Since April 2022, NHS England has required all NHS organisations in England to apply the Government’s Social Value Model to the commissioning and purchase of goods and services for the NHS. This has meant that all NHS procurements needed to include a minimum 10% net zero and social value weighting.
In view of this and the broader ICS core principle on supporting broader socio-economic development as well as recognising the Black Country Integrated Care Boards (ICB) role as an Anchor Institution, the Transformation and Partnership Directorate (T&PD) has been working to develop a Social Value framework that will underpin the organisations approach to delivering social value.
T&PD have since led on the ICB’s first Social Value Workshop in September 2023 with a view to giving ICB colleagues a better understanding of what social value is, as well as looking to define what social value means to us collectively as an ICB. The workshop formed part of a wider Social Value workstream that includes developing a Social Value Framework that includes how social value is measured and monitored.
Introducing the workshop, Taps Mtemachani, Director of Transformation and Partnerships, provided some context on the economic challenges for the Black Country and the social value opportunity. He said: “Given the fairly limited choices and finite resources, the ICB and the wider ICS need to consider a fundamentally different set of actions based on collaborative working with wider partners across the public and private sector with the intent of keeping the Black Country pound local.
"The NHS can contribute significantly to this agenda being a large employer and a significant contributor to Gross Value Added (measure of the value of goods and services produced in an economy) but we must recognise that the actions of the NHS alone will not bring the dividend that our Black Country economy needs or deserves.
"We have to work across agencies to both understand the scale of the opportunity but critically to implement strategies and policies that unlock the economic potential and prosperity of the Black Country – the social value framework will be an important step towards that.”
Various definitions of what social value means were presented with the key words around social good, benefit to society, social impact. For example, social value can be defined simply as your impact on the world around you – “social value could be your reusable cup, your bag for life, the apprenticeships you support, the recycling you do – all of that is Social Value”.
Workshop attendees also discussed what social value meant to them and some of the collective definitions included:
- Having a positive effect on society socially, economically, and environmentally
- Improving services for the community and addressing the issues
- How a range of actions and engaging communities can impact people in regards to services, health behaviours and taking into the account of said effects
- Social Value is the principles by which the ICB can benefit people and places through its everyday business
Wider perspectives on creating social value were also shared during the workshop. First up was Gary Arnold, ICB Senior Contracts Manager on the role of social value in NHS procurement, who highlighted the key pieces of legislation, including, the Social Value Act 2012, PPN06/20 Government Social Value Model, and conditions within the NHS Standard Contract.
Gary said: “The ICB has embedded the PPN06/20 requirements in all our procurements, but we need to ensure that social value is at the heart of our commissioning. The Social Value Workshop and the development of the ICB’s Social Value framework will help to raise awareness and understanding of social value and will support colleagues to achieve this."
David Burch, Senior Researcher from the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) then provided a broader view on the importance of social value within an ICS. With a focus on the role of the NHS as an anchor institution and how it can use place-based assets in a considered way to impact the social determinates of health.
The workshop will support the future development of a Social Value Framework for the ICB with a view to aligning it to the ICB’s Population Outcomes Framework in VUIT as a tool for measuring the ICB’s social return on investment.
For more information, contact Naomi Dorrington, Senior Manager for Partnerships and Inclusion by emailing naomi.
