Enhancing Social Value in Public Procurement: A Collaborative Approach

Enhancing Social Value in Public Procurement: A Collaborative Approach

Bloom's latest post highlighted some crucial points on the need for social value in public procurement, resonating deeply with us. This prompted us to collaborate with Bloom to produce a joint perspective.

Our Commitment to Social Value

For those familiar with us, social value has always been a cornerstone of our propositions. We believe that method statements, commitments, and timed-action plans must translate into tangible societal impacts. Unfortunately, we've often seen buyers trying to just complete a 10% tick-box exercise, and we have seen tenders filled with promises but lacking in action.

Both Maureen and I have been championing the cause for our procurements, and we found a common purpose when we started Vinmore. Of course, Maureen’s recent role as a social value ambassador at the Home Office helped as she remains our go-to-expert for SV matters. We’re equally impressed by Bloom’s efforts to keep the focus on social value – to the extent that we count this as a major differentiator for their offering. Indeed, what’s good for society is also good for your own business!

Challenges in Government Priorities

With recent elections and geopolitics (and polarised opinions), you don’t need to be a procurement or politics expert to note the overall direction of travel for social value implementation. Government priorities are constantly shifting, and they’re already affecting policies around Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and environmental initiatives. As I assist a tender response on DEI, I can only hope the evaluation panel can keep their political ideology aside and think in line with the Social Value Model.

But is the Social Value Model perfect? The last iteration was in December 2020, with Theme 1 listed as Covid-19 recovery. We expect the National Procurement Policy Statement to influence the model with a major update reflecting the priorities of the Labour Government. We hope the government will be incentivised to make these models meaningful rather than diluting them.

Another example is the government’s commitment to SMEs. Both the Procurement Act 2023 and the Social Value Model emphasise SME supply chains, but the reality on the ground is significantly different. Public sector procurements are simply not SME-friendly. As a micro-SME, we've faced numerous hurdles, such as the CCS's FVRA tool rejecting start-ups without three years of accounts. Only selected frameworks like Nepro3 and Bloom offer viable routes to government contracts for SMEs with low barriers to entry. Most experts agree that PA23 has not gone far enough to make any difference.

Our Collaborative Efforts

Bloom and Vinmore are committed to making a difference in this evolving landscape. Regardless of political changes, we remain passionate about keeping social value at the heart of our organisation.

We also see suppliers who have stepped up significantly in this area – and we see a major driver for supplier investments in underinvested regions, underrepresented groups, and sustainable policies. Last year, we (Vinmore) worked with over 14 suppliers who made significant investments in their social value teams, worked closely with their social value partners, and made a substantial difference in their teams, customers, and communities. Our PALS offering was uniquely created to match large suppliers with SMEs and VCSEs – with some of the first matches around social value partners.

How do we then collectively take the social value agenda forward? Here are some recommendations for government buyers, frameworks, and suppliers:

Government Buyers

1. Dedicated Social Value Expertise: Create social value ambassadors or change agents within your teams to ensure impactful procurements.
2. Meaningful Metrics: Focus on a few, meaningful metrics proportionate to the procurement's size and subject, considering SMEs' capabilities.
3. Industry Collaboration: Provide clear guidance to suppliers on regional focus and skill development to maximise social impact.

Framework and Commercial Organisations (including us)

1. Category-Specific Requirements: Develop social value criteria tailored to different professional service sub-categories.
2. Measurement Framework: Implement and use measurement frameworks to track the impact of procurements.

Supplier Organisations

1. Integrate Social Metrics: Incorporate social commitment metrics into your service offerings.
2. Dedicated Social Value Capability: Develop teams to support social initiatives from start to finish.
3. Monitor Impact: Measure and report the impact of social initiatives through KPIs and transparency metrics.

Conclusion

Social value remains a central proposition for us, and we urge the government buyers, including major programmes and commercial teams, and suppliers to build upon this proposition together with us in 2025