Measuring social value in UK construction

Within the UK construction industry Social Value (SV) is a public sector procurement criterion of such importance that how a contractor engages with SV could ultimately be the difference between procurement success and failure. Despite this, agreements on defining SV are still heavily debated as each client arguably has a unique interpretation. Yet against the backdrop of such debates contactors' are increasingly expected to measure and communicate their SV. Therefore, contractors will need to engage with SV practices that reflect client interpretations, and communicate SV in ways clients understand. However, at the heart of SV exists a conflict between the subjective nature of SV and the objective way SV is expected to be measured and communicated. This problem manifests itself in unsuccessful procurement attempts resulting from contractors not fully understanding client SV needs, and practices being undertaken that ultimately result in little SV. The most popular SV measurement tools attempt to circumvent these problems by reducing SV to a monetary metric. Although this arguably misses the wider, nuanced and more difficult to measure aspects of SV. The aim of this paper is to explore how the concept of SV can be operationalised and the wider and nuanced aspects not captured in financial metrics be measured and communicated in a way that is understood by multiple stakeholders. Interviews and questionnaires are conducted with construction contractors, public sector clients and the recipients of SV practices in an attempt to reconcile the subjective and objective conflict at the heart of SV. The results of which provide a workable solution with the development of a SV measurable tool. This paper contributes to the growing debates around SV measurement. The tool has contributed to a main contractor’s procurement success, and improved their SV practices, with results communicated in a way that is simultaneously understood by diverse stakeholders.