Social Value: the key to sealing deals in public sector contracts

Emphasis on boosting social, economic and ecological value in public sector procurement is not just about good PR – its now part of the tender process, and you need to join in.

With so much emphasis on social value in the public sector market, what do you include to ensure you achieve the highest percentage possible? Social value accounts for anything between 10-25% in some tenders, and when your technical response scores full marks, but you lose out to a competitor on social value by 1% because you didn’t give it the attention it deserves, it’s truly heart-breaking.

You have likely thought the following when completing your tender responses:

  • I’m an SME, I don’t have a track record of delivering social value
  • I can’t say for sure I actually know what counts as social value
  • I don’t know what will stand out for the client, my answers are always generic
  • Do I include a commentary, stats, impact, future goals, or a simple overview of activities and initiatives?
  • Am I actually doing the things I have mentioned?
  • How will my social value response be scored against other organisations?

This article aims to provide some quick guidance on how you can demonstrate to buyers you are serious about gaining their business, and are not only compliant but actively supporting the movement. I’ll run over how you can get started, develop your responses and a few of the key organisations that are leading the way including:

  • Social Value UK
  • Social Enterprise UK
  • The Social Value Portal
1. Get serious about it, and get wise

Firstly, you haven’t got a choice. If you want to be successful in the public sector, you need to get on board. It’s important to understand why you are having to demonstrate Social Value, and what it means for you. It will show in your tender responses whether you understand it or not.

You should avoid thinking of it as yet another tick box, alongside your many certificates for quality management, environmental management, health and safety, cyber security etc. It needs to be an integral part of your business if you intend on being successful in the modern public sector market. You need to aspire to become a Social Enterprise even if you don’t qualify as one.

If you haven’t educated yourself on social enterprises, its probably about time you did. Social Enterprise UK is the leading authority on social value, and I suggest you spend a little time scouting over their website to see what they do. They were instrumental to the passing of the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012. The silly and light hearted video below gives you an introduction if you have never heard of the term. Skip to 3:00 if you don’t want a school introduction to businesses..

There are some great guides on what Social Value is, their work, guides and events you can get involved in. You can sign up to become a social enterprise supporter, and get drip feeds into events and possible changes to the buying environment. They support the Social Value Portal, and have helped develop the tool.

2. Recording and showing focused commitment

To demonstrate your knowledge, and your commitment to your clients, you need to have a method for recording and reporting your actions. Empty promises to provide social value only get you so many marks. You need to ‘tell a story’ of how your organisation has delivered in the past and how you can do the same in your clients community. To do that, you need evidence from your social value programme.

There are loads of tools and guides to help you develop and maintain a Social Value programme, the difficulty is knowing what is best for you. With limited time and resources, you want to focus on the changes and impacts that make the greatest impact. Social Value UK is a support network that provides resources, tools and training on how to embed social value. They work alongside the Social Enterprise movement and so the principles and guidance is aligned.

As a start, the seven principles of Social Value are a nice way to think about why you are doing what you’re doing and create a strategy. You can download the guide here.

  1. Think about who your stakeholders are and map them out. For many this will be your clients, the communities you work in and your workforce. Don’t assume, make an effort to talk to these people, collect their views, understand what is important to them. You can also take a look at the governments own target themes on the GOV.UK website (a link to this is provided at the end of this article).
  2. Plan your social value. Specify what the organisation does, how it affects your stakeholders and how it intends to achieve its social, environmental and economic missions. Identify activities and programmes you will focus on that have the greatest impact on your stakeholders.
  3. Work out what indicators you will use. You need to be able to identify and show progress and outcomes. Here you will prioritise what is most important to measure and choose the ways in which you will see change happening. Choose indicators that allow you to ‘tell the story’ of your work and its Social Value.
  4. Determine what tools and systems you need, you will need two clear tools. You will need one to collect / record your activities and impacts and one to report these. Many contracts will require regular reporting in a standard format, so you need a clear process for this. Remember not to simply report the figures, the figures should evidence the changes you have made, and it is these positive changes that you are reporting.

The National Social Value Measurement Framework – or National TOMs for short – is a method of reporting and measuring social value to a consistent standard. The Social Value Portal’s online tool provides many activities that align to the government guidance and a method for reporting and measuring social value. It is nationally recognised, and several authorities have adopted this as a way of standardising commitments during procurement. Its run by the Social Value Portal, supported by Local Government Authority and ties with the other organisations mentioned in this article. Take a look at their website for more description on how the TOM’s work and how they are moving to standardise reporting.

3. Getting this down on paper

At the end of the day, you arrived here because you wanted to know how to achieve the highest score on your tenders, not to be told there is a bunch of stuff you need to do.

Hopefully you have taken a look at the three key organisations mentioned, and some time to understand the aim and purpose for social value in procurement. If you are brand new to this concept, then I hope this has inspired you to take action and get on board. If nothing else, your better understanding of social value as a concept, and the methods for capturing and reporting it will naturally come across in your responses.

If you have followed the guidance in this article, you should have all the ammo you need to score top marks. In your responses, evidence that you understand the key drivers for social value and your aspiration to support the movement. Show you have spoken to stakeholders (if possible the clients own team) and evaluated what is most important to them, developing a plan that intends to address these areas. Indicate how you will measure change, and the recording and reporting methods you will use to do this.

Remember that research is key. If you are able to speak with the client about both their targets and how they like to record and report social value, do. If not, many publish policies and reports on their social value targets online. Reference that you have spoken to their team / reviewed these documents and how you will tailor your activities to create measurable changes that support their targets.

More information and help

For more information on the social value movement, and how you can get involved visit either the Social Value Enterprise or the Social Value UK websites. Give them a call and explain your organisations aspirations and needs, they will offer advice and support. Social Value UK offers training and certification for those that would like to further demonstrate their support. For support in evaluating a social value question, or if you have queries on how to best demonstrate your efforts, feel free to send me a message and I can refer you to the right organisation or specialist.

Some of the links in the article, plus some other useful sites:

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