Unlocking Social Value

We create strong, sustainable places for our communities.

One of the many ways in which we do this is through our Unlocking Social Value programme.

What is social value?

Social value measures the wider impact activities and investments have on the wellbeing of communities.

It goes beyond the cash value and looks at the benefits our support brings to our customers lives.

This could be helping customers find jobs, improving a community centre so more people can enjoy it, or investing in local services so people are able to do more.

The partnerships we have with our contractors and suppliers mean we can work with them to identify how we create opportunities that maximise social value for our customers and communities.

Through our procurement process we ask contractors and suppliers about the social value they can bring to benefit our customers and communities. 

In most cases, they demonstrate how they will support our social value work by pledging against a set of key measures. Their response is then assessed as part of our selection process.

We work in partnership with our contractors and suppliers to deliver the social value that forms part of their contract, making sure the opportunities our spend creates help our communities.

For us, social value is about more than measurement. It’s about linking the opportunities created through our investment to the work of our teams and the needs of our communities.

We use The National TOMs (Themes, Outcomes and Measures) which shows the wider benefit our activity has on local communities, the economy and the environment, looking at things like economic growth and employment, innovations and resilience.

Recent social value activity

We want to say a big thank you to all the contractors and suppliers provide our customers and communities with the support they need to build strong foundations for life.

Here are just some of the recent examples:

The social value of volunteering

Volunteering can come in all shapes and sizes. 

As part of their social value commitments, contractors and suppliers often pledge volunteering time to support our communities. 

That's what BDS (Northern) Ltd did when they helped West Northumberland Foodbank.

Find out more
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