WJ Group has reported £70m of social value for last year, 'through a combination of live project delivery and local initiatives designed to support communities'.
The community actions included local investment and employment, employee wellbeing support and personal development, as well as apprenticeships and carbon savings.
The road marking specialist posted the impressive figures using measurement and valuation principles from the National TOMs (Themes, Outcomes and Measures) framework
WJ said its social value delivery is broken into four themes – employment and economic opportunities, social and environmental benefits – with the company using its bespoke Social Value Calculator across all projects to quantify its contributions.
The calculator allows the company to develop a localised social value strategy for individual contracts or wider regional partnerships, helping it target social value where it is needed most.
Paul Aldridge, sustainability director at WJ, said: 'Social value has been at the heart of WJ’s operations for the past decade and we are proud to be able to share our learnings.
'For example, when we developed our Croydon depot in 2013, we wanted to ensure we created a positive local impact. This was achieved through the creation of opportunities for local people and under-represented groups and working with VCSEs to provide opportunities for people from disadvantaged backgrounds and young offenders. We also employed diverse local SMEs and limited the environmental impact on the immediate area.'
Demonstrating social value has increased in importance since the introduction of the public procurement note PPN 06/20, requiring organisations to demonstrate a commitment to – and delivery of – social value in the procurement of public contracts.
Mr Aldridge added that WJ had collected a comprehensive data set, and could see – with some considerable granularity – 'the value we have created, allowing us to understand how and where we add value by local authority area, National Highways and Transport Scotland regions'.
'We have been able to develop our verified social value calculator, using the National TOMs framework to baseline and demonstrate our impact. The line-by-line detail on the project enables us to create a consistent valuation of our work.
'Delivering social value as a holistic component of operations is becoming the norm, it will develop further and shape purpose and delivery going forward.'
