Social value is not the problem – poor implementation is

Reporting in Building back in December Ellie Jenkins, a Partner at Akerlof  said Social value isn’t failing because the principle is flawed – it’s struggling because procurement systems lack the capability and confidence to deliver on their own ambitions. Ellie’s comments follow a headline in the Times from November declaring that forcing firms to show their social value is a “pointless pantomime”. The knee-jerk reaction from those working in social value was a chorus of dissent, however Ellie agrees with many of the key points underlying the Re:State report, saying

“There is an irony to the report and the press coverage that followed. The 66-page analysis devotes real effort to exploring how policy intent becomes distorted in scaled implementation, only for its own nuanced argument about complexity and proportionality to be flattened into a crude “ditch social value” headline.”

Ellie goes on to analyse the report’s findings and picks out the root causes and offers a strategy for what needs to happen, finally concluding that Re:State and practitioners probably agree on more than they differ. Any procurement model social value or otherwise fails without capability, accountability and realistic resourcing. Social value has become a case study in how good policy falters through weak delivery, but many of Re:State’s alternatives risk repeating the pattern.

The question isn’t whether social value is right in principle, it is whether we can design mechanisms that work within real-world constraints of skill, risk appetite and resource. Re:State’s scepticism is understandable. But removal isn’t reform.

The pantomime isn’t social value itself. It’s the persistent mismatch between ambition and capability. The challenge now is to decide whether to simplify what we ask of the system or finally build a system capable of delivering it.

To read Ellie’s article in fill click here