‘Social value’ is one way that we get additional value from Council contracts.
What is social value?
The Council use the national Sustainable Procurement Taskforce definition of social value as:
“A process whereby organisations meet their needs for goods, services and works and utilities in a way that achieves value for money on a whole life basis in terms of generating benefits not only to the organisation, but also to society and the economy, whilst minimising damage to the environment.”
How do we include this in our contracts?
We currently include a social value element of between 5 and 20% in all contracts we have with suppliers that are over £50k. More detail of this is included in our Social Value policy.
What is Solihull’s approach to social value?
We measure and evaluate the social value created on our contracts using the National TOMs Framework. The TOMs (Themes, Outcomes, Measures) are used to measure and evaluate the social value element of the contract submission.
The TOMs measure delivery of social value under the following headings:
- Promoting local skills and employment (Jobs)
- Supporting growth of responsible regional business (Business)
- Creating healthier, safer and more resilient communities (Social)
- Protecting and improving our environment (Environment)
- Promoting social innovation (Innovation)
A Social Value Toolkit is currently being developed to help support suppliers with this process.
You can find our more about our approach at the Social Value Portal.
For any queries in relation to social value please email socialvalue@solihull.gov.uk.
Case studies list
Our case studies show how we have applied social value to our past projects: