Where the clever money is: how public spending is adding real social value to the lives of people in Scotland

When a new SPPN10/20 notice came into effect in Scotland at the start of 2021, mandating that social value had to be realized from all public procurement activity – rather than previously only ‘considered’ – we got to work with our Scottish public sector clients to support and guide them on this new and significant journey.

Any new legislation involves change. Mandating ‘social value’ as a benefit of spending Scottish taxpayer’s money on public projects, is a less quantifiable change; and understandably, public bodies need help to navigate their way through understanding what it means and getting it right.

A social return of investment

Fundamentally, adding social value means gaining some additional, positive benefits from government spending secondary to delivering the main project or service, but not necessarily adding additional cost. For local authorities that could mean helping to boost the local economy through re-skilling, employment initiatives or by only using local suppliers. Alternatively, it could mean providing extra opportunities for young people from disadvantaged areas through work placement schemes, apprenticeships, or schools’ outreach activities. Another growing area of activity is introducing net zero schemes to promote sustainability and recycling: there are many, many creditable routes to releasing social value in Scotland’s cities.

AtkinsRéalis has experience and expertise in social value consultancy services to support clients to start doing this. For some years we have been operating our own social value schemes; initiatives that go beyond the usual corporate social responsibility activity, towards helping to truly transform lives, such as though paid apprenticeships and work placements. As such, we have been able to provide a social value consultancy service that advises on what works well, helping our clients introduce similar schemes, and evaluate them to demonstrate the social impact they’re having.

Changing lives

For Scape, and its multiple programs of work, we have set out by using TOMS (themes, outcomes and measures) to report on these activities. Scape is a public sector organization dedicated to creating social value via the built environment. We have also established a community legacy charter, signed by all our Scape Scotland supply chain partners, that focuses on our overall collaborative commitments, and how they’ll be measured to show the positive impact they’re making on people’s lives.

Partnering with Local Authorities, the Scottish Government, the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce, Developing Young Workforce and our fellow framework partners, we have identified around 300 potential social value activities or objectives, under set themes. Using the TOMS methodology, we can report on the monetary value generated from these activities – which now include launching breakfast clubs in primary schools and a pilot mentoring project to encourage high school students to explore a career in construction. More recently we have celebrated Scottish Apprenticeship Week with a presentation from our Apprentice Project Manager at Craigmount High School, Edinburgh. Other activities include working with Scottish universities, such as funding PPE for university clubs and societies, to hosting guest lectures, and giving careers talks to boost awareness of careers in construction to support graduate employability.

Progress from pounds

Even at this early stage our calculations set the social value realized from this activity at around £100,000 in Social Return on Investment (SROI). Other early progress includes over 30 volunteering events and over 50 events to local schools promoting careers in the built environment. Further plans include the development of a construction app for school students, a suite of educational resources, and more face-to-face outreach sessions as classrooms return to normality, post-Covid-19.

Social value is an important and exciting new consideration for public sector organizations and for businesses. Our support is threefold: we’re providing consultancy based on our own experience, we’re providing hands-on help through our professional teams’ time– and we’re tying up this activity by providing real, tangible evidence of the financial value of these initiatives through evaluation.

To be able to quantify something that until now has been regarded as unquantifiable – the social value in every pound spent by The Scottish Government – is a significant step forward. We believe that in tackling the socio-economic and environmental challenges within our towns and cities in this way, social value really is where the clever money is.