Social value policy and framework 2026-28

Contents

1. Background

2. What is social value?

3. Policy purpose

4. Policy objectives

5. Social value measurement framework

6. Unlocking social value

7. Further implementation

8. Governance

9. Contact

10. Appendix 1: Lancashire TOMs

11. Appendix 2: Useful links

12. Appendix 3: Social value through the procurement and contract management cycle

Background

Here at Lancashire County Council (LCC), we are aiming to make Lancashire the best place to live, work, visit and prosper. At the heart of meeting this aspiration are our four priorities:

• Better lives for all,

• Economic ambition,

• Stronger communities, and

• Thinking differently

In summary, Lancashire seeks to significantly accelerate its economic growth, generate thousands of new high-value jobs, and become a trailblazer in tech, digital and other in-demand and globalised industries. Within all of this is the necessity to support our population in Lancashire by developing healthy and resilient neighbourhoods. Afterall, our communities are key to co-developing the infrastructure and tools to manage health and wellbeing and address the causes of poverty, ill health and long-term care needs. 

Facilitating these ambitious goals require more than just a vision and a plan to succeed, it requires Lancashire County Council to make the most of the levers at our disposal as a public body to generate positive outcomes that contribute to both local and regional priorities.

One such lever we use is how we procure goods and services in a way which creates maximum benefits for Lancashire. By continuing to embrace the Public Services Act, Lancashire is able to to generate additional community, economic and environmental benefits as a result of the decisions we make when it comes to spending your money. This means that our chosen delivery partners will not just be expected to deliver additional benefits, but to measure and report against them too. The delivery of these wider contributions to society is commonly known as ‘social value’.

It is important to note social value is not new to Lancashire, with our original Policy having been implemented in 2013. This updated Policy seeks to go further, generate more benefits and to improve how we measure and report progress towards our priorities.

At the centre of our social value strategy are the priorities for Lancashire County Council. These plans are focused on bringing people together with a shared aim, shared ambition, shared goals and shared priorities.

What is social value?

As introduced, social value considers the wider economic, community or environmental benefits than can be generated through how Lancashire County Council delivers its activity and services, including when procuring goods, works or services from the Council’s suppliers. In order to realise these added-value benefits and improve on current practice, we and our suppliers will collaborate to plan how contracts and projects can be delivered in ways that generate outcomes that contribute to Lancashire's priorities.

These additional benefits can be measured through financial and non-financial metrics and can encompass the entire supply chain. This means that for every £1 spent by Lancashire, our suppliers can calculate the added-value return over and above the £1 cost. In some cases, our suppliers may already be delivering these added-value benefits, so the implementation of this Policy is an opportunity to capture and report this for our local communities too.

Policy purpose

This policy sets out how we will work together as an organisation to deliver social value for Lancashire. Including how all staff, partners and suppliers can play their part. Figure 1 displays the Lancashire County Council Corporate Strategy and 2050 Strategic Framework as overarching strategies that have influenced social value at Lancashire County Council.

Figure 1 - Lancashire County Council social value framework

Ultimately, this Policy exists to ensure that all LCC activity is designed to generate additional positive contributions which directly meet the needs of our communities. For example:

• More people who face employment barriers are helped to secure quality, well-paid jobs

• Young people are equipped with better employability skills

• More business opportunities for our local micro, small and medium enterprises, including Social Enterprises

• Reducing inequalities by encouraging employers to pay at least the Real Living Wage

• Supporting vulnerable people to live more independently

• Encouraging the reduction of carbon emissions and resource efficiency

In respect of our activity, this Policy applies to all contracts, frameworks and single purchases by LCC's Procurement and Contract Management teams with third-party suppliers. In future, there may be decisions outside of commissioning, procurement and planning, such as leases, grants and joint ventures when this Policy could also apply, and where significant social value could be unlocked.

Beyond our organisation, we are also committed to working with partner organisations, including; Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB), Fire and Police, Lancashire Enterprise Partnerships, businesses and the Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise organisations to increase the amount of social value delivered collectively by the region through jointly agreed approaches.

Policy objectives

The objectives of the social value policy are to maximise the local impact of the Council’s spending and activity to:

• Provide an outcomes-based measurement framework that measures all contributions to the local and regional priorities

• Introduce a social value management tool that supports the delivery of these strategic priorities for the people and environment of Lancashire

• Provide a consistent approach to measuring and reporting social value throughout the procurement and contract management lifecycle

• Define and implement a robust, transparent and efficient digital solution for assessing and awarding the social value component of tenders, and managing relevant supplier performance during the contract lifecycle

• Reduce the uncertainty surrounding social value measurement for organisations, allowing them to make informed decisions based on robust assessments and hence to embed social value into their corporate strategies.

Social Value Measurement Framework

The TOM System (the ‘Measurement Framework’) will underpin and empower the objectives of this policy, by allowing us to direct, unlock, measure and report the social value during project cycles. The Measurement Framework is also known as the “TOM System” because it is built around a set of Themes, Outcomes and Measures, and in recent years has become the most commonly used framework in the UK. The TOM System was first launched in 2017 by the National Social Value Taskforce, chaired by the LGA, with over 40 members from organisations representing central and local government, the private sector and the third sector. The five themes we have chosen reflect the local and regional priorities as defined by LCC.

The TOM System provides a flexible, measures-based calculation framework designed to articulate social value outcomes in terms that can be objectively assessed. It was conceived and developed to be evidence-led and applicable over the ‘whole life’ of a contract or single purchase.

Each of the Measures (Appendix 1) behind the Outcomes have been assigned a proxy value which allows organisations to report their delivery in financial and non-financial terms. These values were agreed by the National Social Value Taskforce and stem from public sector data sources such as the Unit Cost Database (UCD), following benefit analysis techniques as outlined in the HM Treasury Green Book and other relevant monetary valuation techniques, such as benchmarking of market prices.

There are several benefits to using both the TOM System and the tendering and contract management portal, known as the Social Value Portal (“the Portal”) for Lancashire. We will be able to:

• Objectively compare and benchmark year on year social value delivered between contracts and services, to seek sharing of best practice and drive better performance

• Gain a deeper understanding of where social value is being generated within our suppliers and areas - as well as where more social value could be unlocked to improve outcomes

• Puts a common language (the £) against the positive impact our spending brings to the area, to inform service planning and commissioning

• Being better informed about where further social value could be unlocked locally

See Appendix 1 for the Lancashire TOMs.

Unlocking Social Value

In order to maximise the effectiveness of this social value policy, while still maintaining the efficiency of the procurement process, a minimum spend threshold has been set at £100,000. The threshold assessment should be conducted at the start of the procurement and contract management lifecycle and be based on the estimated spend during the contract or purchase’s whole lifecycle.

There will be a minimum standalone weighting of 10% of overall scoring, of which this will be evaluated both qualitatively and quantitatively according to scoring matrix.

Any proposed contracts or single purchases below this threshold can proceed through the procurement and contract management lifecycle without needing to comply with the requirements of this policy. All contracts or single purchases above this threshold will need to comply with the requirements of this policy, unless an exemption waiver has been obtained from Procurement

For full detail on how this is applied through the procurement and contract management lifecycle, see Appendix 3.

Existing suppliers, whose contracts have already started, can still choose to submit social value proposals onto the Portal, and to have their delivery performance monitored against these proposals for the remaining duration of their contract with Lancashire. This will enable the Council to unlock this added social value more quickly than waiting for each tender exercise to take place as scheduled.

Further implementation

As part of applying the Act, Lancashire is taking further steps to embed a social value approach throughout our operations, these are published within our Social Value Strategy.

We are taking steps to improve the accessibility of the procurement process itself, to encourage a diverse range of bidders to participate in tenders relevant to them. It is important that sole traders, SMEs, start-ups and companies with minority ownership or management are well-supported and feel included without unintended barriers. Our approach to how they also build their social value understanding is no different. Our strategy includes how we will ensure early market engagement with all groups.

Governance

The Cabinet Member for Resources Data, Technology, Customer and Efficiency is to be ultimately accountable for the delivery of this Policy. They are supported by the Executive Director for ResourcesPlace and Director of FinanceEnvironment and Planning who will . The Executive Director for Resources and Director of Finance to ensure:

• They are supported by Procurement Head of Service for policy and strategy oversight

• There is a dedicated resource in the Corporate Policy and Strategy team to lead strategy implementation

• Cross Sector Advisory Group develops and manages the delivery of joined up social value policies

• All relevant staff to have suitable social value KPIs as part of the review process.

Contact

For further detail, support, and guidance, please contact LCC at socialvalue@lancashire.gov.uk

Appendix 1: Lancashire TOMs

Better lives for all

• NT1 - Local people employed or retained

• NT3 - Long-term unemployed people recruited

• NT3a - Long-term unemployed armed forces veterans recruited

• NT4 - Employees recruited who are Not in Education Employment or Training (16-24 y.o.)

• NT4a - Unemployed 16-25 year old care leavers recruited

• NT76 - Unemployed people recruited

• NT5 - Unemployed ex-offenders aged 18 and over recruited

• NT6 - Unemployed individuals with disabilities recruited

• NT9 - Accredited training for new employees

• NT10 - Employment of new apprentices

• NT9a - Accredited training for new employees from designated groups

• NT10a - Employment of new apprentices from designated groups

• NT11 - Personalised support to help unemployed people into work

• NT12 - Meaningful unpaid work placements while Not in Employment Education or Training

• NT13 - Meaningful paid work placements

• NT8 - Support for students at local educational institutions

Economic ambition

• NT14 - Spend with VCSEs in the supply chain

• NT18 - Spend with local companies in the supply chain

• NT19 - Spend with local SMEs in the supply chain

• NT15 - Expert support to VCSEs and SMEs

• NT61 - Invoices paid within 30 days

Stronger communities

• NT28 - Support for local community projects through donations

• NT29 - Support for local community projects through volunteering

• NT27 - Support for initiatives focused on strengthening community networks

Thinking differently

• NT50 - Initiatives to promote local skills and employment

• NT51 - Initiatives to promote and support responsible business

• NT52 - Initiatives to promote more resilient communities

• NT53 - Initiatives to safeguard the environment

Appendix 2: Useful links

The following links provide further detail to support the policy.

• The Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012

• The National TOM System: The Nationally accredited measurement framework for measuring Social Value through partnership with the LGA

• Short films from the Local Government Association on how to use the TOM System

• Guidance document for Bidders: Social Value Portal’s bidder guidance

• National Social Value Taskforce: An open network which welcomes any organisation to get involved 2023-27

• Social Value Act: review

• Procurement Policy Note 06/20 – taking account of social value in the award of central government contracts

• Lancashire Skills and Employment Hub – Social Value

Appendix 3: Social value through the procurement and contract management cycle

The following process is a summary of how LCC applies this Policy through the procurement and contract management cycle.