Why consider social value to deliver more benefits?
Social value can have various meanings for different organisations. For us here at the Met Office, social value entails behaving responsibly in all our actions, ensuring that the funds we utilise maximise any potential benefits to integrate social value into our daily operations, as well as our future business cases. This is achieved by unlocking value not only directly through our supply chain but also in our support for our employees, the broader communities and the environment in which we operate.
But what is social value, and how does it relate to benefits? Let’s look at what it is and what it can do:
Social value is about:
- Promoting recycling and the use of recycled materials while considering whole-life costs.
- Generating long-term job opportunities for the unemployed.
- Offering enhanced opportunities for individuals and groups facing significant social or economic challenges.
- Developing supply chain pathways for SMEs and social enterprises.
- Encouraging suppliers to engage with local supply chains.
- Creating diverse training and educational opportunities for a wide range of individuals.
And social value is important because it:
- Transforms lives for the better.
- Fosters a culture of innovation.
- Empowers the local economy.
- Promotes collaborative efforts.
- Enhances community well-being.
- Equips suppliers with essential business and organisational skills.
- Focuses initiatives on specific areas of need.
- Serves as a powerful catalyst for positive change.
- Advances carbon neutrality goals.
- Builds a diverse and resilient supply chain.
Delivering social value has the potential to be transformational, it can bring opportunities to all, change lives and have a positive impact on the local economy. Social value isn’t about costing more – it’s about thinking and approaching things differently.
Some of the Met Office activities include:
Business Cases for approval: These must consider social value and the expected benefits and outcomes that are significant or a priority to the Met Office.
Stakeholders: When collaborating with commercial leads throughout the procurement lifecycle, from early market engagement, there may be more targeted discussions about integrating social value into the contract deliverables. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) must be meaningful, measurable in new contracts and reported to the Met Office and Government.
Social value register and corporate reporting: We will assess the social value embedded in our supply chain contracts against concrete contractual metrics to ensure transparency and monitor our successes and impact. Delivering social value can be transformative, offering opportunities to all, changing lives and positively impacting the local economy.
Government social value training: We are encouraging all staff to complete this training - this will ensure compliance with the Government Social Value Act, in addition it will enhance our employees' social value awareness, thereby embedding it into future activities.
As a responsible business, we ensure our work in weather and climate not only delivers exceptional science and services but also supports the environment and local communities, fostering broader economic development.
Two examples of what the Met Office has delivered so far
PPA
Our new supercomputing provision will be one of the world’s most environmentally sustainable supercomputing capabilities powered by 100% renewable electricity through direct Power Purchase Agreements (PPA).
Food waste and Coffee grinds
Some of the food waste from the shop, café and restaurant, is now being collected by Olio. Olio have local agents who collect the food items such as sandwiches, food to go and ambient items with short shelf life, to distribute to those in need. It’s hoped that soon they will also be able to take food produced in-house. This is having a big positive impact on the local families in need of help, whilst also reducing food wastage. Used coffee grinds are made available in the wheelbarrow stationed within our coffee shop, for staff to take home and use for composting.
In recent years the Met Office has made changes to improve our waste management, the impact of which has meant that we are meeting our waste targets and objectives as set out by the Greening Government Commitment (GGC’s). Mitigation measures to reduce waste includes removing cardboard cups, the elimination of many single use plastics and having in every department and every floor recycling points for all different waste types.
The combined action of reducing paper use and removing consumer single use plastics has meant that, between FY 17/18, the Met Office have has met their targets and objectives on managing waste, reducing its total waste by 34.5%. Since FY17/18 we have increased recycling by 78% of total waste produced and are sending less than 5% of waste to landfill. In FY23/24 we disposed of 124,863 tonnes of waste compared with 187,086 tonnes in FY17/18.
Social Value: Its advantages are five fold
Paying attention to and spending time considering social value is both important and advantageous – i.e. beneficial, because organisations that prioritise it can gain a competitive edge, by addressing social and environmental requirements.
Do this and it’s possible they can win more business and attract customers who care about corporate responsibility. By managing social value, they can also better handle social risks and avoid negative outcomes and media - this proactive approach helps in maintaining a positive reputation and ensuring long-term success. it encourages and leads to services and products that better meet the needs of the community, enhancing satisfaction and impact. It practices contributes to environmental sustainability, and finally it can lead to socio-economic benefits such as improved well-being for individuals and communities.
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Jason is a Chartered Manager and the currently the Portfolio Manager (Benefits) at the Met Office.
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Social Value is a crucial part of Benefits and Value, and this is recognised in HM Treasury's Green Book, although it has been slow to make this a part of business cases. Thanks for this article Jason!