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Welcome to the Social Value UK February Newsletter!
We hope you, your colleagues, friends and families are all healthy and well.
As always we have a request: we want to hear from our stakeholders!
For more info, watch this short video from our CEO:
Be it the Human Rights Act Reform or the new 'Levelling Up' White Paper, we want your voices heard. Click the links to get involved!
Another request for our readers, is that you join us at our next How Do Companies Act campaign meeting (on March 9th) to discuss how we can hardwire value led decision making into legal frameworks. We would love your support!
Our Team is Growing!
Our 2022 is already off to a sprinting start for us at SVUK, with two new members of staff joining our ever-expanding team!
This is an incredibly exciting time of growth for our team, and we are all looking forward to welcoming them into the social value community. Read more from them in their announcement blog!
Follow up on our ESG & Social Value January Conference:
For those who were unable to attend our January Sectoral conference, we have summarised our thoughts in a reflection blog. If you’d like to watch the recorded version of this conference, a recording pack can be purchased - Just drop us an email to info@socialvalueuk.org.
If you're interested in learning more, our keynote speaker Sarah Gordon (CEO of Impact Investing Institute), has written an excellent blog surveying the dramatic growth of impact investment & the decisive action we must all take to stop climate change. See more here.
Developing our Advocacy Programme
This month, our CEO met with Stuart Parker-Tyreman to further develop our Advocacy programme and discuss how best we can make our messaging more appealing to young people.
We would love to hear from any young people who would like to join us on our journey, perhaps by providing input into the work that we are doing, giving us your views and being a sounding board for our ideas. Simply get in touch via info@socialvalueuk.org and we'll do the rest.
Training:
We have some new 2022 training dates now available to book! This course always fills up fast so make sure to sign up ASAP to guarantee spaces.
Assurance:
Applying for Level 1 Associate Practitioner status is a great way to gain a professional qualification and begin your journey in the social value space. As a result, we have made the decision to accept applications for this at any time - meaning you can start whenever suits you! More info here.
*If you have completed our Social Value & SROI Practitioner training course within the last 3 months, you are eligible for a discount - reach out to info@socialvalueuk.org for more details!*
Make sure to read our announcements from Georgia Bird, Tom White and Bryony Kershaw who have shared a bit more about their social value journey with us and the road to achieving Level 1 Associate Practitioner status!
Great work everyone!
As of March 7th, our Social Value Management Certificate round will be open for applications. Make sure to get your submission in before the deadline on the 18th March.
As usual, if you have any questions for the team regarding the assurance & accreditation process, pop in to our next 'Assurance Coffee Morning & Questions' session on Tuesday 1st March, 11:30am - 12:30pm. Our team will be happy to advise you!
Hiring Opportunity:
Envoy Partnership is a social value consultancy, with a mission to empower their clients to measure, demonstrate and enhance their social, economic, and environmental impact. Their areas of work include the built environment and infrastructure, public health, international development, and community services.
Envoy are looking for a Project Consultant to join their London-based team. They are after someone with a passion for using research to help organisations improve their practice and demonstrate their impact.
Invitation to Tender:
Community Enterprise has been supporting social enterprises, community groups and the sustainability of the broader third sector for nearly 35 years. They have worked with hundreds of orgs all over Scotland from Nesting in the North of Shetland to Annan in the South and everywhere in between. They are a well-established org with robust systems, good partners and a very positive reputation with great feedback from clients.
They are now seeking a skilled and experienced consultant, or team of consultants to undertake an objective and independent study to evaluate their work, produce learning points and articulate the impact they have had over recent years. More info here.
Webinars & Training:
Social Value Pioneers Moore Kingston Smith (MKS) will be running a free webinar on March 10th on the theme of ‘Optimising the social value of your organisation’. They’ll be running through some different themes and considerations that can help orgs to turn from impact measurement to actually understanding what needs to change as a result of their insights, including some real life examples.
MKS are also running a half day training session, ‘How to optimise the social value of your organisation’, on 31st March which will use interactive exercises and group discussions to generate new ways of thinking about impact measurement and making the most of social value data. This session will be more in depth and attendees will come away with tools and ideas about optimising their own impact.
- Supply Change are hosting a Social Procurement Festival on the 23rd/24th of March, where policymakers, buyers and social enterprise leaders will learn and share best practices for social enterprise procurement and social value activities. The theme this year centres around collaborating to build inclusive and impactful supply chains.
- Our CEO, Isabelle Parasram, was interviewed by Pioneers post about how media has both inspired and informed her. Read more here!
- As Inspiring lmpact comes to a close after 10 years, they have shared a blog covering some of the programme's proudest accomplishments. "We invite charities, funders and social enterprises from across the UK to give us your feedback on your experiences of the Inspiring Impact programme through our end-of-programme survey"
- We’ve seen the Government’s proposals for Levelling Up. What about the people already working for years to create better, more hopeful places? Hear more from key campaign leaders here.
- Social Value Strategic Workshop for Members Starting Tuesday 22nd Feb @ 9:00am - 11:30am Make sure to book on for our free monthly Social Value Strategic workshop for senior decision-makers to meet and learn about social value and its implementation in their organisations. Sign up for our upcoming dates throughout 2022!
- Assurance Coffee Morning & Questions Tuesday 1st March @ 11:30am - 12:30pm Our Assurance Coffee Morning sessions are a chance to hear about the Social Value assurance services and asking our team any burning questions you might have about the process. Drop in for as long as you'd like!
- Introduction to Social Value UK Friday 4th March @ 11:00am - 11:45am If you've been wanting to learn more about SVUK membership and services, do come along to one of our fortnightly Friday drop in sessions! It is a great opportunity to meet the team and learn a bit more about what we have to offer!
- How Do Companies Act Campaign - Stakeholder Meeting Wednesday 9th March @ 1:00pm - 2:00pm This is meeting is for How do Companies Act stakeholders and all interested SVUK members to come together alongside campaign leaders to discuss how we re-establish the way forward. How can we push for value led decision making in legal frameworks?
- Member Coffee Morning Tuesday 15th March @ 10:30am - 11:30am At SVUK we are committed to holding space for our members to meet one another, share experiences, learning and social value practice, and develop new connections and opportunities together.
It will be an informal kick back hour to give members an opportunity to meet each other and network!
- What Does it Mean to be 'Levelled Up' in Britain? Thursday 31st March @ 12:00pm - 1:30pm As you may know, Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove has unveiled the government’s flagship Levelling Up White Paper. On March 31st, join our CEO as she chairs an expert guest panel to discuss the question 'What Does it Mean to be Levelled Up in Britain?' and debate this White Paper in more detail
At the end of our Newsletters, we always like to highlight some positive news from our SVUK members.
This month we are very excited to welcome Dominvs Group and Enable as Social Value Pioneers! Make sure to check out their announcement blogs to see all of the amazing work they are doing in the social value space!
Longstanding members Mears have earned Level 2 of the Social Value Management Certificate, commenting "This certification is important because it enables us to demonstrate that what we do isn’t just lip service – its recognised on a global scale as being up to standard.”
And finally, we would like to highlight Solafa Baterjee for her Report Assurance Achievement for the Doroob Scholarship Programme!
It has been a real pleasure to work with the Doroob Team to assure this report and we eagerly look forward to seeing their future work! Well done all!
That's all for this month! As always, if you have any questions for our team or want to share your news with us, we are just an email away - info@socialvalueuk.org!
Best wishes,
The Social Value UK Team
