When themes become missions: what’s the impact?
Beth Stephens
Social Value Development Lead, Sopra Steria
For many, the arrival of the PPN 002 Social Value model was just one change in a major public procurement overhaul. For those specialising in social value, it was a long-awaited update to ensure that social value is considered when awarding contracts.
Five years since the pandemic started, continuing to group community recovery and investment under the Covid-recovery theme, it is often overlooked in social value procurement. Now, placed under the Kickstart Economic Growth Mission, there’s a fresh opportunity for greater focus and engagement.
Alignment with Government Missions
At Sopra Steria, we work with clients to develop social value programmes that drive positive change in business and society. Our central aim is to deliver services that benefit people and the planet and align with our purpose of making life better.
The introduction of government missions should help strengthen the role of social value in public procurement, but there are also potential risks to navigate.
Working day-to-day on public sector social value responses, I see huge variation in the understanding of procuring teams in the Government and supplier organisations. The mission says, “break down barriers”. The focus then splits into employment and training or creating an opportunity pipeline, then it splits again to consider opportunities for people with disabilities, less-represented communities, deprived regions, the provision of apprenticeships, etc. Different interpretations across, or even within, bids can reduce transparency and may even go so far as to affect the impact of a solution.
Social value should be outcome-led
The missions are very high-level outcomes spanning major services, intended to drive societal change. Contract-level social value often focuses on smaller, incremental activity.
Therein lies the challenge.
How can we draw a line between the mission statement of breaking down barriers to opportunity and the day-to-day running of an employability programme in an underrepresented community at the point of procurement?
Tenders interpret the social value model in many ways; some so broadly it’s impossible to identify what a meaningful outcome would look like, some incredibly specifically, but without consideration for the realities of the delivery. For example;
Asking for recruitment initiatives in a contract which will not increase headcount;
Requesting apprenticeships on a 6-month contract;
Trying to increase diversity in a location where demographics can’t support real change.
These are just a few of the well-meant, unfeasible outcomes I’ve seen in the past year – examples of where the mission may be right, but there’s a significant gap between ambition and reality.
The answer, thankfully, is a simple one. Co-Design. Communication. Collaboration.
These fundamental principles of social value, simply applied alongside the new model, could accelerate progress, increasing education and awareness levels across the procurement sector.
At Sopra Steria, we advocate for early shaping and work with clients to consider desired social value outcomes as a key requirement of our programme design.
Our approach is:
Co-design: Start the conversation earlier. Participation between the tenderer and the market is required to understand how the mission should be interpreted in the context of the desired outcomes from social value initiatives under the contract.
Communication: We should work to our strengths. Have open conversations about where the types of businesses bidding can make the most impact. Digital companies are not best placed to impact the built environment, and construction firms may find it challenging to create digital skills opportunities. Communicate the desired outcome and challenge bidders to innovate to their strengths. Asking for something that will be immediately outsourced reduces impact.
Collaboration: develop contract-level outcomes and measures that support the mission but have a specific, measurable impact.
Potential for change
The launch of the missions can drive a shift to contract-level outcomes. It could be a reset moment in how we think about social value. It could challenge suppliers to offer new, specific, impactful activities rather than copy-pasting the same corporate policies.
It could support a tender that asks for a targeted, localised campaign to increase green skills in an economically inactive community, rather than a generic recruitment campaign to a city-based head office.
It could inspire a solution that co-creates an awareness campaign, educating service users on how to be more ethical consumers and avoid businesses that use forced labour rather than just requiring the existence of a Modern Slavery policy.
The next six months could establish the mission as a catalyst for change. Social value experts stand ready to support buyers and the broader world in developing a greater understanding of how we can make an impact. It’s now for buyers and suppliers to take advantage of this expertise and drive change. Failure to do this could result in the missions becoming no more than a rebrand.
