Sol Tannir, Strategic Account Director at Social Value Portal, has spent over five years helping to build the Social Value movement in partnership with organisations across the public and private sectors.
In this interview, he shares how the ambitions of those at the cutting edge of Social Value at have shifted, and why the future is brighter – and more ambitious – than ever.
Watch the full conversation below:
Or, keep scrolling to read the interview highlights!
What first sparked your interest in working in Social Value?
I've had the pleasure of working in Social Value for the last five and a bit years, and as a sector, it's really kicked on a huge amount in that time. When I first started, if you told people you did anything Social Value related, one of the first questions was, "That sounds cool, but what does that actually mean?"
Like a lot of people, I sort of fell into Social Value. Many of us who work in this area have personal interests around social sustainability, social justice, climate, and environmental sustainability and justice, which puts you in that general direction.
I just got lucky enough to find an entry point that got me into Social Value, and I've been enjoying the ride as it's grown a huge amount in the last five years.
What does a good day look like for you?
A lot of what we talk about is how we bring people along the journey and properly demonstrate and articulate impact. Those are really big questions that a lot of us are tackling at the minute.
A good day is when we’re able to really reflect on how a particular activity or program has materially benefited the community. Personally, the bit of London I live in, we happen to work with some organisations based there. You hear about how things are happening in your area that you’ve played a tiny part in helping.
Anytime we get to really enjoy the impact and success of what our members have been able to deliver, or that we’ve helped nudge things in a positive direction – those are the good days.
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How do you think the public sector’s approach to Social Value has changed and evolved?
It’s matured a tremendous amount. When I first started, we had the Social Value Act in 2012, implemented in 2013. Since then, we’ve had various policy notes and regulations, which is really positive. But a lot of the regulations since reflects how much things have changed.
A few years ago, it was, "If we can get some additional Social Value on a high-value contract, amazing." Whereas now, we’re talking about being driven by local need. We’re talking about how we align procurement strategies to maximise benefits to the community. The language we’re using and the scale of what we’re trying to achieve collaboratively between public sector organisations and their supply chain, and engaging the community as part of that dynamic, has just become a lot bigger.
We’re now talking about meaningful Social Value and making sure the right people are targeted by programs. It’s a really positive shift away from "all Social Value is good" to really meaningful and impactful activities and interventions. That’s been a big part of how things have shifted, probably in the last two to three years.
In general, the number of organisations thinking about Social Value has just become ubiquitous in the public sector, which is amazing. It’s a tough economic climate; the public sector is being asked to do more with less. Social Value is a key mechanism to make up some of that shortfall.
One of the big changes is that organisations are thinking about how to use Social Value to align with governmental priorities, but starting with community need and making sure suppliers are having a positive impact on the community.
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What impact do you see legislation like the Procurement Act 2023 having on Social Value?
A lot of what the NPPS and the Procurement Act 2023 are getting at – things like moving from MEAT (most economically advantageous tender) to MAT (most advantageous tender) – isn’t new. That activity is what people have been doing for years: pre-market engagement, community consultation, all of that isn’t new.
What the Act is doing is reflecting how organisations have matured in the last few years. For people at the cutting edge of Social Value, I don’t know that a lot changes on the procurement side. It’s more organisations who have only started dipping their toes into Social Value, or who have been thinking about it but not really applying it — for them, it’s huge because they now have to get started above certain thresholds.
For large organisations and really for everyone, some of the big changes will be in reporting. The transparency move as part of the Procurement Act, the new notices and KPIs above certain contract values – that’s where there’s going to be a big change.
Contract management is tough, it’s resource heavy, and the public sector will tell you it’s a challenging area. Because of the new transparency reporting, contract management is a really key part of how organisations will be implementing Social Value.
If you’re an organisation that hasn’t been taking Social Value seriously in the last five years – I don’t know why you wouldn’t have, but if you are – that’s about to change.
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Are there any programs or initiatives you’re particularly proud of?
Probably too many to count, but if I had to pick three:
Years ago, we supported Bristol City Council with City Leap, all about becoming a net zero city. The scale was massive, and we got Social Value included from the start, which lead to some really significant outcomes. If you're ever in Bristol, it's impossible not to see the impact.
From a slightly different lens, we’ve done a lot of work with County Durham through Durham County Council on the County Durham Pound project, which is all about keeping value local. They looked at the amount of money bleeding out of the local economy and put a real emphasis on supporting local jobs and community organisations. This last year, there’s been a big push to get supporters out, and they launched their supporters’ charter last April. This year, we’re going to report for the first time on what both the County Durham Pound partners and this wave of supporters have achieved. The goal is a billion pounds of Social Value delivered, and they’re well on their way.
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Lastly, we did a piece of work about a year and a half ago with NHS Cheshire Merseyside ICB and the voluntary sector in the Northwest, looking at how to maximise Social Value outcomes for the voluntary, community, faith, and social enterprise sector.
We looked at creating capability and capacity, how the public sector should commission to increase the likelihood that the sector can compete, and how tier one suppliers can use the sector not just as a recipient but as part of their supply chain. That piece of work was pretty innovative and brought together organisations from across sectors to create a roadmap.
💡 How NHS Cheshire and Merseyside is harnessing the power of the third sector
How have you seen expectations and ambitions evolve?
As we’ve seen growth and maturity in how organisations approach Social Value, a lot started by implementing it in procurement. Then it was, "Now we need to see what that looks like in delivery." There’s been a much bigger expectation on supply chains to show that they’re delivering the Social Value they promised.
Questions around reporting and validation have become more prominent. The sectors I work with just have a different vocabulary now. It used to be about volunteering or school visits; now it’s about demonstrating impact in the community based on a range of activities that organisations have committed to and are being supported to deliver.
We’ve also seen a diversification of who within the public sector thinks about Social Value. A few years ago, it was mostly procurement teams. Now we engage with planning, regeneration, sustainability, and commercial teams – all thinking about how they use Social Value.
So, as well as using different language and being rooted in local need and impact-driven activity, we’re also talking to different people who have a growing interest in Social Value. The profile of who we speak to and help embed Social Value has evolved in the last few years.
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How do you see public ownership of more rail operators affecting Social Value?
We have the pleasure of working with LNER, Northern Rail, and Southeastern Rail as publicly owned operators under the DfT Operating Body. They’re doing amazing things around Social Value, both through procurement and initiatives like LNER’s Customer and Community Investment Fund.
They really set a template for what good looks like in the rail sector. As other TOCs come into public ownership, they’ll be under the remit of the Procurement Act and will have to embed Social Value in procurement and think about their wider impact.
Some operators run across the whole country, so questions about what is local and how to maximise benefit are really big. We’ll likely see more collaboration and knowledge sharing within the sector, helping newer TOCs learn from more experienced ones like LNER and Northern.
We’re also looking forward to seeing how operating at scale can help supply chains, increase capability, and think about what increased capacity for Social Value in the rail sector looks like. The move should mean we get Social Value working really effectively and efficiently up and down the railway sector.
What excites you most about the future of Social Value?
A few years ago, organisations were at the cutting edge simply because they did Social Value in procurement consistently. Now, that’s expected: it’s become the new normal. Right now, we’re talking to organisations about how they’re maximising impact and centring local need or community consultation to make sure benefits match what communities need, targeting areas of deprivation, and supporting specific groups.
I’m excited for that to become normal so we can move on to the next thing. As Social Value becomes a more strategically implemented tool, you can really maximise how you’re helping a particular group or area. The more that becomes expected, the more we’ll push organisations to innovate and think about what comes next.
I’m also interested in what new versions of place-based Social Value at bigger scale might look like. How do we take something like the County Durham Pound approach and adapt it for London, Manchester, or Birmingham? Different geographies, different stakeholder needs: they’ll be different, but that model of bringing anchor institutions together and building capability in the supply chain can be applied everywhere.
That’s what I’m really looking forward to – seeing that Social Value Economy develop across the UK.
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