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We’re pleased to announce that we have been awarded the Social Value Management Certificate Level 1 ‘Commit’ by Social Value UK. Matt has led the management of this process for Value Match and has really helped us identify additional areas we could focus upon to improve our impact.
The Social Value Management Certificate Level 1 recognises our commitment to measure, manage and maximise the social value we give to our stakeholders, candidates and customers. The Social Value Management Certificate is part of a broader accreditation offered by Social Value UK with three levels ‘Commit’, ‘Implement’ and ‘Maximise’. Each level demonstrates at what level an organisation is at embedding social value and it’s principles. For an organisation to achieve maximise, they must demonstrate that social value is being managed with an aim to maximise the value that is created within the organisations resources for all stakeholders and that social value data is being used within an organisational decision making continuously with processes being reviewed and processed.
Through our people, relationships, and core values; Value People, Value Relationships, Sustainable Prosperity, and Value the Environment, we place social value at the forefront of the services we offer; Resourcing, Consultancy, Training and Bid Management.
The Social Value Management Certificate Level 1 can be awarded to an organisation, department, franchise or a specific programme/project. At the same time we were exploring how to achieve the Social Value Management Certificate, we were researching a new department at Value Match, Training and it’d be training that would be the premises for obtaining the Social Value Management Certificate.
Our initial research found that procurement training was provided by membership organisations, often with a linear developmental structure, required high investment costs for individuals or sponsoring organisations. We found that buyers and suppliers felt they were not currently equipped to embed social value, climate, environmental and sustainability considerations into their procurement and bidding activities effectively. This is a pivotal and key issue when taking account of social value in awarding and bidding into central government contracts.
Creating Value through Resourcing
Our resourcing team manage a network of thousands of candidates, working with each one on a regular basis to place them in permanent and interim procurement roles across the UK. By regularly checking in and treating our candidates with respect, always providing feedback through each step of the recruitment process and obtaining feedback from both candidates and customers throughout their placements, we continuously match talent with opportunity. Recently, Alison has been working with a candidate to place her in a large public sector organisation, working with our candidate on her CV to tailor it to the role and highlighting areas of expertise which were critical to their new position.
How we embed social value as an organisation
Reducing & Analysing our Carbon Footprint
Through working with Carbon Footprint who audit our calculations, each year we analyse and try to reduce our carbon usage. We initially offset 12tCO2e in 2020 and have since reduced our emissions to 4 tonnes. We’ve done this through changing our processes, finding alternatives to face-to-face meetings with online Microsoft Team calls therefore reducing our mileage. We offset our emissions against tree planting projects in the North of England where our team reside.
Kiva
Since 2020, our team have been supporting women-owned businesses around the world through Kiva, predominately in the developing world and often with loans that support families, education, and sustainability such as lenders purchasing solar lights and biodigesters. Our team activity has resulted in a huge impact having loaned over $17,000 across 190 loans. Catalyzing Innovation for Women Entrepreneurs a report by Kiva highlights the importance of enabling women to access financial capital and services in general, as well as in supporting areas such as procurement and management practices.
KitAid
Lindsay, our services director is a regional volunteer for KitAid who recycles football kits and distributes to underprivileged children and adults in some of the world’s poorest countries. 820,000 items of kit have been delivered to the developing world across the KitAid network, recycling clothing whilst engaging with communities to deliver projects that vary from education, social inclusion and crime prevention.
Discover how we embed and live our values and how our team volunteer and work with other organisations to create social value and give back to local and international communities.
Contract for Change
Social Value UK relaunched the Contract for Change programme. The programme brings together volunteers across the public and private sector to place social value at the forefront of procurement and embed it into procurement best practices. Value Match is a strategic partner of Contract for Change supporting steering groups and other commercial activities.
Overarchingly, we place social value at the forefront of everything we do from the organisations we partner with to how we treat our customers, candidates and stakeholders and look forward to working towards our level 2 certificate.
Procurement and social value can support micro and SME businesses as inflation rates bring enterprises to ‘breaking point’. Collaborations between pricing and procurement teams to weigh inflation’s possible effects on the prices the company charges its own customers.
We’d finally like to thank Matthew Saunders, for his hard-work and commitment in submitting the evidence and ensuring we were awarded the Social Value Management Certificate.