Evaluating social value in the UK construction industry

Abstract

words)A comparative study of contracts tendered in England, Wales and Scotland was conducted to determine the impact of the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 ('the Act') on public sector construction contracts. This paper builds on the literature review paper already published by the authors, which set out to define what social value means in the context of public sector works in the UK and under the Act, by assessing the impact on public sector procurement in the UK. A broad method of measurement for social value in public sector construction contracts is developed before reviewing published contracts (tendered and awarded) on the Official Journal of the European Union website. The study has found that the Act has had little impact on England, where social value was already being considered; however, there has been a significant increase in attempts to incorporate social value associated with construction projects in both Wales and Scotland.

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).…”

Defining social value in the public procurement process for works

“…The public sector has traditionally relied on the lowest bid as a basis for the award of construction contracts (Waara and Brochner, 2006). On the contrary, Cartigny and Lord (2019a, b) showed that the UK reviewed its award criteria to key terms associated with social value. Therefore, this study offers an avenue for the planning and execution of the procurement process that will not solely be based on the lowest bid as an award criterion but also on social objectives.…”

“…Also, Danny-Smith and Loosemore (2017) used strain theory to assess how the Australian Indigenous Procurement Policy could negatively impact society at the individual and community levels. In the United Kingdom, Bridgeman et al (2016), Burke and King (2015), Cartigny and Lord (2017, 2019a, b) as well as Opoku and Guthrie (2018) researched various aspects of social value in the construction industry. Furthermore, in Northern Ireland, Muttugh and Brooks (2019) studied the critical success factors for social value in construction procurement.…”

Critical success factors for social value in construction procurement in Northern Ireland

“…A review by HM Government (Young, 2015) found that awareness of the Act is increasing but deployment of social value in procurements remains low in comparison to the overall size of public sector procurement. A comparative study of recent OJEU contracts by Cartigny (2019) analysed construction contracts by comparing their social value requirements, and found that there was a significant overall increase in emphasis on social value. This was attributed to increases in Scotland and Wales rather than in England where social value was already a consideration before the introduction of the Act.…”