Social Value UK and SCC

The overview

When Social Value UK wanted an experienced services business represented in its new Contract for Change programme, the national network for social value and social impact asked SCC. As part of its CSR programme, SCC is supporting Social Value UK by volunteering time, expert resource, and cloud video conferencing software, BlueJeans, to help drive forward social value in public sector procurement, improve productivity, and significantly reduce Social Value UK’s carbon footprint.

About Social Value UK

Social Value UK is a national network for social value and social impact. Its mission is to change the way the world accounts for value through training, events, assurance and accreditation, tools, and campaigns. It is a member led social enterprise, working across all sectors with all people who are dedicated to changing how we account for value to change all of our lives for the better.

An advocate for a principles-based approach to accounting for value, with people at the heart and centre, Social Value UK’s mission is based on principles, people, practice, and power. It is a Joint Member Network of Social Value International (SVI); the UK arm of the global network.

Social Value International works to ensure key decisions about resources and policies are made using a sound economic concept of value, considering important effects on people and the environment. The network is a community of 24 affiliated national networks and members from 45 countries, representing a range of disciplines from private, public and civil society sectors.

Social Value UK’s core values include working collaboratively and inclusively across the membership, being open and transparent about commercial interests and any conflicts of interest, respecting other members and their starting point on social value journey, using clear language to make content accessible to all, being innovative and bold in its solutions, and supporting the Social Value Principles and SVI assurance and accreditation services.

What is social value?

According to Social Value UK: “Social value is about people’s lives. We are all people, and we all interact with a wide variety of other people every day, both professionally and personally. What we do affects people’s lives and our lives are affected by the activities and actions of others. Our current accounting system does not take this into account.

“Social value looks at the changes that people experience in their lives because of our activities and values these changes. Importantly these changes must be valued from the perspective of those that experience the change. This allows us to capture what is most valuable, and to understand the relative importance of these changes to those that experience them. We can then do more of what is most important, and less of what isn’t.”

Much of Social Value UK’s definition of social value mirrors the values SCC strives to uphold as a business every day, delivering value back into the communities it serves through its extensive CSR programme. SCC’s aim is to harness the power of technology to transform lives with the objective of enabling our people to positively contribute in a way that is personal, valuable and meaningful to them and the business.

SCC’s approach is simple and supported by its family values. Its CSR programme exists to fulfil responsibilities to customers, employees, suppliers, communities, charities and the global environment. SCC is committed to ensuring its business is ethical, safe, professional, environmentally responsible and active in the community – making SCC a perfect fit to partner Social Value UK.

About Contract for Change

Social Value UK’s Contract for Change (CfC) programme ensures the approach to embedding social value through procurement and commissioning is inclusive, transparent and evidence based. The programme is delivered through working collaboratively, by co-creating and refining the programme and supporting workstreams on an ongoing basis, using specialist skills and expertise from within the Social Value UK network.

CfC was devised in order to maximise the social value created by organisations or sectors by ensuring procurement and commissioning reflect the organisations social value priorities into the functions strategic approach, policies and operations. Under the CfC programme, Social Value UK shares and publishes all documents and output, free to use for all network members, who are encouraged to offer differing views and approaches as part of establishing an evidence base for best practices.

It provides direction in how to position, plan, operate, and provide for the creation of greater social value by organisations. CfC brings together buyers, suppliers, policy makers, commissioners, practitioners, academics and other interested stakeholders to create a comprehensive understanding of social value and how to implement best practices.

CfC is a broad ‘principles-led’ approach to social value that can be embedded throughout an organisation from strategy all the way down to detailed commissioning and procurement practices. This approach provides a framework for organisations to successfully:

• Provide clarity on organisational intent around social value;
• Connect their organisational and functional strategies to their operations;
• Identify their key social value goals and integrate these into their organisational activity;
• Design their commissioning and procurement activity around their social value goals;
• Ensure effective measurement and reporting;
• Provide a route for continuous improvement and decision making.

This includes a toolkit of guides, case studies, templates and tools which support the practical implementation of the methodologies.

SCC Engagement

David Shields is a Non-Executive Director for Social Value UK. He is Chief Executive of Apsiz Services, a specialist interim/permanent resourcing services, bid management and consultancy services company.. David has undertaken a number of public and private sector roles, with his last UK public sector role being the Managing Director to Government Procurement Service (a trading fund of the Cabinet Office) where he took a central role in setting out a significant programme of transformation extending over a two year period and was a key part of the Efficiency & Reform Groups approach to delivering substantial public sector efficiencies

As a leading supplier of IT services into public sector, David knew of SCC and its experience and knowledge of public sector procurement – as well as its proactive CSR programme and values – and was keen to enlist SCC as a member of Social Value UK and contributor to the CfC programme.

David said: “SCC has a long-standing affinity with the public sector, and I knew the value they could add. SCC knows the pros, the cons, and the quirks of the public sector procurement cycle, and is actively responding to tenders on an on-going basis. They know the other side of the coin and they are a services company, which offers a new perspective on best practice. I was delighted to welcome Graham Lane onto the CfC steering group – and with the additional benefits that SCC has provided.”

Graham Lane, Head of Frameworks at SCC, joined Social Value UK’s CfC steering group ahead of its inaugural meeting in December 2019. As well as Graham’s time and expertise, provided on a voluntary basis, SCC has also enabled enhanced productivity and a boost to Social Value UK’s green credentials by supplying access to BlueJeans, a leading cloud video conferencing software.

David added: “CfC is a completely voluntary programme, so we want to maximise the time given by our steering group and network members. Previously, we relied on people traveling, which made it harder to host regular meetings and increased out carbon footprint. We wanted to find a way for people to meet and share documentation without the need for travel – SCC has enabled this, free of charge, as well as additional functionality that has already made tangible improvements to productivity and the environment.”

The Result

With as many as 10 workstreams under the CfC programme, each requiring regular, monthly meetings attended by people spread across the UK and internationally, Blue Jeans has saved the time, cost, and environmental impact of significant travel. BlueJeans also enables Social Value UK to record and transcribe meetings, share and collaborate on live documents, and annotate meeting notes using integrated AI technology.

SCC also provided training material and demonstrations and will extend this across the whole Social Value UK network in the months ahead.

David summarised: “It might sound like a small thing, but we don’t want people taking notes in meetings. Using BlueJeans, meetings are recorded, notes are ordered, actions are highlighted, and we get maximum value from attendees.

“SCC’s impact has not been limited to providing BlueJeans as an application. They’ve brought their enthusiasm, experience and expertise to the CfC programme and the impact is considerable. Part of what we want to achieve together is to enable better procurement in the public sector to fundamentally improve and drive benefits from social value. Having that social value perspective can be beneficial to tens of thousands of organisations.”