Valuing What Matters: From Tick-Box to Stewardship – Reclaiming Social Value as a Driver of Trust, Equity, and Lasting Change

Mark Swift, LPIP Hub Place Fellow, argues that social value in public spending must move beyond compliance and tick-box exercises to a stewardship approach that embeds collaboration, citizen co-creation, and mission-driven investment to tackle inequalities and build resilient communities.

Read the policy briefing

When the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012¹ was introduced in England and Wales, it was hailed as an opportunity to transform how public money worked for society. No longer would contracts be judged solely by efficiency and cost; they would be judged by whether they created healthier, fairer, more resilient communities.

A decade on, that ambition has drifted. Too often, social value has become a compliance exercise: bidders promise a handful of apprenticeships or a community fund, scores are tallied, and the paperwork looks tidy. The result is activity without transformation – transactions that look good on paper but leave deeper problems untouched.

If we’re serious about tackling inequalities, rebuilding trust, and preparing for the future, social value must be reclaimed. This isn’t just about contracts. It’s about stewardship: convening across sectors, centring citizens as co-creators, and aligning investment to shared missions.

From tick-boxes to stewardship

Compliance is seductive – it’s simple and easy to count. Yet counting outputs rarely changes systems.

Stewardship asks how public money can bring people and institutions together to solve problems and build lasting capacity. It treats contracts not as transactions but as platforms.

In housing, a typical repairs contract might bolt on a few apprenticeships. A stewardship approach turns the same contract into a platform – linking apprenticeships to local skills pathways, coordinating repairs with energy-efficiency upgrades, and using routine visits to connect tenants with health and income support. The same design principle – treating contracts as platforms for joined-up outcomes – applies across sectors, from transport to adult social care.

Stewardship is about creating the conditions where collaboration thrives – trust, reciprocity, shared purpose – so social value becomes a driver of renewal, not a checklist.

Citizens at the centre

True social value isn’t delivered to people; it’s created with them. The strongest examples put lived experience on equal footing with financial and performance data. Wigan’s Big Listening Project led to the co-produced Wigan Deal²; Camden’s citizens’ assembly³ broadened climate priorities to greener neighbourhoods and community energy. Participation grounds choices in real life, builds legitimacy, and makes change stick.

Different paths across the UK

Across the UK, social value has evolved differently:

England. Implementation has centred on procurement frameworks. For example, the NHS Social Value Playbook⁴ sets a minimum 10% weighting for social value (including net zero) – a strong market signal, but one that can drift into compliance driven by monetised proxies unless tied to clear missions, wellbeing outcomes, and community voice.
Wales. The Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015⁵ places a statutory duty on public bodies to set long-term wellbeing objectives across seven national goals and to act preventively. Here, social value is not an add-on but part of the constitutional fabric of decision-making. However, in practice, many public bodies in Wales continue to lean on proxy frameworks.
Scotland. The Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014⁶ introduced a sustainable procurement duty and requires public bodies to support voluntary, community and social enterprises (VCSE) organisations, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and supported businesses. National guidance steers away from monetised proxy measures and towards outcomes aligned with local priorities. The proposed Community Wealth Building (Scotland) Bill⁷ would further embed fair work, local supply chains, and inclusive ownership.
Northern Ireland. Social value has mainly been advanced through procurement “social clauses⁸”, requiring contractors to deliver community benefits, but without a dedicated Social Value Act. More recently, the Independent Report to Advance Community Wealth Building in Northern Ireland (2022)⁹ set out 26 recommendations around fair work, plural ownership, and local supply chains, with pilots in the North West and Larne now testing these principles. Together, these developments signal momentum towards aligning economic policy with community wellbeing.

Taken together, these approaches highlight both the opportunities and the limits of how social value is being embedded across the UK

Lessons from Cheshire and Merseyside

NHS Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board (C&M ICB) co-produced a Social Value Charter aligned with Marmot priorities to reduce health inequalities. Since 2023, C&M ICB and partner organisations have validated over £816m* of social value. The ICB is now exploring social-value weightings above the NHS England 10% baseline. The headline figure signals scale, but monetised totals can’t capture what communities value most. Early consultations, supported by my organisation Wellbeing Enterprises CIC, highlighted fair pay, prevention, and a stronger community voice. The task now is to turn consultation into sustained stewardship – embedding these priorities in governance, procurement, and long-term investment.

Measuring what matters

Monetised proxies have a place for assurance – but when dominant, they narrow the lens. A better balance combines distributional analysis (who benefits) (for example, The Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s recent modelling on how growth scenarios¹⁰ affect low-income households), outcome indicators linked to wellbeing (such as ONS Wellbeing Measures¹¹), clear theories/stories of change (for instance, Nesta’s guidance on Theory of Change¹²) that show how collaboration leads to results, and citizen panels or deliberative forums to test whether outcomes are (e.g. Involve’s Citizens’ Assemblies¹³ resources) meaningful. This blended approach strengthens accountability and supports continuous learning.

Turning procurement into an anchor investment

Public policy can shape markets, setting direction for innovation and investment around bold societal goals. When stewarded, procurement becomes more than a purchase. It acts as an anchor investment – providing credibility and predictable revenue streams – so VCSEs can attract mission-aligned capital and SMEs secure appropriate finance, strengthening local supply chains.

For instance, a food procurement contract could be designed to help tackle childhood obesity by delivering healthier meals and supporting local co-ops and training. Multi-year contract terms reduce risk so VCSEs and SMEs can raise additional finance (grants, loans, co-investment). In this way, public spending unlocks wider contributions, expands local capacity, and builds resilience.

What needs to happen now

1) Stewardship through procurement

Weight social value meaningfully – go above baseline where contracts advance local missions.
Level the field for VCSEs and SMEs with right-sized contracts, proportionate paperwork, prompt payment, and diverse supply chains.
Reduce delivery risk with multi-year contracts and fair, standard clauses.
Manage for learning – hold regular outcome reviews and adapt delivery in line with shared missions.

2) Stewardship through governance and system architecture

Align procurement and investment with clear missions (e.g., health inequalities, net zero) across ICBs, Combined Authorities, and councils.
Convene Local and Regional Investment Partnerships¹⁴ to connect public spend with complementary philanthropic and private investment.
Build the collaboration infrastructure – practical decision forums, shared data platforms, simple collaboration agreements – and treat priority programmes as anchor investments so providers can leverage external finance.

3) Stewardship through community voice

Co-define priorities at the start and fund genuine participation – outreach, facilitation, expenses, accessibility.
Embed participatory governance: citizen panels, assemblies, VCSE congresses, participatory budgeting.
Give lived experience equal weight alongside financial and performance data – and show how it shaped decisions.

A call to reclaim social value

Reclaiming social value isn’t a technical tweak; it’s a cultural shift. Move from compliance to stewardship. Treat citizens as co-creators. Embed collaboration in the system’s architecture. Align investment with shared missions like health equity, climate resilience, and inclusive growth.

Social value was created to make public money work harder for society. To fulfil that promise, we must move beyond counting outputs to building futures. Reclaimed as stewardship, social value can rebuild trust, tackle inequalities, and generate the shared prosperity our times demand.

Social value isn’t a metric. It’s a movement.

Read the policy briefing

*Source: Social Value Portal. 2025. “Cheshire & Merseyside ICB–SVP Social Value Partnership & Achievements Overview,” 22 May 2025. (unpublished PDF; on file with the author).

References

UK Parliament. 2012. Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012, c. 3. London: The Stationery Office.
Wigan Council. 2019. The Deal 2030: A shared plan co-produced by residents and partners through the Big Listening Project. Wigan: Wigan Council.
Camden Council. 2019. Camden Citizens’ Assembly on the Climate Crisis – Recommendations for Tackling the Climate Crisis in Camden. London: Camden Council.
NHS England. 2025. NHS Social Value Playbook: Commercial Guidance on Applying Social Value in the Procurement of NHS Goods and Services. London: NHS England.
Welsh Government. 2015. Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015: The Essentials. Cardiff: Welsh Government.
Scottish Parliament. 2014. Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014. Edinburgh: The Scottish Parliament.
Scottish Government. 2025. Community Wealth Building (Scotland) Bill: Policy Memorandum. Edinburgh: Scottish Parliament.
Northern Ireland Department of Finance. 2016. PGN-01/13: Integrating Social Considerations into Contracts. Belfast: Department of Finance.
Northern Ireland Executive. 2022. Independent Report to Advance Community Wealth Building in Northern Ireland. Belfast: Northern Ireland Executive.
Milne, Becky, Peter Matejic, and Alfie Stirling. 2025. “Economic and Employment Growth Alone Will Not Be Enough to Reduce Poverty Levels.” Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Accessed: September 15, 2025.
Office for National Statistics. n.d. “Personal Well-being Survey User Guide.” Office for National Statistics. Accessed: September 15, 2025.
Nesta. n.d. “Theory of Change.” Nesta. Accessed: September 15, 2025.
Involve. n.d. “Citizens’ Assembly.” Involve. Accessed: September 15, 2025.
Swift, Mark, and James Smith. 2025. Unlocking Social Investment for Health Equity in Liverpool City Region. Heseltine Institute Policy Briefings, 3, (22). Liverpool: University of Liverpool.

This blog was written by Mark Swift, Founder and CEO of Wellbeing Enterprises CIC.

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Disclaimer:
The views expressed in this post are those of the author and not necessarily those of City-REDI or the University of Birmingham.