Social Value - A Leadership Change

The Social Value Act of 2012 was one of the first pieces of legislation in the world that required public bodies to think about the additional social, economic and environmental impact of public spending when commissioning services.

2022 was the 10th anniversary of this Public Services (Social Value Act). Recent legislation changes, namely the new Procurement Policy Note (PPN 06/320) came into force with effect on 01/01/2021. This has added weight to the Social Value Act of 2012, ensuring firstly that all public procurement tenders must allocate a minimum of 10% of the total award criteria to social value.

Therefore, for any business, public, private and third sector, who are submitting, winning or delivering within the parameters of public procurement – not only do they need to evidence in the tender submission how a minimum of 10% of the total award criteria is focused on social value; they equally need to evidence how they will meet the criteria of delivering along the main themes of social value and demonstrate their measurement of this, including its impact.

Social value crosses these 4 main themes:

(a)  Increasing secure employment and skills; (b) building ethical and resilient supply chains; (c) delivering zero carbon; (d) promoting wellbeing.

Albeit, these are 4 broad themes and can be dissected further into areas such as:

Covid 19 Recovery; equal opportunities; economic inequality; climate change; well-being etc.

However, it’s not necessarily the planning of including these in Public Procurement Tenders that help Businesses win tenders, more importantly, it’s the benefit to our communities, the wider societal benefits and the impact overall to how we work, live and create an inclusive and better society that businesses and business leaders should focus us. The value of the output of support across these areas ensures that there is accountability for creating a better living standard for ALL.

There are blurred lines between Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Social and Governance, but as Social Value Responsibility emerges further into economic and business environments, we will continue to see a shift in business attitudes and thinking that requires all of us, business leaders, employers and employees being equally responsible to ensure that we focus on Social Value for ALL. Ultimately, the way we live and work is constantly changing. The requirements this legislation places on us, ensures we are accountable and responsible for changing it for the better – and what’s not to like about that!

Leah McStravick, MALIC

Director, Full Circle Management Solutions Ltd