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March Newsletter
It's difficult to say while living through something, but it seems very likely that we could look back at March 2018 as a time of significance for gender equality. We await the release of companies' gender pay gap data, have just had an International Women's Day that was perhaps the most widely celebrated and high profile in our history, of course because of the #MeToo and Time is up campaigns triggering women's voices being heard for the first time across many countries and sectors.
We are dedicating this newsletter to the theme of gender inequality.
Please read on to find dedicated resources, events from the social value community, and details of the latest training on social value.
*Don't forget! Please don't miss this important note from us*
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News from Social Value UK
Did you know that a staggering 99% of tradespeople are male?
Only 1% of people working ‘on the tools’ –plumbers, electricians, plasterers, etc – are female. And it doesn’t look set to change any time soon with persistently low numbers of women taking up apprenticeships or applying for jobs in this area.
7 tips for attracting and retaining tradeswomen in your business:
1. Create an inclusive environment which is supportive of women and free from discrimination.
2. Provide visible opportunities for career progression
3. Provide equal pay and equal access to promotion
4. Allow and promote flexible working
5. Provide support and mentoring, recognising that construction can be a lonely place for women.
6. Make female role models visible, especially in schools
7. Advertise! Make women aware that opportunities are available to them in the sector.
The Tradeswomen into Maintenance project was set up by Social Value UK organisational members Mears to bring into focus the huge shortage of women working in the construction sector. Along with its social housing partners, Mears have started to tackle the issue, working with women to identify the barriers to getting and retaining jobs in repairs and maintenance, raise awareness about the opportunities available to women in the sector, and support women already employed in trades roles.
For more best-practice, visit: www.mearsgroup.co.uk/mears-tradeswomen-into-maintenance/
Webinar: What you can learn from your community, and why data is your superpower
The online platform Twine is a simple tool that allows small community organisations to easily collect and make sense of relevant data, through a mobile app and automated SMS surveys. It helps you answer questions about who your stakeholders are, what they are thinking about your organisation, and whether they feel like their wellbeing is
improving. It can help you to make better budgeting decisions, and to recognise the work your volunteers do.
Join us for a webinar on how Twine could help you use your superpower. Thursday 29 March, 12.00pm - 1.00pm.
Working forward: supporting pregnant women and new parents at work. Social Value UK have joined!
Social Value UK have joined Working Forward, a nationwide initiative launched by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) that encourages businesses to adopt best practice for pregnant women and new parents in the workplace.
Working Forward is a coalition backed by some of the UK’s leading businesses and industry bodies, including Barclays, BT Group, Ford, HSBC, Royal Mail and Transport for London, among others. These members recognise the pressing need to eliminate maternity-related discrimination and disadvantage in the workplace, and the value that such action has in attracting, developing and retaining parents.
Working group on gender, inclusion and impact management
Interested in exploring the issues raised in this newsletter further? Do you have experience working with gender related issues, or how to manage their impact? Social Value UK would like to support a working group on Gender, Inclusion and Impact Management. If you're interested in being involved please reach out to Catherine on catherine.manning@socialvalueuk.org
Welcome to new organisational members of SVUK, Vertigo Ventures
We are delighted to welcome Vertigo Ventures as organisational members. Read more.
On the Global Value Exchange, have you seen?
Social Value UK's Global Value Exchange can provide access to a database of indicators for measuring women's voice, leadership and decision-making in the social, political and economic sphere.
The Understanding and use of the Social Value Principles 2018 survey is now open
At Social Value UK we are calling for a change across all sectors. It is a long established practice that organisations think only in terms of the financial value they create. We want to introduce the inclusion of the 'social' value organisations and individuals create.
We believe that widening the definition of value from the traditional understanding of value as simply monetary worth, to include social value, will vastly improve decision making, reducing inequality and damage to the environment.
Social Value UK are a national member network of Social Value International (SVI), along with many other national networks and organisations world-wide, we use the Social Value Principles in order to account for, measure and maximise the social value they create.
We are promoting the SVI annual survey so that we can learn about how the Social Value Principles are used in practice. This will help us understand how we can better support organisations to record their social value, interpret the results and make decisions that truly take into account their influence on society and the environment.
Calling all social entrepreneurs! An opportunity
School for Social Entrepreneurs have launched their biggest UK programme. They are looking for people who want to start up and scale social enterprises, charities, community projects and impact-led organisations in the UK. They can help social entrepreneurs at all stages, from idea through to scale.
They will support 260 people this year through the Lloyds Bank and Bank of Scotland Social Entrepreneurs Programme, run in partnership with SSE and Big Lottery Fund.
They can offer a year of support, including:
- A learning programme with SSE
- A grant of £1,000, or Match Trading grant of up to £7,000
- Mentoring
- A supportive community
There is no cost to participants. The deadline is Thursday 26th April 2018.
So consider applying yourself, or help to spread the word.
Full information is found at bethesocialchange.com.
We are reading...
How the Women's Leadership Group are challenging the lack of diversity in decision making structures in Liverpool City Region. The #beingcoopy campaign and how by using a Social Return Investment (SROI) study on community activity, Central England Co-operative found that every £1 invested in the community resulted in £23 of social value being created. Following the news about sexual harassment and sexual exploitation that has happened in the charity sector, Charity Job have surveyed their subscribers about their experiences. #HerWorkMatters and why women's empowerment and labour rights must go together. Almost a quarter of people in Wales in 2018 are trapped in poverty, according to new research from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
Social Value Bulletin
The latest news from Social Value UK members
- Our Social Value Report Assurance service is open for business until Sunday 25 March. Having your report assured by our experts will give your work the official recognition of quality and credibility if it meets the SVI report assurance standard. Results will be released on 23 April. To have your social value report assured, go to: http://www.socialvalueuk.org/assured-social-value-reports/
- Calling everyone working in #servicedelivery in the North East. Don't miss this free impact management workshop in Newcastle on 28 March. Learn all about social impact with your peers & receive a £100 stipend for attending. Book your place --> http://www.socialvalueuk.org/event/impact-management-workshop-newcastle/
HACT are calling for partner organisations to develop an online tool measuring impact of changes to mental health. Housing Associations help thousands of tenants and residents to better mental health. It is now possible to measure and understand these improvements using the wellbeing valuation method (WEMWBS). WEMWBS’ growing popularity as a practical measure of impact is driven by both its academic rigour and its credibility with and relevance to health audiences, who are increasingly important as local funding and delivery partners.
HACT are now looking for organisations to join Catalyst Housing Association, who are currently piloting the new values, and work with them to build a slick and simple online calculator website so these values can be easily applied. These new vales broaden the resources HACT has made available to enable a deeper understanding of the impact of community interventions to housing providers and others working with communities. View the full project proposal here. For more information and to get involved, please contact James Williams, Head of Social Impact.
- i-propeller are delivering a report for the European Commission on the relationship between social economy and traditional businesses. They want to know how they help one another to succeed and add value to each others' work, with the aim of creating a more inclusive economy.
- The report is currently at survey stage. i-propeller will select 10 case studies of best practice for in-depth, qualitative interviews. These case studies and their analysis will receive exposure in the final report, to be further discussed at a conference in Brussels, June 2018. They will invite survey participants to be speakers, panellists and delegates.
- Please complete the survey and promote it within your network. We expect it to take 15 minutes to share your experiences and feedback via the survey links below.
If you are a social economy organisation: https://response.questback.com/vtt/social_economy_entities
If you are a traditional organisation: https://response.questback.com/vtt/collaboration_with_see
USKIF Edinburgh Conference 2018
Thursday 22nd March, 2.00pm -7.30pm & Friday 23rd March, 9.00am-1.30pm.
Royal Society of Edinburgh, 22-26 George Street, EH22PQ.
Register here.
The sustainable investment and finance event for Scotland. A chance to debate, discuss and practice new themes and processes supporting sustainable investment and finance.
What’s on?
Blood Oil: Tyrants, Violence, and the Rules That Run the World.
Workforce satisfaction: Improved performance through disclosure.
Policy brief: Brand new EU recommendations for growing sustainable finance.
Workshop: Applying the technical recommendations of the G20 Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures.
Workshop: Biodiversity footprinting - calculating how much biodiversity is lost as a result of loans and investments.
Workshop: How to integrate ESG into active and passive portfolios and adopt ESG policy benchmarks.
Workshop: Measuring, valuing and monitoring natural capital assets.
Events we recommend
Here are the events we think are particularly relevant to those interested in the social value agenda.
- Sustainability Summit 2018 - 22 March
- Your Green Career Audit - Webinar, Women in Sustainability Network - Wednesday 28 March, 3.00-4.00pm
- UKSIF Edinburgh Conference - Thursday 22 & Friday 23 March
- HACT Masterclasses - 3 & 4 April
Contact Lizzie Trotter, Social Impact Advisor - HACT Masterclass: An introduction to measuring your social impact - 10 April. Contact James Williams.
- Marmalade'18 - 9 April
- How to use your impact data, NPC - 18 April
- How can we help design and produce better services for people in the places where we live?, NPC - 27 April
- Data Visualisation: What's it all about?, NPC - 2 May
- B Together, B Corp - 14-16 May
- edie Live - 22 May
- Net Impact Approaches conference - 22 May
*10% discount available for Social Value UK members with the code SOCIALVALUEUKNIA18*
If there is an event our network should know about, please reply to this email.
Our training and services
SROI Practitioner Training - BOOK YOUR PLACE HERE
Our most popular training course to demystify social value.
- London, 25 & 26 April
- London, 22 & 23 May
- Manchester, 13 & 14 June
- London, 26 & 27 June
- London, 17 & 18 July
- London, 19 & 20 September
- Manchester, 4 & 5 October
- London, 20 & 21 November
- London, 12 & 13 December
Maximising Value Training - dates available here.
Intro to SROI webinars - dates available here.
Social value webinars
Would you like to host a webinar? Then get in touch with Catherine Manning.
If you have any feedback or anything you would like suggest a theme or contribute to a future newsletter, please don't be shy and email Lucy.
See you in April.
