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London’s intensifying needs, budget constraints and charged public mood are driving toward increasingly defined requirements for social value within the procurement process: supporting local jobs, contributing to healthier places and social wellbeing, and ultimately building positive relationships between delivery partners, public organisations and communities served.
The appetite for understanding and requiring social value clearly exists, but time-poor procurement teams are often overwhelmed with options, and rarely have time to share lessons learned. The sector needs a better grip on current practice and needs and a manageable way forward – including common and rigorous metrics, flexible tendering and more emphasis on evaluation.
Running throughout 2019, this project balanced setting and monitoring outcomes against programme, finance and legal considerations. The goal was – through shared, cross-sector expertise and experience – to equip London’s public sector and delivery partners to form more consistent and effective procurement practices that deliver demonstrable, ongoing social benefit for London and for Londoners.
Co-design with residents in Barking’s Gascoigne neighbourhood has produced a great shared-use space with life beyond its temporary home. Be First planner and Leaders Plus alumna Emma Thorpe shares how they did it.
Many councils are under pressure to fill budget gaps and sell their owned or managed buildings. But more are becoming ‘market makers,’ pushing for a longer-term stake and turning vacant or under-used buildings into community-managed assets
As part of our Building recovery programme, this roundtable aimed to highlight the key challenges facing the sector when it comes to prioritising fairness in recovery. Our multi-disciplinary panel gave their reflections on the sector’s urgent priorities with key themes around procurement, diversity and skills gaps.
The housing we live in, the tenure we occupy and the greenspaces that knit our neighbourhoods together all play a role in helping build social connections. In this City Park West case study we explore how we use these buildings and how community functions have drastically changed in the wake of Covid-19.
London’s intensifying needs, budget constraints and charged public mood are driving increasingly defined requirements for social value within the procurement process. Seven years on from the Social Value Act, there’s…
Future London Leaders 22 wrapped up on Wednesday 18 September with the group presenting their Proposals for London on the theme of community benefit. A fantastic range of ideas were…
Future of London’s Social Value Research Forum invited experts involved in practical social value research and toolkits to showcase their projects and offer insight into future directions for social value.
On 25 April, FoL’s roundtable heard approaches and experiences of procuring social value in London – does the capital need a regional pact?
On 25 April, we visited South Acton to learn how Countryside Properties and L&Q are maximising social value in a major estate regeneration scheme.
The Social Value Act, introduced in 2013, allows councils to take social value delivered through a contract into account when procuring services. The legislation was intended to help local authorities…
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