Social Value Brokerage – Journal – Social Value Exchange

Kent County Council is using the Social Value Exchange to maximise Social Value from up to £2bn of procurement spend

Kent County Council is using the online marketplace the Social Value Exchange to generate community benefits from its procurement spend on behalf of its local VCSE partners

[7 July, 2021. LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM] Kent County Council today announced it is using the Social Value Exchange to get extra resources into its local VCSE organisations.

Social Value Exchange marketplace tools have to date been used by a number of local authorities and housing associations, including Hackney and Tower Hamlets Councils, Birmingham City Council, Clarion and Hyde Housing. As a result, numerous local community projects across the country have received capacity building resources. At the same time, the Social Value Exchange provides a simple and straightforward process for suppliers to fulfil their Social Value obligations.

The Social Value Exchange is backed by the Community Impact Partnership, an investment group comprising Clarion, Orbit, L&Q and Peabody housing associations. In addition, it has been backed by Europe’s biggest Tech-for-Good VC firm, Bethnal Green Ventures, and by Nesta, the UK’s ‘Innovation Foundation.’

Deputy Leader of Kent County Council, Peter Oakford, said:

“I’m really excited to see what comes out of the Social Value Exchange. Each year the council will have the opportunity to leverage up to £1bn of the Council’s procurement spend to get tailored and smart resources into local community organisations supporting local people. We wanted to make sure our Social Value was directly linked to our local outcomes and the Social Value Exchange allows us to do just that.”

Dan Ebanks, founder of the Social Value Exchange, said:

“We developed the Social Value Exchange as an online marketplace to leverage procurement spend to get additional resources into local community projects, such as those that support our most vulnerable groups and protect the environment. I think we can all acknowledge the indispensable role that VCSE organisations have played over the last 18 months, and we’re pleased to have such a massive opportunity to support them. The team is buzzing to be working with what is one of the biggest, if not biggest, local authorities in the country. We can have a real impact.’

The Social Value Act, enacted in 2012, allows contracting authorities to leverage its spend on private suppliers and channel resources into improving social, economic and environmental well-being for local communities.

“Contracting authorities in England and Wales spend around £268 billion a year on private suppliers. Our mission is to use that spend to get additional resources, year on year, directly into local VCSE organisations, for everyone’s benefit,” Dan said.

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About Social Value Exchange

The Social Value Exchange is an online marketplace that tackles the resource squeeze for the VCSE sector head on by channelling resources from public spend into community projects that improve social, economic and environmental well-being for local communities.

For further information please contact:

Dan Ebanks, Founder, Social Value Exchange: dan@socialvalueexchange.org

Christopher Wimhurst, Commissioning Standards Manager, Kent County Council: christopher.wimhurst@kent.gov.uk

Louise Merchant, Commissioning Standards Manager, Kent County Council: louise.merchant@kent.gov.uk

Here are a few bits & pieces to help you understand what the Social Value Exchange is, does and has achieved to date…

The Social Value Exchange is a matching market that borrows ‘sharing economy’ principles from platforms like AirBnB… with the outcome that we get extra resources to local community organisations.

How do we do that?

We match up government suppliers that are trying to win government contracts with local community projects. The platform allows suppliers to offer resources – often digital devices, but also other capacity building resources – to community projects during government contract tenders.

We use an auction to match suppliers with community projects. The supplier that makes the best and most reasonable offer of resources wins the auction, and secures extra tender points. The more resources suppliers offer, the more contracts they win.

Using ‘sharing economy’ principles to achieve really important local community outcomes

We mentioned AirBnB. Community projects are the equivalent to the spare rooms in people’s houses – they are the supplyside in the marketplace, and government suppliers represent the demand side. So while we are commodifying community projects for the purposes of explaining the business model, the projects themselves are as unique as the different rooms you’ll stay in if you use AirBnB.

The direction of travel of the Social Value Exchange is clear

According to independent evaluation, for every £ that has gone through the Social Value Exchange, we’ve generated a £223 return.

Here are the bits and pieces we promised

Here’s an animation that explains our view of the world.

Here are some video testimonials from the people who count – the people who work in our local community organisations, and the most important beneficiaires of the Social Value Exchange.

Here’s how to sign up to the Social Value Journal – to stay abreadth of all things Social Value (and a few things besides) and, most importantly for our community partners, how to say across the free resources coming on line.

And here’s a link that sets our approach to what we – including our partners Social Value UK and Supply Change – call Social Value Brokerage.

Social Value Brokerage

The Social Value Exchange and partners Supply Change have created the ‘Social Enterprise and Community Organisation Directory’ to keep everyone connected in these challenging times.

Covid-19 touches almost every facet of our lives and has presented us with a wide range of challenges to grapple with and everyone has been affected in different ways.

Social enterprises and community-based organisations are no exception to this, yet their work is arguably more important than ever. These organisations support people who will be particularly vulnerable to the effects of isolation and social distancing such as the elderly, refugee and migrant communities, and those with mental health conditions. The crisis has meant that many have had to cancel their face to face services/workshops and drop-in centres indefinitely leading to economic uncertainty and concern for the people they help.

Despite this, the sector is proving to be a crucial player in mitigating the impact of Coronavirus on communities demonstrating resilience, creativity and innovation. Some like We Are Digital and InCommon have moved entire businesses online in a matter of weeks whilst others like Dare to Care Packages have emerged as new initiatives set up purely in response to the crisis.

Many organisations have adapted their services to support the most vulnerable, thanks to willing volunteers and donations. Badu, a sports charity, has moved online and is providing families with care packages under a new initiative called ‘One Community.’ Cooking charity Made in Hackney has already crowdfunded an astonishing £66k and is delivering emergency meals on wheels service.

The crisis has also underlined the limitations and fragility of global supply chains, the importance of a diverse and local supplier base and the need to rethink the way we do business as usual. Once we start to move towards recovery the case for social and community organisations, who are rooted in local economies, will be stronger than ever. This is particularly true for local authorities and the housing sector who exist to help communities thrive.

And, relatedly, a well-resourced community sector will be needed to mitigate the effects of the economic crisis that will likely follow the health one. We have seen during the health crisis that local voluntary, community and social enterprise sector (VCSE) organisations are important and necessary delivery partners to the government — this will be even more the case as we see the economic fallout begin to impact local communities.

Supply Change and the Social Value Exchange are two digital solutions that aim to broker relationships between the public, private and VCSE sectors. Our organisations have complementary approaches, with both aiming to help deliver social value from the procurement process and deliver positive social outcomes at the same time.

About Supply Change

Supply Change is a platform that aims to increase the visibility of social enterprises. The platform hosts pre-vetted B2B social suppliers delivering a range of goods and services and connects them to public and private sector buyers. The platform enables organisations to find the best supplier for their needs and get in touch at the click of a button.

About the Social Value Exchange

The Social Value Exchange matches private sector resources — IT hardware, business expertise, funding — with accredited local community projects: we get resources to where they are most needed in local communities.

In challenging times, collaborating with like-minded organisations can be key to achieving maximum impact. As Supply Change and the Social Value Exchange both offer brokerage solutions at different points of the procurement process, we’ve decided to form a strategic partnership.

To kick our partnership off we’ve created the ‘Social Enterprise and Community Organisations Directory’. Because our public sector partners are so busy responding to the COVID-19 crisis, we’re changing our approach. We’ve collated a directory of social enterprises, cooperatives and community organisations, which will allow all of the public sector partners and corporate businesses we’ve worked with over the years to see who they can either still buy services from or offer financial and non-financial support to during this time.

By creating this open-source directory we hope to ensure that the amazing organisations we work with still have access to as many networks and opportunities as possible and promote the work they do.

This blog was co-authored by Dan Ebanks (founder of the Social Value Exchange), Beth Pilgrim (co-founder of Supply Change) and Ben Carpenter (Chief Exec at Social Value UK).

Local government has performed heroics in the response to the Covid 19 pandemic. We’ve spoken to lots of local government folk who have described to us the enormous amount of work they have done. Long hours and long weeks, particularly in the early phase of the pandemic. Food supply systems built from scratch. Thousands of vulnerable people contacted and supported. Engaging and working with other local government partners.

This brings us to the role of our local community organisations. We think it’s now generally accepted that if you want to move fast locally, you need to do this with your local VCSE organisations involved right from the start. An example of this is the great work going on in Hackney, where the CVS organisation was part of the response planning from the very beginning. And, of course, the impact of our Mutual Aid groups – fantastic work from a genuinely bottom-up movement.

Similarly, we’ve seen social enterprises step up and ensure important goods and services have been provided. Many have pivoted their models to deliver their services online ensuring that they continue to reach communities most affected by the lockdown. Covid-19 has also demonstrated the innovation and dynamism of the sector with some social enterprises being created out of the crisis to provide crucial support such as food packages to the NHS and PPE supplies.

And we’ve seen the big corporates stepping up and doing their bit – often giving back-up to local community groups with free resources, such as laptops and skills based expertise. Indeed, Business In The Community’s National Business Response Network has seen numerous offers of support from the private sector to local community organisations – over 670 within 6 weeks of being set up.

There is a saying that people are at their best when times are at their worst and we think this is true for this pandemic. But there’s no reason why, at an organisational level, the good things we’ve just laid out can’t continue. Particularly when there is an existing piece of government legislation that enables this coordination of public, private and VCSE sectors. All these good things can be formalised in the public procurement process by applying the Social Value Act and taking the Social Value Brokerage approach.

What is Social Value Brokerage?

Social Value Brokerage is an umbrella term used to describe the connecting of key stakeholders to create additional community benefits and local economic growth, typically through the procurement process. The brokerage creates mutual gain – this normally means:

Contracting authorities – including councils, housing associations and health commissioners – achieve their local placed based outcomes

Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise organisations secure extra resources, including government contracts

Suppliers win government work and deliver on their Social Value obligations.

Who we are and why we’re working together

Ben Carpenter, Chief Exec, Social Value UK: ‘We have always recognised the need for cross sectoral relationships. Our network is diverse and we have the ability to bring people from public, private and third sector together under the social value agenda. We started to call this ‘Social Value Brokerage’ and hosted a session on this at the National Social Value Conference in London in January 2020, which involved Beth and Dan. The response was great, and based on that, we thought our membership and the wider Social Value community needed to know a bit more about this.’

Dan Ebanks, Founder, Social Value Exchange: ‘We’ve been banging the drum about Social Value Brokerage for a while now. For us, if Social Value is about creating community benefits, then your local community groups have to be at the heart of that process. That’s what Social Value Brokerage is all about, and it’s what our platform, the Social Value Exchange, does. The Supply Change model works really well alongside ours – we both support local community groups and social enterprises, but at different points in the journey, and we have a similar approach to product.’

Beth Pilgrim, Co-Founder, Supply Change: ‘Supply Change is a platform that connects organisations looking for goods and services with social enterprise suppliers who can deliver quality and impact. By simply switching supply of everyday goods and services such as cleaning or coffee organisations can create positive impact through their spending. We believe that brokerage solutions like ours and the Social Value Exchange are the future of meaningful social value creation and we’re excited to work together to see the impact we can create jointly.’

Conclusion

It’s been a challenging few months. We now have an opportunity, and maybe a responsibility, to #BuildBackBetter. Part of that is normalising the things that have worked well. Social Value Brokerage helps to do that, and it will put local capacity building on an ongoing and sustainable footing, which is good for everyone concerned, the most vulnerable in our communities in particular.

We’d love to hear from you…

Get in touch with the team.

Email: hello@socialvalueexchange.org

Telephone: 020 3488 6223

We’re on Twitter and LinkedIn too.

Social Value Brokerage

Using Social Value Brokerage to #BuildBackBetter

This brings us to the role of our local community organisations. We think it’s now generally accepted that if you want to move fast locally, you need to do this with your local VCSE organisations involved right from the start. An example of this is the great work going on in Hackney, where the CVS organisation, led by Jake Ferguson, were part of the response planning from the very beginning. And, of course, the impact of our Mutual Aid groups – fantastic work from a genuinely bottom-up movement.

What is Social Value Brokerage?

Contracting authorities – including councils, housing associations and health commissioners – achieve their local placed based outcomes.

Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise organisations secure extra resources, including government contracts.
Suppliers win government work and deliver on their Social Value obligations.

Who we are and why we’re working together

Ben Carpenter, Chief Exec, Social Value UK: ‘We have always recognised the need for cross sectoral relationships. Our network is diverse and we have the ability to bring people from public, private and third sector together under the social value agenda. We started to call this ‘Social Value Brokerage’ and hosted a session on this at the National Social Value Conference in London in January 2020, which involved Beth and Dan. The response was great, and based on that, we thought our membership and the wider Social Value community needed to know a bit more about this.’

Dan Ebanks, Founder, Social Value Exchange: ‘We’ve been banging the drum about Social Value Brokerage for a while now. For us, if Social Value is about creating community benefits, then your local community groups have to be at the heart of that process. That’s what Social Value Brokerage is all about, and it’s what our platform, the Social Value Exchange, does. The Supply Change model works really well alongside ours – we both support local community groups and social enterprises, but at different points in the journey, and we have a similar approach to product.’

Beth Pilgrim, Co-Founder, Supply Change: ‘Supply Change is a platform that connects organisations looking for goods and services with social enterprise suppliers who can deliver quality and impact. By simply switching supply of everyday goods and services such as cleaning or coffee, organisations can create positive impact through their spending. We believe that brokerage solutions like ours and the Social Value Exchange are the future of meaningful Social Value creation and we’re excited to work together to see the impact we can create jointly.’

The workshops

We are running 3 morning sessions on Social Value Brokerage throughout August:

Tuesday 4 August: Introduction to Social Value Brokerage – concepts, principles and impact

Tuesday 11 August: Tools, case studies and resources

Tuesday 18 August: Embedding Social Value Brokerage in your organisation – quick wins and longer term tactics.

These sessions are for public sector organisations only. We will be providing sessions tailored for VCSE organisations and for suppliers.

Tickets are available at Eventbrite: http://ow.ly/MIir50AmKSR. There are free early bird tickets!

It’s been a very difficult few months. We now have an opportunity, and maybe a responsibility, to #BuildBackBetter. Part of that is normalising the things that have worked well during this period. Social Value Brokerage helps to do that, and it will put local capacity building on an ongoing and sustainable footing, which is good for everyone concerned, the most vulnerable in our communities in particular.

Social Value Brokerage

What is Social Value Brokerage?

Social Value Brokerage is an umbrella term used to describe the connecting of key stakeholders to ensure local communities benefit from public procurement in their area and to create local economic growth. Stakeholders typically include: public sector organisations, such as councils; government suppliers, tendering for public sector contracts; and local community based organisations, some of whom may be tendering for government contracts.

What does it look like?

Brokerage is all about making connections for mutual benefit, and this can be done ‘manually’ – connecting organisations via email, telephone or in person (for example, through a ‘Meet the Funders’ event, or other physical marketplace. And it can also happen online, for example at here at the Social Value Exchange, or via our partners Supply Change or our friends at Connected Voice.

What does matching in brokerage mean?

As we know, brokerage is all about making connections that result in mutual benefits, and matching often takes place in Social Value Brokerage. For example, matches between suppliers and local community projects to, in effect, co-produce community benefits. Or matching contract opportunities with local social enterprises or, similarly, the opening up of prime contractor supply chains to local providers.

How does technology play a role?

Brokering or matching up local stakeholders is not particularly complicated, but it can be labour intensive. Digital technology massively reduces costs, enables faster collection and analysis of data and removes human error. Put simply, you can do more with less.

Why is it important?

It’s important because Social Value offers a way of creating community benefits and inclusive growth – local communities and local social enterprises need to be at the heart of that if it’s going to work, and brokerage is all about getting these types of organisations into the driving seat.

How does it fit into the procurement process?

In a couple of ways that we know about. Firstly, you can broker contract opportunities for local social enterprises – either manually through your own networks or via online platforms like Supply Change. Or, during the tender process, you can match up local community groups with suppliers to co-produce community benefits, which is what takes place on the Social Value Exchange.

Are there any resources I can use to get going?

Social Value UK, the national Social Value membership body, is running Social Value Brokerage training sessions – see here for further details.

What is the Social Value Act?

The Social Value Act gained Royal Assent in March 2012 and came into effect in January 2013. The legislation offers the framework by which contracting authorities can compel their suppliers to create additional community benefits, above and beyond the core specification of the contract, through the public procurement process.

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Social Value UK (the UK’s Social Value membership body) is running Social Value Brokerage training sessions throughout August. You can get your tickets here.

Please get in touch if you have any questions about these FAQs – hello@socialvalueexchange.org

Social Value Brokerage

Kent County Council is using the Social Value Exchange to maximise Social Value from up to £2bn of procurement spend

Kent County Council is using the online marketplace the Social Value Exchange to generate community benefits from its procurement spend on behalf of its local VCSE partners

About Social Value Exchange

Here are a few bits & pieces to help you understand what the Social Value Exchange is, does and has achieved to date…

We had a chat with Chichi Onyenemelu at one of our workshops. She told us about the opportunities Social Value presents and how it’s being practically applied at Hyde Housing Association, where she is Social Value Adviser.

Here are a few bits to help you flesh out your understanding of Social Value Brokerage – a video, a short reading list (including top tips and FAQs) and how to keep up to date with new developments. Hope it’s helpful!

This blog was co-authored by Dan Ebanks (founder of the Social Value Exchange), Beth Pilgrim (co-founder of Supply Change) and Ben Carpenter (Chief Exec at Social Value UK).

We’d love to hear from you…