Defining social value in the UK construction industry

Abstract

This paper evaluates the rationale behind the UK Public Services (Social Value) Act to postulate a definition of 'social value' and its application to construction and enable authorities to implement it. A comprehensive literature review has been undertaken and publications on existing methods of measurement have been reviewed and discussed to provide a comprehensive summary. The literature review revealed that communities could benefit from a series of direct and indirect impacts on individual people as well as the social efficacy of the whole community as a result of implementing the Act. The intention of the Act is to provide additional social benefits that provide added value, not in the monetary sense of the word but as a broader impact to the local area. However, these types of contract conditions benefit local contractors, which conflicts with the EU's single market legislation.

Social value for whom, by whom and when? Managing stakeholder dynamics in a UK megaproject

“…Thus, in making sense of what is socially valuable for whom and by whom, there is a need to regard the management of stakeholders as both a noun and a verb (Bakken and Hernes, 2006). This paper contributes to growing interest in defining what social value means in practice (Cartigny & Lord 2017;Raidén et al 2019;Daniel & Pasquire 2018;, which includes a wide array of stakeholders beyond the common procurement focus (Cartigny & Lord 2018;Awuzie & McDermott 2016;Loosemore 2015).…”

“…While delivering social value along this triple bottom line seems reasonable, defining what this means is less straightforward since there is no accepted definition of what social value means (see Nakamba et al 2017). Furthermore, growing interest in social value in construction (Cartigny & Lord 2017;Raidén et al 2019;Daniel & Pasquire 2018) has often focussed on client perspectives in the procurement of construction projects (Cartigny & Lord 2018;Awuzie & McDermott 2016;Loosemore 2015) with relative less attention paid to a wider range of stakeholders affected by construction. Thus, our case study context of examining the dynamics of stakeholder management in Dounreay, an experimental nuclear facility that is at an advanced stage of decommissioning, is unique; while much research, even on mega construction projects, is on new-built, the context in this study is on nuclear decommissioning and remediation Invernizzi et al 2017).…”

Evaluating social value in the UK construction industry

“…Key terms highlighted in the literature will be used to determine if there is any evidence of social value being targeted in construction projects. The literature review conducted by Cartigny and Lord (2017) concluded with a list of key terms; see the following summary…”

“…Key sources of literature that assisted in defining social value at the individual level were found in sociology journals; refer to the first part of the study by Cartigny and Lord (2017) for further discussion.…”

“…Communities can benefit through jobs, training opportunities and use of local resources provided by construction projects. Attention to social value can improve networking opportunities and improve the transparency through community consultations (Cartigny and Lord, 2017). In the spirit of the Act, all stakeholders should aim to secure these benefits in the procurement of a projects.…”