Two thirds of public housing providers put a focus on social value when they procure projects and that trend is likely to increase in future, a study backed by Wates Group has revealed.
The survey of 200 local authorities and housing associations, completed by Social Enterprise UK in collaboration with Wates, PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Chartered Institute of Housing and Orbit Group, aims to assess the importance of social value in procurement and the impact of the Social Value Act, which became law on 31 January 2013.
The survey found that 66% of respondents now consider social value for all services they procure, while 23% of respondents said they were looking to consider it.
A total 60% of respondents said they had a nominated lead for social value, the most common roles being a procurement or commissioning officer or a CEO. However, only a third (37%) said they had a written social value policy, with 48 working towards one in some way.
Rachel Woolliscroft, sustainability director at Wates, told CM: ”For contractors, the message is social value is here to stay, and will become an integral part of the procurement process. Contractors have a fantastic role to play in helping their clients achieve socail value and working in partnership with them.”
While clients’ conversations with contractors usually revolve around apprenticeship places, employment opportunities and training, Woolliscroft suggested that contractors could also look at supporting not-for-profit social enterprises as a means of creating social value.
“They’re well-positioned to trade with social enterprises, whether that’s labour agencies, product manufacturers or local painting and decorating businesses,” she said.
An overwhelming 82% of those surveyed said delivering social value had led to an “improved image of their organisation”, 78% said it had created better community relations; 71% said it led to better service delivery, and more than half (52%) said promoting social value led to cost savings.
The Social Value Act now requires all public sector bodies to consider how services they commission and procure might improve the economic, social and environmental well-being of an area. However, 56% of respondents said the act had had a low impact so far, while 39% said it had had a high impact, largely because they were doing it already.
The report states: “The Public Services (Social Value) Act has had limited direct impact on procurement to date; for some, it is too early to tell; for others, it reinforced existing practice; and for some, it requires more guidance and definition to realise its potential.”
The main barriers to integrating social value at councils included difficulties in defining social value and, most noticeably, difficulties in measuring social value both at the point of commissioning and in managing the contract afterwards.
