Using “Social Value” to attract, develop and retain a skilled construction workforce

Stefano Jefferson of Caerphilly County Borough Council shared his thoughts on how, as a sector, we can positively use our combined efforts to increase social value whilst at the same time helping to address our skills crisis.

The application of social value clauses to construction contracts and the concept of community benefits offers a great opportunity to address these challenges. However, the current transactional approach to delivering social value, based on suppliers “offering” social value within their tender and then being contracted to deliver, is failing to provide value at scale and for all levels of investment. The reality is that small projects, in particular, are failing to deliver significant social value despite the cumulative value of small investments running into millions of pounds every year. Furthermore, those communities who need the greatest social value are not necessarily benefiting to the full extent, if at all.

If we are to change this then we need far greater collaboration across the construction sector with public sector construction clients using their “power and influence” in education, economic development, health and wellbeing and community presence to establish systems to support successful suppliers to deliver social value on all projects.

For public sector clients this could mean:

• Directly funding shared apprenticeships

• Establishing strategic links with schools and colleges for suppliers to deliver components of a curriculum

• Linking up suppliers with individuals requiring work experience opportunities

• Specifying what support communities need from suppliers

• Aligning ex-offenders and/or ex-services employees with specific suppliers to support re-entry to the civilian workplace

For private sector suppliers this would mean:

• accommodating and supporting apprentices and trainees on jobs

• allocating time to visit schools and colleges to help deliver the curriculum

• providing experiences to ex-offenders and/or ex-services personnel on various jobs

Success will be more likely when these support structures are already in place and suppliers can “dip in” to them as and when they win and deliver projects.