Carol Glenn, Social Value Programme Manager, Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council
Why is it important that social value commitments are relevant to the contract?
Some companies may have a whole team that writes a bid or delivers social value, but a lot of the social value they’re delivering or including in a tender is just a tick-box exercise. This means the answer isn’t specific to the delivery of the contract they are bidding for. We find that the answer isn’t specific to Solihull or our needs.
What should a supplier include in their social value response?
What’s essential and what is being evaluated are the commitments they will provide to Solihull and our residents and how they will deliver them.
They should include information about the company, their ethos, and their culture. If you’ve got a social value or a CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) policy in force, that proves that social value is important to you as a company. However, the critical part is the commitments which are put forward. What difference are you going to make to the people? What difference will you make to the community when you deliver this contract? That’s what we are effectively evaluating. So don’t just tell us you will visit schools; be specific. We want a firm commitment with measurable targets. That’s what will get you the scores.
The fundamental piece of work is delivering that contract within budget and on time, and social value should in no way detract from making sure that that contract gets delivered. But having said that, they need to, in their bid response, make sure that any social value they commit to reflects their capability and capacity during that contract.
Don’t overstretch yourselves in those commitments. Just commit to precisely what you know you can deliver.
How do you evaluate social value responses in bids?
We split our social value score 50-50 between quality and quantity. We use the TOMs (Themes, Outcomes and Measures) to give a proxy value, which is only half the score. The other half is quality. The quality score justifies those figures; if that quality does not explain the number, then that number could be discounted to zero. So even though companies are putting high quantitative bids in, they may not come out of the evaluation with that score, because it could be discounted to zero if the quality does not justify those figures. So, the evaluation and the clarification process level the playing field a bit more.
How can a supplier find out what your key priorities are?
We have social value as a building block in our council plan. So, the council plan lists our priorities. Social value is a mechanism to achieve some of those objectives.
In the last year, we have listed our priorities in the council plan and in the TOMs. We’ve also included them in our tender documents and our social value policy to clarify our priorities, specifically, which measures feed into them.
So, for example, the outcome might be to reduce crime in an area, and the measure would be to assist a youth club, helping to reduce crime in the area. So, a supplier can do specific things to reach those outcomes.
What would you say to a company that doesn’t have something in place but is asked to deliver something specific to create social value in the delivery of the contract, which could cost them money?
Suppose it’s built into their costing. That is one way of passing on the cost to us as a buyer, but social value doesn’t need to cost extra money. You’re already going to be employing people — the same with your supply chain. You’re still going to buy the same goods. You’re just going to buy them from a local company, for example, which could save you money because you are not paying for the transport as much. So social value doesn’t need to cost more.
Do you help suppliers deliver on their contract commitments?
Once a supplier is on board with us, part of my role is to signpost them to the people that can help them make that difference. So yes, the website will talk about the services we provide externally, not necessarily what we do as a council internally.
If you are having trouble recruiting or turn around and you say, ‘‘well, we’ll recruit to meet the needs of the contract, but we can’t guarantee they’ll be local’’. That’s OK. Our employment and skills team are there to help recruit from the local area who may have the skills you require.
Photo By: dylan nolte on Unsplash
Let us say you want to volunteer for a community group; we have a whole team of people who deal with community groups and understand their needs. Part of my role is when a supplier says, ‘‘we want to volunteer,’’ or ‘‘we want to refurb a garden.’’ I will go to the communities’ team and ask, ‘‘who’s garden needs doing?’’ Then we will put them in touch with each other.
What if a supplier commits to a community project but is still determining which project would be the best fit? But their social value response agreed to do the planning in Q1, deliver in Q2 and report in Q3. Is that a specific enough answer?
Yes, because they’ve said how many hours or projects they want to do and in what area they want to do it. We can put the feelers out once the contract is awarded.
Every council has what they call, ‘The State of the Borough' Report’. It shows the different areas, which are the areas of deprivation, which areas need help, and what sort of help they need.
For example, the north of Solihull is an area of deprivation, and we have third and fourth-generation unemployed families, so they need more support. In comparison, the south is very affluent. There is a considerable number of the elderly retired population. So even though we are a small borough, we have quite a disparity between the north and the south.
My advice is to research and learn about the area you are procuring in.
How significant is social value in your purchasing decisions? For example, does it really influence whether a business is awarded a contract?
It can do that. Yes. We split our tenders by price, quality, and social value. Social value has been the deciding factor in a few of our contracts where price and quality are similar, where you’re purchasing goods, for example. So yes, social value can make a difference. It’s an important commercial differentiator.
“Every company wants to do CV workshops. I wish people would think creatively instead of attending a school. How about putting educational resources together that schools can use? Think about what benefits you can bring to our community using your skills. ”
What happens when you assess a social value answer?
I only read the social value bit; I don’t read anything else. So, it’s crucial to ensure you put all relevant information in the social value answer because I don’t read any other part of the tender. We have evaluators around the council who will review a particular section. They will only look at that question and assess the response to that question. So, if you put something in the bid that is also relevant to the social value answer, you should put it there too. For example, if you are a local company to Solihull Council, you need to mention this in your social value answer. I read the response and see if the supplier understands social value and if they have answered the question. Detailing how they intend to embed it, their commitments, and how they will justify it.
There are scoring criteria ranging from one to five, and we score them accordingly. We cannot give four and a half. It must be either a four or a five. Scoring is based on the quality of that response, and do we have faith that you will deliver on your commitments.
I usually evaluate social value questions with one other person. It’s always good to make sure you have two evaluators for a question so that if there is a glaring difference in the scoring, you can moderate it.
What happens next?
The social value score is returned to the procurement officer, who combines it with the price and quality scores. They will establish who has the most economically advantageous bid. It’s not necessarily the best social value bid that will win. But it’s the best overall bid; that’s a key point. You may be cheap and score well on price, but much of the weighting is also on quality and social value.
We are under pressure on our budgets, but it shouldn’t be detrimental to the quality of contract delivery. Remember that when you’re dealing with the public sector.
What do you wish suppliers would do that they don’t currently do? And what do you wish they wouldn’t do?
I have genuine issues with companies just wanting to do school visits. Suppliers would be on a conveyor belt in and out of the schools if we allowed everybody to do that. The other issue we have now is an oversupply of CV workshops for youngsters and adults. Every company wants to do CV workshops. I wish people would think creatively. How about putting educational resources together that schools can use? Think about what benefits you can bring to our community using your skills.
We are getting excellent responses from people or companies wanting to provide expert advice to our voluntary sector or small to medium enterprises. That could be anything from HR (Human Resources) to legal advice. The one that is taking off is around carbon reduction and environmental issues.
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