Posted on 11 April 2025
Our Chief Financial and Resources Officer, Rod Holdsworth says social value from the social housing supply chain must be championed at the highest level.
As social housing providers, embedding social value and maximising it in everything we do is not just an opportunity, it’s our responsibility. If we want to create lasting, positive change in our communities, social value must be championed at the highest level.
I’m the executive lead on social value at Hyde, and I believe every executive team should have a social value sponsor. My role is to provide focus for colleagues and our supply chain partners, who play a key role in delivering social value to our customers and their communities.
Social value is at the heart of strategy and policies at Hyde and forms part of our environmental and social impact framework. We’ve set clear guidelines and processes for social value in our contracts, we’re committed to measuring and monitoring social value, and have set stretching targets for our ourselves, and our suppliers.
And, while we have a dedicated social value team, we believe social value is everyone’s responsibility. Having champions at various levels of an organisation – from contract managers and project managers to heads of service, directors and senior leaders – ensures it’s a shared priority, and means everyone can contribute to meeting the objectives.
It goes without saying that it’s important to seamlessly integrate social value into procurement and tendering processes, with clearly defined minimum standards for suppliers. We believe social value should be evaluated separately, alongside other critical factors, like cost and quality, reinforcing its role as a core priority in procurement, so we’ve set a 10% weighting for social value when evaluating bids.
We have to give clear guidelines for suppliers, if this approach is to work and to make sure social value requirements are fully understood. It’s equally important not to limit social value to larger contracts, and include contracts with smaller suppliers, including Voluntary Community and Social Enterprises. These organisations often have a deep understanding of the needs of the communities in which they work, which means they can deliver meaningful impact.
In terms of what we should be expecting from suppliers, a decent jumping-off point is to set social value commitments to between 2% and 5% of contract value. However, we believe we should be aiming for a minimum of 5% social value, on top of our contractual spend.
Monitoring and reporting are essential to ensure transparency and to ensure commitments are achieved.
We’ve implemented a clear and not overly complicated approach to track the delivery of social value. This allows us to assess and report on impact regularly, to identify any gaps and to work with suppliers if they don’t meet their commitments.
Having a dedicated social value team overseeing and driving the process is paying dividends for our customers and their communities. In 2023/24, our supply chain delivered £9.5m in social value, compared with £1.8m in the previous year. This includes £8.5m spent by suppliers, boosting local economies and supporting the voluntary sector. We estimate this investment supported about 62,000 people.
Of course, at the heart of successful social value is active community engagement.
We’ve found that a great way to do this is to act as a broker between community organisations and our suppliers. We took this a step further in 2022, with the launch of Match My Project. This virtual meeting point allows community organisations and groups to find and receive help with their projects from our supply chain partners. Last year, 120 projects were funded by 56 partners through Match My Project.
Ultimately, we must listen to and involve the community in shaping and delivering initiatives, to make sure they meet local needs, desires and aspirations. This will ensure social value is not only at the heart of what we do, but that it has true impact and delivers meaningful outcomes for customers and communities.
This article first appeared in Housing Today on 7 April 2025.