To bid for government contracts you now need to prove social value — are you ready?

From 1st January 2020, all suppliers who want to bid for government contracts will have at least 10% of their assessment based on “social value”.

The social value model was recently introduced by the government to help drive diversity and societal benefit during service procurement. The Government want to use their £1bn spending power to drive further social impact. The social value framework is grouped into five policy outcome themes; COVID-19 recovery, tackling economic inequality, fighting climate change, equal opportunity and wellbeing. Supply Change has written an overview of the social value model here.

Businesses attempting to win government contracts have often had a tougher time compared to those applying for private contracts, with specific requirements and commercial pressures. There have always been elements of societal impact included in the assessment, but nothing like what has now been introduced. Many businesses are supportive of the mission behind the change, but worry about the bureaucracy and how quickly they can adapt to these changes.

So how should businesses address the social value assessment, seamlessly and without costing the earth? My proposal: the untapped talent of prison leavers.

Prison leavers are referenced as priority groups by the Government across two of the five social value themes and are a largely untapped talent pool. By employing and training prison leavers, businesses can evidence a huge social impact. The best part is that businesses benefit too.

Social Value Number 1: Employing prison leavers reduces reoffending rates

In the U.K., we have 80,000 people currently in our prison system, 48% of whom will reoffend within 12 months of release. This causes further pain and suffering to our communities and costs society over £18bn annually. It is a consistent challenge for the government no matter who is in power.

We know that prison leavers in employment are 50% less likely to reoffend than those who are unemployed. Yet the majority of open vacancies in the UK are not available to prison leavers due to bureaucratic blanket exclusions (for those interested, Ban the Box is campaigning to address these). After prison leavers have lost their homes, job, social networks and are given £46 upon leaving prison, it’s unsurprising that only 28% of prison leavers manage to secure a job within a year of release.

Social Value Number 2: Training prison leavers improves equality

Another element of focus in the Government’s new social value model is training and future employability. This goes hand in hand with providing more opportunities to those underrepresented in the workforce. It pushes organisations to demonstrate how, as a result of this training, the individuals will be in a better position to gain meaningful employment — whether that is from continuing employment with the provider or through providing “training schemes that address skills gaps and result in recognised qualifications”.

What’s in it for businesses?

Employing and training prison leavers sounds great for the government and society, but is it complicated and costly for businesses? The answer is no.

We know that businesses are already investing in recruiting to improve equality, but traditional approaches are often more high-touch and costly (albeit reaping rewards later). Employing prison leavers is an easy way to reach highly motivated underrepresented groups.

As for training costs, many business leaders are unaware of the £400m left on the table through unused apprenticeship levy fees. All businesses with a payroll of over £3m must pay 0.5% into their use-it-or-lose-it apprenticeship levy, meaning that training is effectively free. Not only that, but the government also provides a £3,000 incentive payment for all new apprentice hires. This doesn’t cost the earth. It actually pays.

The apprenticeship scheme is available to all ages and for all levels. Even MBAs can be apprenticeships. With top employers like Google and Virgin offering apprenticeships across their businesses, the options are vast.

Breakthrough was born from the knowledge that there is a huge amount of untapped potential in UK’s prison systems which can bring skills, loyalty and diversity to innovative organisations. 81% of businesses that employ prison leavers says it has helped their business and 79% of people think that businesses employing prison leavers are making a positive contribution to society.

How can your business recruit and train the best prison leavers?

Breakthrough is uniquely placed to identify, risk-assess and support prison leavers into employment and also delivers apprenticeships so businesses can leverage their levy and the government’s incentives too. Breakthrough has a rigorous training programme, delivered in prison, to support its recruitment process and to ensure the best candidates are identified. Breakthrough then provides a leadership development programme above and beyond the apprenticeships; Breakthrough drives their prison leavers to not just complete their apprenticeships, but to be the future leaders of the organisations that hire them. Breakthrough specialises in technology apprenticeships to support this growing industry, which is also favoured in the Government’s social value model.

Businesses may feel coerced into building complex impact metrics to win government contracts through this new social value model. In fact, transitioning business to focus on these elements will be appreciated by employees, investors and bring profitability through diversity. This new framework should catalyse businesses to embrace opportunities whilst having lasting positive impact for the communities they operate in. Its success or failure will be down to how businesses’ respond.