 2,685 |
| 2021/22 | 4,433 |
| 2022/23 | 4,106 |
| 2023/24 | 4,054 |
Contracting authority
Local government awards by far the greatest value and volume of contracts to VCSEs annually, and awarded more than 5 times the value and almost 4 times the volume compared to central government in FY23/24. Over the period April 2019 to March 2024, local government awarded 11,063 contracts worth a combined £11.7bn, compared to 2,734 contracts worth £5.6bn from central government.
Figure 3. Value of contracts won by VCSEs by buyer type - April 2019 to March 2024 [Source: Contract data]
| Year | Local government (£bn) | NHS (£bn) | Central government (£bn) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019/20 | 2.5 | 2.1 | 1.1 |
| 2020/21 | 2.0 | 1.0 | 2.2 |
| 2021/22 | 2.5 | 0.5 | 0.9 |
| 2022/23 | 2.4 | 0.8 | 1.0 |
| 2023/24 | 2.3 | 1.8 | 0.4 |
Almost 4 out of 5 (79%) VCSEs earn money from contracting authorities based only in a single region (excluding central government). Only 426 VCSEs earned money from authorities in all 9 English regions, this group of suppliers (1% of total VCSEs) earned 19% of the total VCSE revenue over the period, equivalent to £11.0bn.
Figure 4. Proportion of supplier volume and spend value by supplier geographical reach - April 2019 to March 2024 [Source: Spend data]
| Geography | Supplier volume | Spend value |
|---|---|---|
| National | 1% | 19% |
| Multi-region | 20% | 57% |
| Single region | 79% | 25% |
Sector analysis
Health and social care is by far the largest sector among VCSEs, with a total value of £16.7bn contracts awarded to VCSEs over the period, almost 10 times larger than the next biggest sector, disability.
While this constitutes 23% of the total value awarded in this sector, other sectors see a much higher proportion of the value of contracts awarded to VCSEs. VCSEs have won 71% of the value of contracts relating to support for victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse, and 58% of those relating to homelessness.
Table 1. Value of contracts, and proportion of total value, won by VCSEs by sector [Source: Contract data]
| Sector | Value of contracts won by VCSEs | Proportion of contract value won by VCSEs |
|---|---|---|
| Health & social care | £16.7bn | 23% |
| Disability | £1.8bn | 25% |
| Offender rehab | £0.9bn | 15% |
| Homelessness | £0.9bn | 58% |
| Youth services | £0.7bn | 37% |
| Domestic violence & sexual assault | £0.6bn | 71% |
| Legal & advocacy | £0.5bn | 12% |
| Employability | £0.3bn | 9% |
Engagement with procurement
Of the 2,481 VCSE suppliers that won a government contract in FY23/24, 778 (31% of the total) were winning a contract directly from government for the first time.
Half of the VCSEs named on a public sector contract since FY19/20 have won only one contract. A further 45% have been named on 2-10, with a small minority winning more than 10, and only 22 VCSEs winning more than 50 contracts.
Figure 5. Proportion of VCSEs winning single or multiple contracts between April 2019 and March 2024 [Source: Contract data]
| Number of contracts | Proportion of VCSEs |
|---|---|
| Just one contract | 49.8% |
| 2-10 contracts | 45.0% |
| 10+ contracts | 4.8% |
| 50+ contracts | 0.4% |
Frameworks are not a widely used route-to-market with VCSEs. In FY23/24, only 12% of VCSE contracts were awarded via a framework or Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) agreement, compared with 30% for non-VCSEs.
Figure 6. Proportion of contract volume awarded via government framework or DPS [Source: Contract data]
| Year | VCSEs | Non-VCSEs |
|---|---|---|
| 2019/20 | 7% | 21% |
| 2020/21 | 9% | 25% |
| 2021/22 | 9% | 29% |
| 2022/23 | 11% | 32% |
| 2023/24 | 12% | 30% |