Your experience may change depending on the value and type of contract you are bidding for, but the summary below should serve as a useful guide in terms of what to expect.
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Early engagement
- Staff from the council will first discuss social value at one of the market engagement events – this is an online or in-person session where you will learn more about the contract opportunity.
- For most procurements above the regulatory threshold, we will use the Surrey Social Value Model to identify and target the social value outcomes we aim to support thorough the contract. Engaging with the pre-market engagement process will allow you to comment on any suggestions as to how social value will be targeted in the procurement and provide an opportunity for you to comment.
- Please take the time to read through the information about social value on our website, looking in particular at the Surrey Social Value Model, needs and priorities list and the Community Marketplace to understand the types of things that people and communities in Surrey would benefit most from right now.
Suppliers' questionnaire
- At the first stage of bidding for a contract, you will fill out a suppliers' questionnaire, in which we might ask for an example of when you have delivered social value successfully in the past.
- Here we are looking for the way in which you tried to understand the needs and priorities of the community, built local partnerships, and came up with solutions that really made an impact.
- We would love to hear about activities or resource commitments that were particularly creative, or that had long-lasting impact, and where you clearly went above and beyond.
Invitation to tender
- When we invite you to bid for a contract, we will ask a set of questions in a document called the invitation to tender.
- There will be at least one question here about social value, and this will usually make up 10% of the total score available, although sometimes environmental sustainability and/or mitigating modern slavery is covered in a separate question, in which case this may be lower.
- In most cases this question will specify which outcome from the model is being targeted, and provide details of what this means (through the model assessment criteria (MACs) and sub-MACs). Note that this detail might be tailored to be specific to the contract and therefore differ slightly from the generic MACs and sub-MACs in the model itself. There will also be a methodology for scoring social value answers.
- The question will also detail what is required as part of the response, for example a method statement, time delivery plan and what reporting metrics will be used to evidence delivery.
- At times, the social value ask in a procurement might be bespoke to that contract, though this would usually only be for very large and complex contracts. Ensure you take advantage of any pre-market engagement activities and read the procurement documentation carefully.
- When considering which communities to work in, and which people might benefit the most, you can read through the data and insight team's analysis of the 21 key neighbourhoods in Surrey that we want to prioritise right now, and our priority population groups. There are many strategies and plans referred to in the Model so also make sure you understand any that are relevant to the social value outcomes being targeted.
Successful award of contract
- If your bid is successful, congratulations! We look forward to working with you. It is now time to start preparing and delivering your social value commitments.
- For some of the larger contracts, the first period of time might be spent researching community needs, setting up governance, and building partnerships.
- Your contract manager from the council will be your point of contact for social value and they will confirm with you the frequency of meeting and reporting about social value.
- We ask suppliers to take initiative with building any partnerships that they need in the community, for example to find referral partners for apprenticeships, or building relationships with schools to deliver career workshops, etc. However, you can raise any challenges with your contract manager, and they will get in touch with relevant Officers to ask for support. Where possible, and where we are able to find capacity in our own service teams, we will work with suppliers to help connect their resources with the places and the people who need it most. Many of the resources on these and linked pages will help you to do this.
- The Community Marketplace is a helpful place to identify and respond to other needs within the community and may be useful to help deliver your social value commitments. We do ask that all suppliers engage with this platform.
Reporting
The way you report on social value to your contract manager will likely be a combination of one or more of the following:
- A report of achievement against the standard reporting metrics relevant for the Social Value Model outcome used for the contract and/or other specific measurements or key performance indicators that you put forward in your question response, or that were agreed at the start of the contract.
- A social value tracker where you record what actions you have taken, for example contacted a school to set up a workshop, and any commentary on what has or has not worked well.
- Case studies, quotes, images, survey responses, videos and other qualitative evidence of impact.
- We may also request data on the social return on investment and other quantitative measurements of social value.
If you have any outstanding questions, please get in touch at svprogramme.team@surreycc.gov.uk