What is Social Value

Social Value is the additional benefit to the community from a commissioning / procurement process over and above the direct purchasing of goods, services and outcomes

Examples of social value might include:

• A mental health service which employs people with a history of mental health problems to help deliver the service – the social value of this commissioning activity is employment for mental health service users, decreased social isolation for them and increased job control
• The purchase of 50,000 leaflets or posters for a stop smoking campaign, with the added social value of using a local supplier stimulating the local economy and employment
• A good neighbour scheme which uses volunteers - The social value of this is attributed to volunteers being targeted from specific age groups and locations in line with other indicators, decreasing social isolation for the primary group of individuals (the purpose of the commission), but also for the volunteers (social value)
• A housing Arms Length Management Organisation sets up a tendering process for firms to undertake repair work on their properties. The winning firm is a group that offered to provide social value in the form of promoting careers in construction and trades to local schools; they are also committed to employing local apprentices and working with the local neighbourhoods.

How does it fit into the wider agenda?

• Social Value has an important role to play in cementing partnership relationships, allowing partners to clearly demonstrate their contribution to each other’s agendas
• The development of social value is likely to form part of the revised World Class Commissioning assessment process
• This links with the work being undertaken by the English and Scottish governments around the use of social return on investment (SROI) methods to demonstrate true public value
• The use of social value can clearly demonstrate how additional benefits have been leveraged from public sector investment in ‘places’ and can support increases in social justice, the embedding of social protection and the strengthening of community cohesion
• Value for money is concerned not just with unit costs, but with what has been called the full value or public benefit that a provider brings to delivering a service. This is where social value concepts have a vital role to play
• The use of social value means that decisions to award contracts are based upon more than just cost and quality and so the potential field of providers for services is opened up to social enterprises, third sector organisations and support private sector organisations to deliver on a wider agenda
• By freeing up providers to demonstrate the wider value that they can bring to the provision of services, space can be created for innovation by encouraging new entrants and empowering staff to improve quality. This clearly links to the NHS QIPP agenda.
• The use of a social value framework has the potential for all partners to demonstrate their impact across other areas of the public sector.

Contact Details

Brett Nelson
mobile: 07827 804 156
office: 0161 830 2139
brett.nelson@cpcltd.com

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