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Emergency services spend millions buying goods and services from suppliers so when it comes to evaluating bids for work, the opportunity to get additional value out of the contract is an attractive proposition if it helps meet net zero targets and local communities along the way.
In a recent webinar hosted with partner Crown Commercial Service, we explored the topic of social value in procurement.
“Social value is all about using the power of our procurement to drive additional benefits and value.”
Charlene Maginnis, policy lead for Crown Commercial Service.
Charlene Maginnis is from Crown Commercial Service and she acknowledges that social value is not a new concept, going back to legislation passed back in 2012. Explaining that the implementation of social value has evolved over the last 12 years, with 2020 a pivotal year that saw the publication of Public Policy Note 6/20. It set out how social value should be taken into account in the award of central government contracts.
The Procurement Act comes into force later this year provides another spur for social value and Mick Johnson hopes that the Act will be an opportunity for the public sector to move much further forward in the way it uses and benefits from social value aspects of its contracts.
Mick leads on sustainability for Cheshire Constabulary and Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service. It is a joined up approach to providing many services across the organisations that he says means that while police may be further forward in how it looks at social value than its partners in fire, “it is a conversation that’s happening all of the time now.”
“You can win and lose a contract on social value,” he says, even though it only accounts for 10 per cent of the evaluation of a contract. He says there is more to be done to get this right and given its potential impact on local communities and climate goals, the additional value that can come from creative thinking has the potential to be huge. He cautions that whatever is put in the tender needs to be realistic and deliverable.
Social value in refurbishment
Much of the discussion in the webinar was focused on the case study from Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service and its fire station refurbishment project. Wates won the £8.5m five-year project that is still ongoing and so far has resulted in £1.6m of social value benefits to the surrounding area of Cheshire.
He explains that this kind of contract can be easier from a social value perspective as “large construction companies come to the table with mature methods and processes.” In fact, Wates has its own stand alone department to deal with delivering the social value elements of contracts with clients.
This case study shows how a contract can use social value to have benefits in the local area. In Cheshire young people are involved in the Princes Trust programme and the refurbishment offered opportunities for them to get experience and skills with the supplier. While the Princes Trust wasn’t in the actual tender, the delivery of the requirements was through them, and Mick says that it was an “easy win.”
He also emphasises he importance of the relationship between Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service and Wates maturing over the duration of the contract and the serendipity that comes from spotting small things along the way. He recalls when staff working on the refurbishment of one fire station spotted that an elderly neighbour’s fence had blown down in the wind and volunteered to fix it. Small gestures like this, he says, have big impacts on the local community and can be an unintended result of having contractors around for a long time.
Concentrating on the local supply scheme, the contract emphasised the need to work with local people and that includes the sub contractors ‘to pass the value down the line.’ Mick says that £1.4m of the spend was in local area with 74 per cent of the overall supply chain coming from within the county or 30 minutes of the county border. “It does mean then that local people are working on the project and are seeing their tax spent in their area.”
A hyper local approach like this worked in Cheshire and Charlene says that at its heart, social value is primarily seen as a local approach. Construction projects are tangible and she says that they are easy to measure in terms of inputs and results.
She does caution that with procurement of IT services like Cloud storage, “Contractors need to be more creative about how to deliver social value.” In Central Government there was a push for IT suppliers to deliver social value by providing digital skills to civil servants. It’s another way of providing the additional value that the original legislation was looking to achieve.
Sharing the learning and what works
While Mick majored on the fire station case study, he talks with great enthusiasm about the benefits of networks to share learning and what works when it comes to getting social value right. He chairs the Emergency Services Environment and Sustainability Working Group where the blue lights are joining up with government and others to do exactly this.
Crown Commercial Service is enabling conversations across the blue lights too, facilitating discussion not only with services but also suppliers. “We talk about the snags with social value and how we can we smooth the process to get better outcomes.” Charlene says that early supplier engagement is critical and for both sides to understand the art of the possible before the procurement starts.
Charlene also has advice on how to measure the social value “Procurement people love to show numbers. It’s easy. But with social value so much is about individual impact and you can’t put a number on that. We mustn’t get caught in a numbers trap.”
Measuring impact is hard and the benefits can evolve over time but do they get seen at a political or strategic level? Mick says that it should but doesn’t, or it is unusual. Some shout about the benefits from the rooftops but he worries that it only becomes favourable when there’s an election in the offing. He is hopeful that there is more interest within organisations like NFCC and NPCC, although he cautions that it is “far too slow, but going in the right direction.” Funding is an issue and whether there are enough staff to manage the social value conversations, the measurement and sharing the delivery more widely.
Asked what advice would the panel offer to those listening to the webinar, Mick responded,
“You’ve got to record, review, monitor and actively shout about social value. When you do report it, shout it from the rooftops.”
Charlene urged people to be open minded and to be open to borrowing from others. She encouraged the emergency services to look at the central government model for social value and to share as much as possible.
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This is a summary of the discussion from the 22 February 2024 webinar, Sustainable impact: bringing social value to life in the emergency services. This is available to view on catch up.
