How can I measure social impact outcomes in public procurement?

In Scotland, public procurement places a strong emphasis on outcomes rather than outputs, focusing on tangible change such as jobs created, fair work practices, skills development, SME engagement and environmental improvement.

The Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 requires a structured approach to procurement that delivers measurable social, economic, and environmental benefits that are relevant to the subject matter of the contract. Evidencing these outcomes is therefore a critical part of demonstrating the impact and success of public sector projects.

Social impact is a qualitative measure, broadly defined by Social Value UK as ‘changes in people's lives caused by an activity’. On the other hand, social value is more quantitative, ‘a way of quantifying the relative importance of these impacts that are not already captured in financial or market transactions’.

The Social Value Act requires commissioners to consider how to improve the economic, social, and environmental well-being of an area, and to consider whether to consult on these issues, before starting the procurement process for services.

This can be achieved by using a measurement process such as The Social Value Portal’s Social Value TOM System™ - which underpin every project delivered via SCAPE Scotland frameworks.

These measures are robust, evidence based, and impact focused.

The Social Value TOM System is the widely adopted UK standard for social value measurement. It is a set of economic, social and environmental performance measures that serve to assess and validate the value added to local communities.

The public sector must adopt efficient procurement routes if they look to achieve, and quantifiably measure and evidence genuine social impact from their projects.

SCAPE Scotland frameworks enable the public sector to achieve significant social impact, whilst ensuring full compliance with accurate social value measurement standards. To give you everything you need to evidence the true impact and success of your built environment projects, we rigorously measure via the Social Value TOM System as part of your actively managed framework, and report on your project performance.