When it comes to legionella control bids, most providers naturally focus on the technical response. After all, your role is to protect people from risk, keep buildings compliant, and make sure water systems are managed safely.
But in today’s public sector tenders, getting the technical side right is only part of the story. Social value is now one of the most heavily weighted areas, often carrying as much as 20–30% of the marks. If you do not treat it seriously, you can deliver the best method statement in the world and still lose the contract.
At Bid Writing Service, we see this happen often. Social value is where bidders trip up because they are either too vague, too generic, or unsure how their business fits into the bigger picture. The good news is that legionella control providers actually have a lot to offer in this area – you just need to know how to frame it.
Why Social Value Matters in Legionella Control Contracts
When councils, housing associations and NHS Trusts procure legionella control, they are not only looking for a safe and compliant service. They also want to know that their spend will deliver wider community benefits. This push comes from legislation like the Social Value Act and the Procurement Act 2023, but also from local priorities such as creating jobs, tackling inequality, and reducing carbon emissions.
In our experience, evaluators want to see:
- How your business will support their local area
- What you will deliver that goes beyond the core contract
- Whether your commitments are measurable and credible
Legionella control is already tied to public health and safety. With the right framing, you can show how your business also contributes to employment, sustainability, and community wellbeing.
How Social Value is Scored
The themes we see most often are based on the Social Value TOMs framework (Themes, Outcomes, Measures) or the authority’s own local policy. The common areas are jobs, apprenticeships, training, environmental improvements, volunteering, support for local supply chains and health and wellbeing initiatives.
These are scored criteria. Authorities award higher marks when you are specific, measurable, and relevant. For example, “we will hire local people” will not score well. But “we will recruit two local apprentices per year, supported through an NVQ Level 3 Water Hygiene pathway with guaranteed employment on completion” is measurable, credible, and high scoring.
What To Say: High-Scoring Social Value Themes in Legionella Control
Local employment and skills
Legionella control requires trained engineers and water hygiene specialists. Authorities want this to translate into opportunities for their communities. The strongest commitments include recruiting locally, offering apprenticeships in plumbing or water hygiene, setting up work placements for young people, and funding accredited training such as City & Guilds Legionella Control. This shows you are investing in skills and creating long-term value, not just delivering a service.
Community engagement
Technical service providers often underestimate their ability to engage with communities. In fact, there are many options: delivering free talks in schools and colleges about water safety, volunteering staff time to health and housing charities, creating tenant-friendly guides on water hygiene, or donating resources to community groups. These small but visible actions show you are part of the community, not just a contractor in the background.
Environmental sustainability
Every authority has net-zero commitments. For legionella providers, the strongest promises are switching to electric vehicles, using smart monitoring to cut water and chemical waste, recycling materials responsibly, and reducing travel miles by assigning local engineers to local contracts. The highest marks go to responses that quantify the impact, such as “our dosing system reduces chemical use by 15%” or “converting our fleet will save 20 tonnes of carbon per year”.
Health and wellbeing
Because legionella control is about protecting health, this theme is a natural fit. You can strengthen your response by going beyond compliance, for example by supporting vulnerable tenants with water safety awareness, contributing expertise to wider health campaigns, or introducing wellbeing programmes for your own staff so they are supported while delivering the contract.
Supporting local supply chains
Authorities want their local economy to benefit. You can commit to sourcing consumables such as PPE and testing kits from local SMEs, working with local subcontractors, or partnering with training providers in the area. If you can, set a percentage target, such as “we will direct at least 25% of our contract spend through SMEs based in the borough”.
How to Evidence Your Commitments
Evidence is the difference between an average answer and a high-scoring one. Always include measurable targets such as jobs created, apprenticeships started, volunteer hours delivered, or carbon saved. Where possible, use examples from past contracts to show you can deliver on your promises. Referencing recognised frameworks like TOMs gives your commitments extra credibility, and outlining how you will report progress – through quarterly updates or client dashboards – shows you take accountability seriously.
Common Mistakes We See in Social Value Responses
The most common reasons bidders lose marks are vague promises with no numbers, copying generic text that does not relate to legionella control, over-promising on things that are not realistic, and ignoring the contract context. Evaluators can spot a generic response a mile away, and it rarely scores well.
Structuring Your Response for Maximum Points
When we write social value responses for clients, we use a structure that evaluators find easy to score. Typically, this follows the below structure:
- Introduction – demonstrate an understanding of the authority’s priorities and set out your commitments under clear themes.
- Delivery Plan – who will do what and how.
- Monitoring and Reporting – how you will monitor and report social value outcomes.
- Previous Evidence – show how you have implemented social value in previous contracts.
- Brief summary of all commitments and align back to the authority’s specification.
Final Thoughts
Social value is now a deciding factor in legionella control bids. The strongest providers are those who not only deliver technically but also show how they will create lasting value for the community. From our perspective as bid writers, the difference between average and high scoring is all in the detail. The more specific, measurable, and relevant your commitments, the higher your marks.
If you are not sure where to start, that is where we can help. We specialise in translating technical services like legionella control into clear, high-scoring social value responses. We know what evaluators want to see, how to phrase it, and how to evidence it. With our support, you can walk into your next competition with a response that does not just meet the brief but actively secures maximum points.
Are You Ready to Win Legionella Tenders?
Bidding in the water hygiene and legionella sector can be time consuming and complex.
While it can be done internally, professional bid writing companies (like us at Bid Writing Service) can significantly boost your chances of water hygiene tender success through expert bid writing and end-to-end guidance throughout the entire bidding process.
Have a water hygiene tender submission coming up? Why not utilise our expert water hygiene tender writers? Contact us at michael.baron@bidwritingservice.com or lauren.moorhouse@bidwritingservice.com to discuss your needs, or, fill out the form below!
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