Guy Battle, CEO of Social Value Portal, explains how installing social value can be key to winning bids in public sector developments
Social value’s purpose is to bring people and organisations together to collaborate on building flourishing and sustainable communities. In actual fact, the majority of organisations today are already delivering social value, but many may not realise it – or know that it’s something that can be measured and reported.
For instance, organisations who buy and employ locally, have an apprenticeship scheme in place, employ those furthest from the job market, donate staff hours for volunteering in the community and/or have a plan to reduce carbon emissions are delivering social value.
Gross spending on public sector procurement in the UK stands at around £379bn, so there are significant opportunities for organisations of all shapes and sizes to win new contracts and grow their business. The key is to understand and deliver on social value.
Competition is understandably fierce so if you’re responsible for business development, every possible advantage is worth pursuing. From basics such as evidencing compliance to demonstrating a thorough understanding of the tender’s needs and pain points, there’s a lot to navigate in a bid submission.
Six elements of a winning bid
For almost a decade, we have worked both with organisations bidding for work as well as procurement and specifiers in the public sector. This gives us a unique perspective on what a winning bid looks like.
Strong foundations
If it isn’t already, now is the time to hard wire social value into your organisation from the top down, empowering the entire team to get involved to form a culture around doing good.
It will also make writing bids less arduous as the data and narrative will already be in place.
Clear understanding of what is being asked
It’s important to do the research, studying the buyer’s specific social and environmental priorities and policies and making sure that the information you include is directly relevant to your findings.
A good starting point is the scoring matrix and weighting the organisation will be using to evaluate the submission. Build a convincing story around that, make sure you can deliver on your promises and show how your offering is superior to the competition and you won’t go far wrong.
Solid planning
Buyers will be looking for a well organised plan which stands out so outlining the structure of the social value initiatives in line with the measures provided is key. If they are not stipulated, use the Social Value TOM System as a framework – many public sector buyers are familiar with this system.
Keep your delivery plan clear, providing details of who will be responsible, what the process for capturing social value will be and what reporting methods will be used and in what timescales.
Target setting
The local benefit of social value initiatives will undoubtedly be critical to the requirements of the tender so setting targets that are relevant and clearly achievable is key.
Check the unit of measurements that you will need to use, for example, if the question asks for the time spent on apprenticeships in weeks, use that specific unit.
In our experience, conducting a Local Needs Analysis to identify what the area most needs is a useful means of ensuring that targets set are relevant for the project needs.
Provision of evidence
Buyers need to feel confident that each measure can be achieved so instilling confidence in the targets by providing detailed information on your social value proposition and aligning it with the buyer’s goals and objectives will provide reassurance that targets will be met.
Wherever possible, demonstrate a strong track record by highlighting individual team member’s experience and expertise, offering case study stories of previous successes and demonstrating the positive impact that your organisation has already made.
Finesse
A well-paced document free from errors and brought to life with images and testimonials will demonstrate your organisation’s ability to get the job done.
It’s worth considering ways of offering something innovative or unique, that goes above and beyond the core requirements – it could gain extra points for the submission.
Advice on measuring and reporting social value
Set up in 2016, The National Social Value Taskforce is chaired by the Local Government Association and made up of 50 – 60 different organisations across the public and private sector. In 2017, we partnered with the Taskforce to develop the Social Value TOM System, a UK wide measurement framework that provides a standardised reporting system to help organisations maximise the social value they are delivering and set expectations that all stakeholders can relate to.
The ‘value’ of an activity matters, not only because of the financial savings delivered to society but also because it helps organisations to understand scale and impact. When the buyer sees that a social value strategy can deliver an additional 10-20% of the contract value, they quickly see that the impact is significant and matters.
The TOM system allows social value to be calculated and reported in bids. For instance, employing someone who is long-term unemployed is worth around £20,000 in social value. 50 volunteering hours donated is around £846 and removing one tonne of carbon emissions is the equivalent of £244 in social value – all of which can be justifiably reported and endorsed for a tender submission.
Putting the theory into practice – delivering social value and housing in Bristol
We work with leading engineering and environmental professional services firm WSP, which has been measuring, evaluating and reporting social value since 2020. By making a commitment to build a strong legacy and playing an active part in the communities it serves, Social Value has become a guiding principle for the way the organisation conducts itself.
Where possible, WSP aligns itself with the local supply chain to generate economic opportunities for MSMEs and seeks to build links with existing community groups in order to gain an in-depth understanding of the needs of a particular area.
For instance, WSP, and its supply chain partners, worked with the local council in delivering a number of housing development site projects in Bristol since 2020 which embedded social value into the day to day delivery of each project. This has included:
- Providing careers talks as part of the curriculum for Year 10 students; members of WSP’s team provided 20 hours’ worth of talks to students at Bristol Brunel Academy on a number of relevant topics; Transport Planning (for Geography students), Human Resources (for Business Management students), IT and Highways Engineering (for Engineering students), Marketing & PR (for English students).
- Replacement of 43rd Bristol scout hut; One of WSP’s partners on the project donated 25 hours of staff time over a three month period to replace the scout hut for a local scout group in Stoke Bishop.
- Delivery of climate sessions to a neighbourhood trust; Sustainability experts from WSP worked with a community climate action group at Lockleaze Neighbourhood Trust to support the group in its endeavours to engage with the community to reduce the local carbon footprint.
- Supply of wellbeing initiatives; WSP facilitated health assessmentsline managers owellbeing and stress awareness during the course of the project.
Overall, WSP, along with its partners delivered 56 hours of educational sessions, donated 74 volunteer hours to support local VCSE’s, provided 106 hours of business advice and fundraised £947 for a homeless project in the area.
As a result of collaborative initiatives such as these, WSP is able to clearly demonstrate an intuitive and thorough understanding of Social Value and the key role it plays in building stronger, fairer and greener communities as part of a wider contract delivery.
Emily Binning, director, Corporate ESG at WSP said: “There are four important factors 
when responding to Social Value requirements in a bid:
- Developing a local mindset
- Maintaining a clear focus on the priorities of the area (and the desired outcomes)
- Collaborating with other stakeholders
- Being creative in the approach
“Examples of positive social impact, such as our initiatives with communities in Bristol, form an essential aspect of future bid submissions, enabling us to provide evidence of how WSP can help its clients to deliver social value locally and improve people’s lives. It also has the knock-on effect of inspiring and educating individuals and organisations to embed social value programmes into their own projects.
“With ESG becoming increasingly important to the purpose and success of businesses within our sector and beyond, social value has moved from being a ‘nice-to-have’ to an immediate priority. For ESG strategies to be successful, it’s vital that social value threads through everything an organisation does and becomes an influencing factor on decision-making.”
