The recent legislative emphasis on ‘social value’ is a welcome shift in public policy thinking. Through Chris White MP’s Public Services (Social Value) Act, which came onto the statute book in February 2012, all public bodies in England and Wales are for the first time required to consider how the services they commission and procure might improve the economic, social and environmental well-being of the area. Other guidance and policy emphases sit alongside this Act, and have now been established for some time, but it offers a way through which public bodies can be ‘nudged’ to incorporate social value in both the services the they procure and the services that they deliver.

Laudable as this requirement is, however, the renewed emphasis on social value, much like David Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ agenda, has received a mixed reaction, and to date, little impact. The social value agenda is in danger of producing short-term and tokenistic solutions to long-term social and economic problems. ‘Contracting in’ social value and establishing a defined list of ‘social requirements’, as is often its interpretation, could cultivate an overly bureaucratic ‘tick box’ exercise that does not allow for flexibility and innovation, and, most importantly, a meaningful form of engagement with the service users and surrounding community. Quantifiable approaches to its measurement have also produced narrow understandings of what social value truly entails. Social value should rather be ‘demonstrated’ through cases, qualitative research and long-term engagement with all stakeholders involved.

We need to press for a far more radical social settlement than this duty implies. The emphasis on the ‘social’ and the associative has huge potential to deliver a transformative agenda that calls for a new social foundation upon which our public and private markets could be based. Far beyond ‘tick box’ exercises, or the establishment of ‘social requirements’, intermediary institutions can act as facilitators, enablers and capacity builders for a whole new social economy.

In a ResPublica report due to be published this autumn, which explores the role of housing associations in delivering successful localism, we argue that intermediaries such as housing associations can play, not only a role in pressing for good social practice in procurement procedures, but also a key part in facilitating such a local, social economy. Many housing associations can act as facilitators, incubators and guarantors to support a whole range of social initiatives, whether at the early ideas or ‘start-up’ stage, or throughout the development of a sustainable business model.

Housing associations have also been leaders in weaving social value into their core business strategies, indicating an emerging shift away from ad hoc community engagement. The housing association, Plus Dane Group, has recently been re-branded as a ‘Neighbourhood Investor’, completely re-organising all operations to ensure that this role is firmly embedded in everything that they do. This has crucially not equated to bad business. To the contrary, Plus Dane has this year reported a £2M increase in turnover with only a £400K increase in costs. Through operational savings elsewhere, £5M has now been freed up to directly invest in the neighbourhoods it serves. This is where localism becomes the key to the delivery of social value and vice versa. Marrying the two agendas will safeguard against national, prescriptive models, or a purely individualistic and ineffectual approach to social renewal.

Of greatest importance, therefore, is the need to look ‘beyond the bill’ to the Government’s broader agenda and Britain’s successful social economy. We must ensure that social value is woven into the Government’s Open Public Services initiative, for example, but also to the potential for wider user-led and owned services to deliver real equitable returns to our most deprived communities. Reforms to the social care system also offer a unique opportunity to stimulate new social and asset-based models to public service and personalised care. With changes to the banking and financial services sectors, and their regulators also, the Government must consider where the ‘social’ will likely fit in.

This new agenda cannot so much be delivered through additional national legislation – social value itself must be something to emerge within a community rather than without. Rather, it should manifest itself through local accountability, self-regulation and through a radical change in culture amongst business leaders, service providers and their neighbourhoods, and with the added ambition of the ever emerging social entrepreneurs. Without such a shift to core and locally invested practice, the agenda is likely to fail our communities and become yet another ambitious drive swept away by the political tide. For it to be a success, we must now move beyond social value and toward a new social economy.

This article has been published in the ResPublica Fringe magazine, a collection of articles and essays from our party conference partners.

Join the discussion Have opinions on this matter? Why not get involved and comment on this below.

Become a Member Joining ResPublica give you an exclusive amount of features. Gain early access to ResPublica events, contribute to topics and much more.

About The Authors

Caroline Julian

Caroline is a Senior Researcher and Project Manager at ResPublica, managing...