ALIGNING THE NEEDS AND REQUIREMENTS FOR SOCIAL INVESTMENT, COMMISSIONING FOR SOCIAL VALUE AND EFFECTIVE SOCIAL ENTERPRISE

Prepared on behalf of the E3M Partners by Jim Clifford OBE of Bates Wells and Dr. Richard Hazenberg of University of Northampton

This policy paper argues that that there should be alignment between the extensive work already carried on social impact measurement for social investment by GECES at EU level and by the G8 and the needs and requirements of public service commissioners seeking to comply with the Social Value Act and with the needs of social enterprises seeking to enhance their effectiveness.

It is of note that the EU’s leading experts in this field worked with stakeholders, other experts and representatives of national governments of 28 countries for over 18 months to agree the GECES framework and that there is a real danger of simply repeating this long process from the beginning when looking at the same issues as applied to commissioning for social value.

This paper is aimed at policy makers, experts and practitioners with an interest developing effective and robust approaches to articulating and measuring social value in the UK. It suggests that the GECES framework explained in this paper provides the basis for a standard for social impact measurement that can bring convergence without over simplification to this complex field. It recommends the establishment of a new code of conduct for Social Impact Measurement based on GECES.

E3M_Impact Policy Paper_March 2015