Bidding for a contract and need to talk about your social value?
As an SME you’re unlikely to have a team or dedicated member of staff looking after social value, sustainability or ESG – you may not know exactly what counts as social value in the first place. But as a smaller business you’ve got social value advantages you may not know about, and pulling them together into a strong response can be the deciding factor in helping you win that work. Put simply – it’s really worth doing it well!
At CHY, we’ve got almost two decades’ worth of experience in supporting businesses (big and small) with their social value. Here are some pointers to help you take your bid to the next level as an SME.
There are three things you need to decide before you start putting a social value response together:
Get clear on these figures first – it will be easier to put together a strong, clear social value offer that is both fair and proportionate to the contract.
You’ll need to read the question carefully and work out what the procuring body is actually looking for. Which social value framework will you be measured against – the government’s Social Value Model? TOMs? What key themes are they interested in – local jobs? Skills? The environment? How do they intend to measure project impact? If there is a scoring system, notice where the highest weightings are.
It’s also often worth contacting the procuring body or supply chain to clarify what’s needed, and what’s already going on, so you can combine resources, collaborate and support existing efforts in the local area.
There’s no need to reinvent the wheel! As an SME you may be doing plenty already that will count towards your social value offer.
Employment: Local hires, apprentices, internships, flexible working
Skills: Work experience placements, training sessions, qualifications
Community: Charity work, skilled volunteering, mentoring, workshops, supporting in schools
Environment: Energy saving measures, recycling initiatives, sustainable procurement policies
Ethics: Paying the living wage, paying suppliers promptly, inclusive hiring, addressing the gender pay gap
What are you already doing that could help you build a strong response?
Don’t just say “we use apprentices”. If the contract will employ a team of four for 24 weeks, one of whom is an apprentice – that’s six weeks of work delivered via apprenticeship. This level of detail helps the procurer understand how much you will be contributing to their targets, and how winning the work will help support the apprenticeships in your business.
Give context where you can, too. If you can say that you will contribute eight hours of volunteering (by being contracted for 12 weeks across a team of four) as per the national benchmark of eight hours per person, per year – this provides a more compelling case for the scorer. It also shows you know your stuff!
And, if the procuring body’s social value policy shows a commitment to spending more with SMEs, point out that engaging with your business will help them meet that target.
If your business doesn’t use apprentices, it’s still worth talking about similar schemes – work experience placements, internships – if it fulfills the same requirement (e.g. employment, skills). And if this contract will help you support these trainees to qualification next year – say it! Maybe 85% of your trainees go onto further employment? Include it. Use your data to tell the story.
Maybe you ran a really successful volunteering scheme last year and think you could do something like it as part of this contract? Include a brief description and communicate how you could achieve something similar in this project. The scorer can’t give you points for previous evidence, however it will give them confidence in your ability – which will stack the odds in your favour.
Don’t feel you need to try something completely different to satisfy a requirement – think about what you already do well. A specialist micro-SME could share their skills with the supply chain as part of an online workshop – adding to the Continued Professional Development (CPD) of the contract workforce.
Imagine a biodiversity consultant giving a talk on biodiversity net gain to the rest of a construction supply chain – they would be educating and raising awareness of an increasingly important aspect of development. That’s real value – both to the individuals attending and to the overall project delivery.
Maybe you’ve got a strong social value-relevant campaign running across the business that you reckon will impress the scorers? Steady on! Don’t just cut and paste the generic blurb into your response. Tailor it, particularly if it’s a national campaign running across more than one site. Think about how that work will affect this specific local community. Name areas, talk about individual schools. State exactly what it is that you will do, where you plan to do it, what you hope it will achieve and who you think will benefit as a result.
SMEs are often fantastic at connecting with other organisations and businesses in the local area – how will you use that skill and those networks to enable even more social value? Who can you join forces with to enhance your offer? What local networks will you be able to tap into? Could you connect with other contractors and see what you can add to the existing work – then add that into your response? What bodies and organisations are you a member of that you can mention, to show your professionalism and expertise?
To cut to the chase – a great social value response is one that has a good understanding of the procuring body’s requirements and expresses clearly what your business can bring to the table. You don’t need to be big to impress when it comes to social value – just clear, confident and ready to deliver great outcomes that support happier lives!
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