Social Value UK

Tag: Network

  • Leaders in sustainable development join Social Value UK

    Leaders in sustainable development join Social Value UK

    Professor Erik Bichard and Phil Higham have joined Social Value UK/Social Value International as organisational members following the launch of their company RealWorth. The company primarily values the social and environmental change of built environment projects, programmes and investments. They have wide set client groups ranging from developers and investors in property, through to membership bodies and local authorities, social landlords and place-making social enterprises. Their approach is based on the use of multiple social, material and ecological valuation methods, and is underpinned by the pair’s long association with the development and construction community.

    Erik is based in Liverpool and developed the methods employed by RealWorth while working as a Professor of Regeneration and Sustainable Development. As an individual member he was invited onto the Social Value UK Council and also serves on the Social Value International Methodology Sub-Committee. He is a former executive director of the UK National Centre for Business and Sustainability and a Trustee of the social enterprise the FRC Group. Erik said: “while conventional methods of valuation used by built environment professionals mainly focus on the market-based and the physical, RealWorth puts a value on the social and environmental changes experienced by people who are the most affected by development decisions”.

    Phil, a Manchester-based chartered surveyor, has had a full and varied career in international development and leadership roles at companies including Laing O’Rourke and Rider Levett Bucknall. Phil said “we have always thought that society in general, and the built environment industry in particular, fails to value the importance of social and environmental factors when making decisions that affect people’s lives. Our business has been created to redress this shortfall.”

    The company has secured a contract with an innovative social enterprise in Pittsburgh that empowers local people to improve the environmental conditions of their underinvested neighbourhoods and is in the final stages of negotiations to be appointed a key advisor to one of the largest mixed use development schemes in the north of England.

    News of RealWorth’s innovative approach has also spread to Malmo and Vienna where Professor Bichard has spoken of the need to value things differently to avoid further division in society.

    For more information see the RealWorth website.

    RealWorth will also be taking a lead on the Social Value UK ‘Social Value in the Built Environment’ working group, which will launch in the new year. We are very excited about this, for more information or to request to join,  visit our Working Groups list.

     

    Press Contacts

    Real Worth

    E: askus@realworth.org      T: +44 (0)20 7193 7235

    Christina Berry-Moorcroft, Membership and Communications Coordinator, Social Value UK

    E: christina.moorcroft@sv-test.wp-support.team                       T: 0151 703 9229

    About RealWorth

    RealWorth is a consultancy that represents a unique blend of skills combining academic and commercial expertise to help our clients to create better and more sustainable outcomes for their organisations and wider society.

    About Social Value UK

    Social Value UK is the national network for anyone interested in social value and social impact. We work with our members to increase the accounting, measuring and maximising of social value from the perspective of those affected by an organisation’s activities, through our Social Value Principles. We believe in a world where a broader definition of value will change decision making and ultimately decrease inequality and environmental degradation. To achieve our mission, Social Value UK provides training and assurance services, as well as hosting regular meetings and events, creating new tools and resources, and running campaigns. Through supporting and working with our members, and as a National Member Network of Social Value International, we are creating an international movement for change.

  • What does social value mean to you?

    What does social value mean to you?

    The Social Value International 2016 survey has launched!

    Each year Social Value International try to take a snapshot of how the Principles of Social Value are being used. We use this information to better support our members and the social value community at large through creating new guidance, training and campaigns.

    For more information on the Principles of Social Value, watch our short video below:

     

    The survey should take no longer than 15 minutes to complete and you will be entered in to a prize draw upon completion.

    Thank you from everyone at Social Value International and Social Value UK.

    Survey

  • The Social Return on Investment Network and Local Government Association launch new “Guide to Commissioning for Maximum Value.”

    The Social Return on Investment Network and Local Government Association launch new “Guide to Commissioning for Maximum Value.”

     

    The SROI Network, in co-operation with the Local Government Association is pleased to announce the launch of the new “Guide to Commissioning for Maximum Value.”

    The guide, which has been prepared by The SROI Network as part of the National Programme for Third Sector Commissioning, will be launched officially at The SROI Network International Conference –“A Time for Social Value” on 16-17th February 2012, University of Potsdam, Germany.

    It brings together a range of related practice and is intended as a starting point for further development of professional commissioning practice.

    Specifically, the guide is aimed at commissioning teams responsible for public services, and is most relevant to those with responsibility for relational services, dealing with what value is and how it may be better understood and taken into account in decision making throughout the cycle of commissioning.

    Jennifer Inglis, an author of the report and a director of The SROI Network, said –

    “We are delighted to be publishing this major new guide with the LGA. Commissioning is an extremely important discipline in today’s public services. Commissioning teams have the potential to transform not only the impact that individual services, make but also to make a significant difference to communities.”

    “Making the most of this potential is key to successfully navigating through current reforms, including Localism, and is also central to meeting existing duties under Best Value.”

    “Commissioners have to make difficult decisions and this Guide to Commissioning for Maximum Value offers some principles, adapted from the principles of Social Return on Investment, to help guide these difficult professional judgements.”

    “We know there is a lot of interest in Social Return on Investment amongst local authorities and other public sector bodies, and we would invite all interested parties to join the SROI Community of Practice hosted by the LGA to share experiences and further develop practice.”

    The Guide to Commissioning for Maximum Value is a timely addition to the UK Government’s “Best Value Statutory Guidance,” in light of reforms in EU Public Procurement Regulation and MP Chris White’s Public Services (Social Value) bill, which call for the concept of making social value more relevant and important in the placement and provision of public services.

    It is highly relevant to the changing landscape of public services in England, with a need for systems that support good local decisions, involvement of service users and other stakeholders. It is also relevant in relation to the difficult decisions that many organisations are facing at present, and may be of use in Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland and additionally to those responsible for back-office services.

    The model presented on commissioning for value draws on the training, meetings and other interactions that the SROI Network has had with commissioners on the subject of value. It applies the principles and practices set out in the Cabinet Office’s 2009 “A Guide to Social Return on Investment” but revises and extends them in a way that is both useful and appropriate to commissioning.

    To download a copy of the “Guide to Commissioning for Maximum Value” please visit The SROI Network website here.

     

  • Hong Kong Training and Network Established

    Hong Kong Training and Network Established

    During the last week of November, Chief Executive of The SROI Network International Jeremy Nicholls teamed up with seasoned impact evaluation practitioner Kevin Robbie of Social Ventures Australia and conducted two rounds of SROI accreditation training workshops in Hong Kong.

    A total of 30 participants from government, nonprofit, social enterprise, impact investing and finance sectors attended the workshops, including one social enterprise practitioner flying over from the Philippines to join the training. The two workshops have been positively received by the attendees. The workshops were organized just as the annual Hong Kong Social Enterprise Summit was being held in town, and local and overseas evaluation practitioners gathered again in the conference session “Innovation for impact: Going beyond metrics” and discussed a wide range of issues including the increasing use of “big data” in guiding impact measurement, the “impact risks” in relation to the biased and selective use of data, and the roles of intermediaries and professionals in advancing impact measurement and the use of impact practices.

    Hong Kong also celebrated the establishment of its first membership-based professional body promoting social impact assessment in town – a new intermediary titled the Hong Kong Institute of Social Impact Analysts. The new professional body will become a formal affiliate of the international network once it completes its registration process.

    Hong Kong contact:
    Terence Yuen, Convenor
    The Hong Kong Institute of Social Impact Analysts
    Email: sroi.hkg@gmail.com; terenceyuen@gmail.com