| Date | Category |
|---|---|
| 23rd June 2022 | Member Update |
Social Value Portal has launched its official Social Value guidance and measurement framework specific to the Higher Education (HE) sector. Helping HE bodies to capture, communicate and emphasise the full value of activities where they support their local economy and community, it also empowers and informs organisations so that embedding Social Value when procuring goods and services is a simpler process.
This includes initiatives such as;
- helping people into employment,
- using local suppliers,
- actively promoting opportunities for disadvantaged groups, or
- making sure that the organisation is operating in as sustainable a way as possible.
The importance of social value in procurement
In previous years, social value has gained increasing widespread recognition as an important consideration in the procurement process. For a decade, all public bodies have had to consider how what they are proposing to buy might improve economic, social and environmental wellbeing. Further, the recommendation for this regulation is that procurement teams go beyond the thought of social value to ‘actively apply the principles across their procurement activities’.
Universities may not fall under the 2012 legislation but as organisations that can’t be separated ethically or economically from their communities, the question of how toembedding social value into the procurement process has been an ongoing discussion.
How was the HE TOMs guidance created?
The guidance has been created in partnership with Social Value Portal, and UKUPC and its member institutions, who formed a 17-strong HE Social Value Taskforce in 2021 in recognition of the challenges faced by HE bodies when introducing Social Value into procurement. The Taskforce’s brief was to create a simple, robust and workable measurement framework specifically tailored to the HE sector.
How to use the framework?
For the background to the HE TOMs and where to start, download our UKUPC document and for full information on how to apply the TOMs in practice and a 7-Step approach to integrating Social Value into procurement, download Social Value Portal’s free copy of the Higher Education TOMs guidance.
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Private Files
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