Social value should be on every business leader’s agenda. Concerto’s new Social Value service offer is designed to support our clients through a crucial future business requirement. We provide the tools to help you through what can be a bewildering maze, so that you can really make a difference.

What social value is

Social value is still very much an emerging concept and there are many potential definitions and ways of considering it. Broadly speaking, ‘social value’ refers to the use of business economic activities to achieve two major sets of social objectives: 1. Improving social mobility, inclusion and opportunity; and 2. Addressing climate change.

Whilst these sound like big, daunting objectives, finding ways to incorporate them into business activity helps break them down into more manageable tasks. Improving social mobility could mean working with local communities to improve employment prospects for disadvantaged groups, perhaps by establishing educational outreach programmes, apprenticeships, meet and learn experiences and so on. On the topic of addressing climate change, social value could translate into strategies for Net Zero Carbon and implementing other environmental protection and improvement projects that benefit the community, such as green space initiatives.

There are many other terms in use to describe social value: ‘Sustainability’ being one, and ‘Social Impact’ being another. Part of the challenge is to understand what each term is being used to describe and what businesses can do to maximise the benefits they can deliver.

Why is social value important?

Working to have a positive impact on society, the environment and climate is not only the right thing to do for any organisation. Increasing evidence also shows that it leads to improved business outcomes. All of this is recognised in the UK Government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda, as well as recent public procurement guidelines requiring businesses engaged in delivering public contracts to take social value activities more seriously than ever before; and of course, Covid-19 has brought questions surrounding inequality, the future of our society, sustainability and the climate, to the forefront of the business agenda. Additionally, large corporate investors are placing increased pressure on organisations to, at the very least, comply with the sustainability agenda. For example, BlackRock has caused a real stir amongst the investment community with its emphasis on sustainable investing. This feeling was reinforced by the recent Lord Mayor of London’s speech to the finance industry with his clear, succinct message of: ‘Go green or go home’.

Social value and public procurement

In terms of public procurement, we have recently seen a small avalanche of notices, policy statements, Green Book re-writes, and procurement guidance notes setting out various social value requirements.

If your business works with the public sector, it is likely that you have already recognised the fact that all bids for public contracts now have a minimum of 10% of their marks based on an assessment of social value delivery. Additionally, public contracts are beginning to link social value with overall contract performance, meaning that payment to suppliers will be increasingly linked to delivering on the social value promises made in bids. This means that companies need to be able to measure the social value they create and report against it to meet contract compliance conditions.

How Concerto can help

Whether or not you work with the public sector, delivering social value will no doubt be an important business requirement for the future. Your customers, as well as your Gen Z and late Millennial employees, are likely to care deeply about how your business performs in this area. Doing the right thing for society and the climate will be a key differentiator in your market, as well as a way to attract the best talent.

To support our clients through this hugely important business conundrum, Concerto has developed a new social value offer, focusing on three key service lines:

1. Social value strategy development: incorporating social value into your overall business strategy and advising on implementation;
2. Public sector procurement support: demonstrating, implementing, and measuring social value business activity in ways that are readily captured for use in bids and subsequent contract award; and
3. Cultural development and social value: embedding social value into your organisational culture.

To discuss what Social Value means for your business and how Concerto can help you translate Social Value objectives into business outcomes, please get in touch with our Social Value lead and Partner, Anne-Marie Southall (a.southall@concerto.uk.com)

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