What is Social Value?
Social Value is a variant of the idea of Public Value, an idea developed in the 1990s as a way of thinking about public benefits including social capital, social cohesion, social relationships and cultural identity (see National Association for Voluntary and Community Action (NAVCA), 2011). Social Value is this idea brought to bear on the commissioning process, which occurred for the first time during the national Social Value Commissioning Project led by NHS North-West in 2010, who defined Social Value as:
“…….[ the] additional benefit to the community from a commissioning/procurement process over and above the direct purchasing of goods, services and outcomes”
Read more for the full briefing Soc val info sheet3