News

The Impact Evaluation Standard (IES) has announced the members of its 2022 Steering Committee. They will guide the direction of the IES in the coming year and ensure that both innovation and the environment are high on the agenda when measuring the social impact delivered by businesses and organisations throughout society.

The IES provides a series of metrics and proxy values that can be used to consistently assess the impact generated by organisations. The 109 different metrics included are mainly common activities that organisations undertake which have a significant social, economic or environmental impact on their communities.  It is fully aligned with UK central government guidance and is used by private and public sector organisations from a diverse range of industries.

The Impact Evaluation Standard also provides guidance on how to value and assess the impact of these activities and the documentation to assist organisations in estimating and understanding the social value they are generating.

“The scale of humanity’s issues can feel daunting but that is why being able to consistently appraise and measure social impact is so important, because it can drive real change. Evaluating and improving the impact organisations are having at a social, economic and environmental level needs to be in sharp focus.

I’m incredibly proud that the Impact Evaluation Standard (IES) is helping organisations of all sizes ensure they are contributing to the solution to local and global problems, and that they can now evaluate and tell their story around this”

– Benjamin Fellowes, Board Member – The Impact Evaluation Standard

The Steering Committee

New appointments are made to the Steering Committee annually. They evaluate rapidly evolving best practices in the appraisal of social, economic and environmental impacts and makes clear recommendations for continual updates to the IES, making it the most up to date and innovative way to measure social impact and social value in the UK, and beyond. This ensures that organisations using the IES have access to the most current and innovative ways of measuring social impact in 2022.

The Steering Committee for 2022 will be:

Stephen Hogan

Stephen is a specialist in corporate responsibility, ESG and social impact, with twenty years’ experience of working across business, government and civil society.

After working in strategy roles across government Stephen spent 12 years at PwC, where he was a senior management consultant, a senior corporate responsibility manager and finally their Head of Social Mobility. Stephen developed PwC’s community engagement strategy and created impact frameworks to evaluate the business and social benefits generated by PwC’s community activities, which were adopted by PwC globally. He also developed their first Social Return on Investment study, of PwC’s flagship community programme with the social enterprise Brigade. In addition, as Head of Social Mobility he developed PwC’s first social inclusion strategy, initiating a programme that has seen PwC become the top-ranked employer in the UK for social mobility.

Stephen founded Exogeny Consulting in 2018 and now works with organisations across sectors on a range of issues related to responsible business and inclusive growth, helping them to define and achieve their strategic goals, guiding their progress and enabling them to measure, understand and maximise their impact. He is a fellow of the Institute of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability.

Rob Wolfe

Rob has worked in physical and social regeneration at a front line and strategic level for 23 years and went on to set up CHY in 2006.   Partnership working, creativity and social value are at the heart of his experience and expertise: ensuring projects and people achieve the combined objectives of all sectors, while benefiting the communities they serve.  Rob’s influence within the construction industry and its stakeholders was reflected when CHY won 8 Constructing Excellence Awards for its business led, collaborative approach to social value and Rob himself won the National Achiever of the Year in 2011.

Rob has gone on to influence local, regional and national social value policy, delivery and measurement mechanisms and leading practice.  Assisting the public sector to maximise the socio-economic/social impact of their procurement, planning and local plans and the private sector to embed, deliver and measure the socio-economic/social impact of their projects, products and services.

Rob believes in radical collaboration; bringing innovation, expertise and leading practice from across different sectors to benefit the built environment, their clients and the communities in which they work.

Emma Ward

With over 20 years’ experience in the construction environmental and sustainability arena, Emma has a passion for supporting the delivery of projects that have purpose and lasting legacy.  She has worked both operationally, including on landmark projects such as the Olympic Park, and strategically to embed sustainability and social value principles across organisations.

Emma became a Full Member of IEMA and a Chartered Environmentalist with the Society for the Environment in December 2013, and is a contributory editor for the CIP Environmental Manual

Huw Evans

Huw is an accomplished business leader with over 25 years of management, strategy, development, delivery and operational experience in Social Impact and education. Huw is an accomplished business leader with over 25 years of management, strategy, development, delivery and operational experience in the Social impact, Construction industry and education . He is a highly experienced director specializing in corporate development and strategic planning. He has previously been responsible for leading a number of Tier One contractors strategy and delivery of social impact.  He is currently Managing Director of Impact consultancy services helping organisations with their approach to social impact. Huw is a previous winner of Construction Excellence Achiever of the UK award along with numerous awards and recognitions for his work in the field.

 Joanna Gilroy

Jo Gilroy is a sustainability professional specialising in the corporate sector.  In her former role as Head of Sustainability for the Bunzl Group, she created and led their Sustainable Future Programme.  She worked closely with government and key customers in the hospitality and retail sectors to address ocean pollution from single use plastics.  Today she is Head of Sustainability & Environment for Kier Group, responsible for the group’s strategic direction on ESG and for leading Kier’s new sustainable framework, ‘Building for a Sustainable World’.  Jo has an international background having worked for SAB Miller in India, IKEA in Sweden, and the mining sector in Australia and New Zealand.  In recognition of her work within the corporate sector she was ‘Highly Commended’ at the 2021 Business Green Sustainability Leaders Awards, and previously won the Business Green Sustainability Executive award in 2017, and the Rising Star award 2016 at the Packaging Industry Awards.

Stephen Leo

Stephen is an Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) specialist with over 34 years of experience in the construction and infrastructure industry where he developed and executed strategic plans for growth and market entry for contractors and consultants. Other key areas include devising winning bid strategy, and client and stakeholder engagement, managing strategic partnerships, implementing change management and impact creation.

His experience also includes policy and framework development in the built environment to assist in embedding ESG in the construction lifecycle as well as working with organisations to identify opportunities and manage ESG risk and improve performance and enhance value.

Find out more about the IES or speak to Thrive to see how you can use this framework to aid your social value reporting.

Public procurement rules are changing! December 2020 saw the publication of the Green Paper, “Transforming Public Procurement”, and the start of a three-month consultation period. A year on and the government has published its response to that consultation, clarifying many of the key details that will be in the upcoming procurement Bill. It’s a hefty document but here we are here to break it down for you.

The overriding theme is one of simplification, and a trimming-down of the UK procurement regime post Brexit. As Minister of State Lord Frost said:

“These reforms are just one of the many areas where we are taking advantage of our exit from the EU’s rules to design a procurement system that is better tailored to the UK and our economic needs.

“They will open up new opportunities for our small businesses to win public contracts, boost efficiency and competition, and deliver better results for UK taxpayers.”

The planned changes will have massive implications for the development of Social Value, given that around £300 billion of public spending each year will be affected. 

They are also intended to make it easier for SMEs to compete in public procurement – notably a single central register for commercial information that is to be free for all users. 

So, we’ve prepared this handy summary of some of the most important parts!

Firstly Social Value…

The principles of public procurement that will be enshrined in the new law make explicit many of the driving forces that underpin Social Value. 

The consultation response says:

“The concept of “public good” will be framed as an objective of maximising the ‘public benefit’ to support wider consideration of social value benefits, and address concerns about any potential conflict with local priorities. Similarly, value for money and integrity will be statutory objectives.”

Under these new rules, procurers will be able to give more weight to bids that create jobs for communities, build back better from the Covid-19 pandemic and support the transition to net zero carbon emissions. These social value factors mean that buyers don’t just consider price alone and the government have made this clear by changing the term “Most Economically Advantageous Tender” (MEAT) to  “Most Advantageous Tender (MAT)” – in recognition of the expanded range of considerations that contracting authorities must have regard to, including Social Value.

They also intend that these new rules will allow local leaders and communities to grow the private sector and raise living standards in their area, by being able to procure more locally and flexibly.

One Uniform Regulatory Framework for Procurement

81% of responses supported this objective of the Green Paper. Although they are keeping certain aspects of the Utilities Contracts Regulations 2016, the Defence and Security Public Contracts Regulations 2011, and the Light Touch Regime. The new system will be based around three “modern procedures” rather than the complex and rigid arrangements that have been in place to date: 

• A new “flexible competitive procedure” giving buyers freedom to negotiate and innovate to get the best from the private, charity and social enterprise sectors. 
• An “open procedure” for simpler, ‘off the shelf’ competitions
• A “limited tendering procedure” for “extreme circumstances” for example crisis response. More information is due on this part.

One outcome of this is that it will make it easier for SMEs to compete in public procurement, something which many have stayed clear of in the past due to complicated and bureaucratic systems.

Excluding Suppliers with Poor Track Records of Delivery

The new Procurement Review Unit (PRU) which will replace the Public Procurement Review Service (PPRS) will have investigatory powers and its main focus will be on addressing systemic or institutional breaches of the procurement regulations. But of greater interest to many will be the new powers proposed for excluding suppliers with track records of poor delivery, fraud or corruption from future contracts – on both a mandatory and discretionary basis. 

Mandatory grounds for exclusion will include:

• Conviction for offences relating to organised crime
• Conviction for offences relating to bribery, blackmail, fraud, or fraudulent trading
• Conviction for property crime offences
• Conviction for offences related to terrorism
• Conviction for offences relating to money laundering, modern slavery, or corporate manslaughter
• Conviction for offences, civil penalties or HMRC rulings around tax evasion
• Regulatory decisions on serious breaches of competition law
• Failure to provide a list of individuals and entities against whom exclusions are to be considered

Discretionary exclusion may be incurred by:

• Serious labour market misconduct (eg by way of a labour market enforcement order)
• Conviction for offences relating to potential or actual environmental damage
• Bankruptcy or insolvency
• Breaches of competition law
• Serious misrepresentations in the contracting process

In addition, “poor performance” associated with breach of contract will be grounds for discretionary exclusion:

Exclusions will:

• Last for five years – for both mandatory and discretionary exclusions
• Be unaffected by whether the alleged events took place in the UK or elsewhere
• Cover not only the actions of the bidder but also those of individuals and entities to which the bidder has a close connection
• Be recorded on a centrally-managed debarment list

As the procurement regime changes, we’ll keep you up to date on everything that happens, and help you to make sure that all the good that your business is doing is captured in full. If you are struggling to quantify and report on your business’ Social Value activities, the Thrive Platform is an invaluable tool. Get a free demo of the Thrive platform here!

Kier news release 18th October 2021

“Kier has partnered with Thrive, which is delivering a social value calculator that will capture, track and demonstrate social value across the Group.

The Thrive platform is aligned to Kier’s Building for a Sustainable World framework, supporting each of its ten sustainability pillars and its links to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. The system will enable Kier to track the social value targets of each project, as well as providing a suite of environmental metrics and a range of corporate-wide reporting. This bespoke data capture will allow Kier to provide its clients and other stakeholders with crucial data on a projects social value impact and success.

Since 2017, Kier has used its own social value calculator, Shaping our Communities Calculator. This was created in-house and provided Kier with helpful data that it could provide to its client and supply chain. As demand for sustainability and social value metrics has increased, the Group has partnered with Thrive which offers a more mature software platform and the Impact Evaluation Standard (IES), a framework of metrics that cover over 109 different activities. This will enable Kier to continue to innovate and differentiate itself as a leader in the delivery of Social Value

Thrive’s platform will also allow Kier to track its supply chain’s social value to capture the work its subcontractors do to support its projects. As well as this, Kier is working with Thrive to further enhance its measurement methodology to include additional cost-benefit analysis metrics and its work with social mobility organisations such as LM3 to monitor regional spend.

Sheryl Moore, Group Social Sustainability Manager at Kier, said:

“The delivery of social value across Kier is important to us as a Group and due to this we have been recording our social value impact for many years. Through our sustainability framework Building for a Sustainable World we have recognised the need for an enhanced social value platform that allows us to report on the requirements for all of our clients and stakeholders. Building on the legacy of our existing calculator, we completed an in-depth appraisal of suppliers and concluded that Thrive was the best fit to capture our social value impact.

“Thrive is the perfect partner to help us demonstrate our social legacy and drive the social value agenda. It has a unique combination of being user-friendly, having the ability to effortlessly capture data across both our business and throughout our supply chain, as well as providing robust and credible metrics and having the flexibility to support our various customer requirements”.

“We are excited to be working with Thrive and using both its platform and the IES framework to measure and demonstrate Kier’s social value, along with the value our partners are delivering in the supply chain.”

Neil Macdonald, chief executive at Thrive, said:

 “Thrive is delighted that, after a 12 month selection process, Kier has chosen our social value platform to measure its innovative and extensive social value activities. The unique flexibility of our software compliments Kier’s broad requirements; easy data capture from site, configurable client reports, and a robust way of showcasing their corporate values and purpose. We are very excited to see the positive influence this partnership will have on the sector.”

Find out more about Sustainability at Kier here.

Thrive are delighted to share that Kinovo PLC are using the Thrive platform to track and report their social value endeavours across their business and their 4 subsidiaries; DCB, Purdy, R.Dunham and Spokemead. This is especially exciting as Kinovo have recently gone through a rebrand (formerly Bilby PLC) and as part of that process they have been meticulous with their decision making around their supply chain and partnerships.

With a strong sense of community, family and partnership, the company chose their name carefully. With ‘Kin’ meaning family and ‘novo’ meaning new, Kinovo reflects a renewed family of businesses.

Through the rebrand process, Kinovo realized that, due to the nature of their business and who they serve, social value was always at the heart of what they were doing, but it wasn’t well communicated to staff, stakeholders, clients or even the community where they were helping.

The company focus a lot of their work in the social and affordable housing sector and so to them it is important that the whole company “walks the walk”. Because of this, their work in the community is not limited to the remit of the projects that they carry out; being on the ground on behalf of local authorities and housing associations means they have first hand knowledge of the help people need on a daily basis and staff are encouraged to assist where they can. From providing support to the elderly or isolated, to doing shopping runs for housebound clients – especially during lockdowns – it became clear that the culture was already one of a caring and positive workforce. This is social value in action, on the spot, with benefits being realized there and then.

“We committed to producing a Sustainability report in the last quarter of this financial year and we installed Thrive so that we would have the ability to look back through what we have achieved over the past year. Not only that, but it also provides us with the group’s social value benchmark, which we will improve on.” Lee Venables, Chief Operating Officer, Kinovo.

“Social Value is being given higher weighting in tenders now, in some cases up to 20%. Thrive will give us the ability to provide more tangible information about the social value activities that we carry out, in our bids, which in turn will help us to win more contracts.” Martin Stone, Group Bid Manager, Kinovo.

With ESG and sustainability firmly at the core of this new identity, and with a growing contribution to the UN Sustainability Goals, now more than ever Kinovo need to have an accurate and consistent way to report their progress on their social value objectives. So the next step in engaging a tool to both track and report on the social value activities they are doing is a logical one. It enables them to let more people know about the good work which runs throughout the wider company. Knowing what others in the organization are doing provides motivation and comradery as well as demonstrating to shareholders that this is a company with heart.

Not only this, but using Thrive’s social value measurement tool to be able to see both tangible and fiscal benefits from the decisions they have made – such as the social return on investment of using solar panels and ground source heatpumps – means they continue to make fully informed strategic purchasing decisions, and in this case, helping towards their goals of being a net zero company.

We’ve now been working with the Kinovo team since March; helping them understand just how much of an impact they have already had with their social value work. We are impressed to see how quickly they have been able to implement change and are excited to see what they can achieve in the future.

Gardiner & Theobald (G&T) is an independent construction and property consultancy working across all sectors of the built environment. They deliver Project Leadership, Commercial Success, Construction Excellence and Specialist Consultancy and are now known for being one of the most ethical firms in their sector. Each year the firm and individuals support charitable causes through their social impact programme giving back to the communities they help to build.

They have now gone one step further and launched their Social Value policy providing a framework for delivering their social value activities and they have chosen to use Thrive to capture and measure the meaningful change they create.

Their new social value policy has the following objectives:

• To create opportunities for social mobility for children in areas where they might not otherwise have them
• To address the skills gap in construction and support the next generation of built environment professionals
• To improve diversity and inclusion within the built environment
• To support the development of our employees and improve mental health and wellbeing
• To reduce our environmental impact and carbon footprint

Here is what G&T had to say about their use of Thrive:

“To help us capture, calculate and demonstrate our social impact G&T has partnered with Thrive to implement its specialist measurement tool. Thrive provides important governance and a structured process for delivering social value activities helping us to deliver meaningful social value across the UK.

The tool calculates the economic impact of social value activities using the Impact Evaluation Standard which has been developed by social value practitioners and construction professionals and provides the Social Return on Investment (SROI) for each activity. It is derived from government data and respected think tanks, including information from the Office for National Statistics and embraces the five core themes of PPN06/20.”

“It has never been more important for our industry to come together to support the local communities we work in. Our new Social Value Policy and measurement tool will help us to continue to deliver meaningful social value and leave a positive legacy for future generations.”  Adam Glover – Managing Partner

You can read their full Social Value Policy here:

For those of us in the Social Value world, the Social Value UK Members Exchange is an important date in the calendar as it is the time that we can get together with our fellow industry members to see, share and learn about progress across the board.

This year proved to be no different. With 20 sessions held virtually across 4 days, there was plenty of opportunity for discourse on both best practice, and the realities of implementing social value reform across an ever changing social and political landscape.

This year Thrive were proud to sponsor the event. Part of this sponsorship meant we were able to donate a number of tickets for the full 4 days to VCSEs and SMEs, hopefully widening the horizon of social value beyond the remit of councils and large organisations. Social Value is something that everyone can make a difference with, a topic that was reiterated many times throughout the Exchange.

Example of the sessions held include ‘Social Value Frameworks and New Developments from the Built Environment’, ‘A new look at stakeholder engagement: digital tools, participation, and power dynamics’ ‘An insider?s SROI evaluation’ and ‘Social Value and Modern Methods of Construction’ among others. Speakers were drawn from a range of professions; social value consultancies, government bodies and councils, researchers, change makers and even accountants to name but a few, so the wealth of knowledge and practical experience was there to be soaked up and immersed in.

We were especially interested in hearing real life examples of companies and councils who have had social value ideas, turned them into plans, strategies and then results. And with the sector growing at pace, the amount of experience we can draw from at these exchanges will be even more vast next year.

Did you attend the Members Exchange? What did you take from it this year? Have you learned of any new skills or strategies that you hope to implement within your own business? While the virtual event is now over, you can watch replays for the next 30 days here.

If you have come away from this event feeling like you need to learn more about how your company can really report the social value you are providing, get in touch with us for a chat.

Read more about how Social Value tracking is essential for SMEs.

Exciting news for a sustainable future as new measures will require businesses to commit to net zero by 2050 and publish clear and credible carbon reduction plans before they can bid for major government contracts.

Supporting the “Build Back Greener” mantra, this new rule which will come into play in September aids the steps already taken in several areas of public policy, to ensure longevity for the sustainability agenda.

The UK are leading the way here, being the first government in the world to put this requirement in place. At ?292 billion, public procurement accounts for around a third of all public annual expenditure. This new ruling means that the impetus to tackle climate change falls squarely at the feet of both the public and private sector. Private sector firms have a real chance to make a substantial positive long term impact to the social and environmental well being of our community – or be left behind… because firms which fail to implement this will be excluded from bidding for key contracts.

The ruling applies for suppliers bidding for contracts above ?5million a year and all of those bidding will need to comply with the measure, not just those who are successful in winning contracts. This further widens the impact of the measure, as more and more suppliers commit to achieving Net Zero.

Minister for Efficiency and Transformation, Lord Agnew, said:

“The government spends more than ?290 billion on procurement every year, so it?s important we use this purchasing power to help transform our economy to net-zero.”

“Requiring companies to report and commit to reducing their carbon emissions before bidding for public work is a key part of our world leading approach.”

“These measures will help green our economy, while not overly burdening businesses, particularly SMEs.”

The measures will apply to all central government departments and arms length bodies.

Are you affected by this new ruling?

Do you have a carbon reduction plan already in place or will you need to get up to speed before September to avoid being overlooked in contract bidding?

Thrive’s Metrics and Social Value tracking system lets you track your carbon creation and reduction, both internally and down through your supply chain, making it perfectly suited to help you tackle these new government demands. We are passionate about net zero and how our software can help businesses get there.

Learn more about carbon tracking with Thrive Social Value

The Queen officially reopened parliament on 11th May and with that she gave her 10 minute speech on what she envisions for the year ahead, including a new procurement bill.

In her speech, the Queen laid out that her priority was to deliver a national recovery from the pandemic. Not just in health but across many areas of life. “My government will level up opportunities across all parts of the united kingdom, supporting jobs, business and economic growth” she stated. Investing in and improving infrastructure and transforming connectivity by rail and bus were key parts of this plan. Great news for the construction industry!

The addition of the pledge to create legislation to support a lifetime skills guarantee to enable “flexible access to high quality education and training throughout people’s lives” shows that adding social value to the leveling up plan is a key component. There was a reference to the “lost learning during the pandemic” that children have suffered. Thus making sure that moving forward there is an opportunity for those children to now maximise their potential.

Amongst the 30 laws outlined for ministers to pass this year, was a reform in the government procurement process from the private sector.

Now that the UK has left the EU there is an opportunity to do things differently. This new procurement bill which government hopes to have in action later this year is one way of asserting our individuality.

The Queen alluded to laws that would simplify procurement in the public sector. Together with the promise of more homes than ever to be built this year, it seems there is an opportunity for those in the construction sector to take note of the changing regulations around public procurement. No doubt we will hear more now that responses from the government’s green paper “Transforming Public Procurement’ are in.

How do these goals affect you? Do your social value plans include a greater emphasis on the education of the young? Prioritising the early years is now on the agenda, not just training school leavers. Have you considered how young people may grow up during the life cycle of your project?

Are you across the changes in public procurement that have both occurred and are still to be enacted?

Net zero greenhouse gas emissions and racial and ethnic disparities also featured in the speech. Key points highlighted in the Social Value Model which so recently came into play.

Here at Thrive we are able to help you with your Social Value strategy and make sure you are hitting the goals? driven by government.

If you would like to know more, get in touch with us at uk@thrive-platform.com

Osborne is one of the leading construction businesses in the UK. As a family-owned business, they are known for having the freedom and flexibility to take a different approach. They focus on creating structures and spaces that provide an environment for people to thrive in and solutions for customers that provide a better experience during the creation. From rail to road, housing to healthcare, however large the project or contract, Osborne has a diverse range of community involvement. Creating, measuring and improving social value from all their activities is key to Osborne?s approach.?

Here is what Osborne had to say about their use of Thrive:

“Our communities are as important to us as the buildings we leave behind. That’s why we create opportunities to improve local communities, providing a positive social and environmental impact. Social value is considered in all aspects of our business from local recruitment, local supply chain partners, upgrading community facilities, equipment and material procurements, providing works placement, appointing apprenticeships to supporting a local cause. Creating positive outcomes for people and their local area is our key driver and is aligned to our core values and culture.”

To capture the huge scope of our social and environmental impacts we have adopted Thrive as our partner to efficiently measure our performance. Thrive enables us to capture data, understand the financial value and seamlessly demonstrate this to our stakeholders with live transparent reporting/ data.”

Covid-19 has had a devastating effect on the world, businesses, communities and individuals and now more than ever we need a sense of social solidarity to fight back and build our communities again. The Government has issued a PPN06/20 in response to Covid to ensure that public procurement is doing its bit to contribute to society. We are well equipped to support the Government Framework as Thrive has consulted with Social Value experts to adopt the framework in its entirety.”

We are totally committed in supporting our clients to improve people lives through creating opportunities. Our social value programmes are developed with our supply chain partners to deliver positive outcomes that we can calculate and understand the financial value as well as the local personal benefit. Thrive will ensure that our social value data will be captured, enabling us to provide governance around how we collect this information and report on the impact. Our Social Value Steering Group (SVSG) will meet quarterly to review outcomes and review opportunities to improve our standards and to consider the pillars of social value, their impact and review targets?”

Read their full Sustainability Strategy below