A guide to understanding social procurement and social values.
Social procurement involves the deliberate use of purchasing to create ‘social value’.
This is achieved through creating new cross-sector partnerships between government, private sector, social benefit and community-based organisations.
What is social value in procurement?
In simple terms, ‘social value’ is the net economic, social and environmental benefit a purchase of goods or services can bring to a community beyond the delivery of efficient goods and services and the function of the asset procured, considering counterfactuals such as:
- Deadweight – what would have happened anyway;
- Attribution - what else could have contributed to the change;
- Displacement - what other benefits does the intervention displace/push aside;
- Substitution - losses for others who might have lost out;
- Drop-off - reducing benefit over time;
- Culture - cultural differences in perceptions of value.
Creating social value
Social value can be created in many ways by the organisations that you purchase from:
- Providing employment opportunities for groups who may be disadvantaged in the labour market such as people with a disability, Indigenous peoples, refugees, migrants, homeless, youth at risk, ex-offenders and women in highly masculinised industries etc.
- Providing business opportunities for minority and social benefit suppliers such as social enterprises, B Corps etc.
- Community involvement (corporate volunteering, supporting local charities , donations to good causes etc)
- Fair business practices (responsible sourcing and supply chain management, respect for commercial and labour, fair pay, fair business relationships etc)
- Human rights (promoting equality and diversity, respecting local cultural rights, freedom of association and expression, modern slavery etc)
- Labour practices (providing employment, safe and healthy workplace, good working conditions and wages, opportunities for human resource development/training, work-life balance etc)
- Environmental (reduce pollution, emissions and waste etc)
- Consumer issues (privacy and data protection, safe and healthy products etc)
- Good governance (accountability, transparency, accurate reporting, respect for law, involvement of staff and stakeholders in decision making etc.)
- Responsible supply chain and purchasing activities (their own social procurement)