To learn more about the social value roadmap including how you can get involved, contact HACT Head of Social Impact James Willams
Wythenshawe Community Housing Group are based in South Manchester. With 13,500 properties they house more than a third of the residents living in the Wythenshawe community. Colette has been involved in the HACT’s Social Value roadmap from the beginning and shares why she got involved and her experience so far.
As we serve such a large proportion of the local community, we have a strong link and understanding of the community. We, like all housing associations, have been faced with the health inequalities that COVID-19 has highlighted and so have an even greater focus on maximising our social impact at such a crucial time. We have a great forum in Greater Manchester on social value, where representatives from up to 27 housing providers have worked closely together for the last few years on issues including developing consistent measures, supplier engagement, carrying out research on our supply chains, promoting the living wage and incorporating social value into our procurement activity.
Why did you get involved in the roadmap?
Wythenshawe Community Housing Group have been measuring social impact for about seven years and were at the point where we wanted to develop our approach and ensure we had robust data at the heart of our decision making. The roadmap project came at the right time to link up to work in the wider sector whilst working on our own development internally.
In previous years we moved away from communicating the financial values of our impact, but the revised value bank gives us more scope to understand the impact of more of what we do. Phase two of the roadmap helps us to use the social value bank and incorporate it into ESG reporting, procurement and asset management so it will be embedded in how we do business.
What are you doing as part of the project right now?
I am on the steering group and several working groups including the user interface group. This looks at where the model is going and the development of the hub. It is great to be on a team of people who have different experiences, some people have used the Value Calculator; the spreadsheet version of the Social Value bank, some use their own system, or some have created their own spreadsheet. The group are providing feedback from different perspectives to create a great experience for all. We’re at the stage now where we’re looking forward to getting more colleagues involved in the project to input their experience and expertise.
What’s next for the roadmap?
Measuring social value is high on our agenda and we all want a tool that is as good as it can be. It’s in all our interests to work together as a sector to bring all of our information and experience to make this happen.
We’re excited to also have the HACT Hub coming and in the next few months we will be transitioning our information over to the hub and new Social Value Insight tool. And then we will be looking forward to phase three including assurance and audit services and ensuring the system is embedded across the organisation.
