December Newsletter 2020

Welcome to the Social Value UK December Newsletter.

We hope you, your colleagues, friends and families are all healthy and well. 

Social Value UK will be offering a range of distance learning options, please click the button below for more information:

Important Updates from Social Value UK

• Launching in January are our workshops to dive into the Social Value Act and central government’s recently published Policy Procurement Note 06/20 coming into play from 1st of January 2021. We will be offering three workshops tailored to specific sectors, with a strictly small number of attendees to ensure in-depth discussion and learning. Find out more here.
• We encourage all members and readers to take part in the Social Value UK ‘Impact of COVID-19 on the social value movement’ survey. Find out more here.
• We're proud of SVI partnering with Efiko Academy and offering all SVI members (thus all SVUK members!) a discount! sign up with discount code. Use the discount code “socialvaluefriend” and join the Efiko community: don’t hesitate and start boosting your impact skills today!
• Social Value International have opened their consultation on the latest instalment of Principle 2 of the Social Value Principles: Understand What Changes! Open until January 26th, find out more here.
• We're happy to announce Litmus Partnerships as Social Value Pioneers! Read more here.
• As part of the EGGS project, Social Value UK have reached out to Helena Appleton, Project Officer for Regional Food Economy (NW) at The Alchemic Kitchen to learn more about their innovative approach to tackling the issue of food waste. Read the interview here
• As part of the EGGS project, SVUK are looking for people to help beta test an educational video game for students aged 11-15. This involves playing the game and providing feedback via an online survey. More information and a link to download the game are available in this document.
• In August and September 2020, SEUK and the British Council ran a global survey of social enterprises to explore the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. This report presents findings from that survey, read more.
• Matchmaking site whatimpact.com is offering a free trial of their new site to all new customers! All charities, social enterprises, companies and grantmakers interested in making a social impact should sign up here: whatimpact.com.
• Check out the overhauled Social Value International website here!
• The Social Value UK and International team will be away for the holiday break from December 18th until January 4th 2021.

• We are now delivering our most popular training course online; Social Value and SROI Accredited Practitioner Training. If you're interested in taking part, find dates, pricing and more here. 

Recapping 2020 in Social Value UK

What a momentous year it's been for us all. Like many other organisations across the world, we at Social Value UK had to hastily adapt our working styles and our services to the new world we were plunged into in the first quarter. We worked with our team, Social Value International and Networks worldwide, our partners and our members to make sure we can keep our movement growing during a time that has truly highlighted the importance of social value and our need to achieve our mission.

Above is a word cloud submitted by our members at our Reflection on 2020 and Looking Forward Event.

This year, Social Value UK:

• Delivered 9 online courses, 4 in-person courses with 150 online trainees and 44 in-person trainees.

• Moved a lot of our events online, hosting 20 webinars and Ideas Exchanges since April.

• Hosted 10 online Inspiring Impact sessions, covering 3 topics with 9 regional partners and 200 people in attendance.

• Hosted the Social Value UK Members Exchange and AGM entirely online over 2 days in September, with 120 attendees and contributed to Social Value Matters with 800+ attendees and 5 days of continuous content.

• Worked with our members to help launch The Value Toolkit.

• Campaigned with our members and partners on many fronts, including the How Do Companies Act campaign, which launched an open letter to political leaders.

• Continued to progress on the EGGs Project, with a beta game being released at the tail end of the year.

• 9 UK members achieved Level One Associate Practitioner Status, 18 achieved Level Three Advanced Practitioner Status.

• 9 organisations continued to progress with the Social Value Management Certificate

• 5 Reports were assured as well as a piece of software earning accreditation.

Assurance and Accreditation News

• Our next Report Assurance round opens on January 18th! Get ready and find out more here.
• Congratulations to Eva Wurtz – University Colleges Leuven-Limburg, Duygu Güner – Koç University, Jennifer Feinstein – Think Impact and Sinem Akkocaoğlu – Impact Management Consultant ! Read about their experiences here.

Method and Technical Updates

First guide to understanding and enhancing social value launched by British Standards Institute

BSI, in its role as the UK National Standards Body, has today published the first standard addressing the concept of social value. The new British standard outlines advice and principles to help public and private sector organizations understand and enhance their social value.

Social Value UK sat on the technical committee alongside IEMA, NEF Consulting, Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply, PwC, University of Salford and Cambridge University.

Read more here.

Consultation On Principle 2: Understand What Changes

Social Value International are proud to announce we have opened our consultation on our latest instalment of Principle 2 of the Social Value Principles: Understand What Changes.

As a standard setter and a member-led organisation, we want the shaping of this to be inclusive of our members and invite your feedback.

This consultation on Principle 2: Understand What Changes is specifically addressing Part 2 (“Selecting Indicators”) and Part 3 (“Quantifying Change”) and builds upon Part 1 (“Creating Well Defined Outcomes”). We recommend that you read Part 1 for useful context.

Consultation open until January 26th 2021, find out more here.

Inspiring Impact Updates

The below graphics showcase our Q1 2021 Inspiring Impact events:

South East

Session 1: Using data to make decisions on Thursday 14th January

Session 2: How to gather data - Qualitative or Quantitative? - An Introduction to methods - Thursday 18th February

Session 3: Working practices and impact culture - organisational and sectoral on Thursday 18th March

North West 

Session 3: Working practices and impact culture - organisational and sectoral on Wednesday 27th January.

Midlands

Session 3: Working practices and impact culture - organisational and sectoral on Wednesday 20th January.

Find out more here.

Positive News Updates

To close our final newsletter of the year, we'd like to end on a few pieces of uplifting news articles.

Covid-19 vaccine: 'Hopefully next year we'll be living a normal life' - BBC News

Supermarkets in the UK cut down on single-use plastic this Christmas - Positive News

‘Paris effect’ has led to ‘unexpected’ rapid shift towards low-carbon economy - The Independent

And a piece to fill you with both hope, and a dash of envy:

“There Was A Pandemic?” What Life Is Like In Countries Without COVID - Buzzfeed News

Have a safe and restful holiday period, we will see you in the New Year!

Social Value UK

Would you like to host a webinar or Ideas Exchange session? Then get in touch with Rebecca Harvey. 

If you have any feedback or would like to make a contribution to a future newsletter, please email David. 

The Social Value UK office is currently closed whilst our staff work from home, if you need to reach any of us, please contact the member of staff you wish to speak to directly via e-mail, if you do not know who you need to speak to or wish to make a general enquiry, please e-mail info@socialvalueuk.org and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

Social Value UK encourages you to take care of yourself physically and mentally during this difficult time.