New poll uncovers Waste and Recycling Officers’ attitudes to social value

• 52% think their local authority already gives social value enough weighting in scoring tenders, but 38% would like to see their authority give it greater weighting
• Over half of local authorities have developed a strategy to deliver more social value

New research undertaken by LARAC, the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee, on behalf of FCC Environment, has revealed the attitudes of Waste and Recycling Officers towards social value.

It is a statutory requirement for local authorities to give weighting to social value when tendering for new services. This was reflected in 85% of respondents stating their local authority does so when tendering for waste and recycling services. Despite this, there was limited appetite amongst respondents for their local authority to give social value further weighting with 52% stating their local authority already give it enough.

The poll, which is set to be launched at this year’s LARAC conference in Birmingham filtered respondents into two categories: those with an understanding and knowledge of social value and those without.

For those with an understanding of social value, over half (54%) said their local authority had a strategy to deliver more social value, but there is clearly work to be done on educating officers about how their local authority measures the social value of projects and developments in its area, as only around half (56%) said that they knew. This was markedly less among those with little understanding of the concept, at just 10%.

Social value is the sum total of all the positive effects deriving from an activity, project, or intervention of any kind – beyond the direct economic impact that a project has. This is often broadly split into environmental benefits, indirect economic benefits, wellbeing benefits and social benefits. Waste and Recycling Officers were split on which of these benefits they viewed as the most important. Those with a prior knowledge of social value ranked environmental benefits as most important, but those without prior knowledge ranked the wellbeing benefits that projects can bring as most important, with environmental benefits being ranked least important.

Commenting on the findings, Rory Brien, Head of Municipal Treatment at FCC Environment said: “Waste and recycling projects across the UK generate a range of benefits for local communities and the country as a whole, FCC Environment alone generated £117 million in social value last year.”

“This new research demonstrates that Waste and Recycling Officers across the UK are becoming increasingly aware of social value, and its importance in helping to define and measure the in-direct benefits that an organisation’s activity delivers.”

Carole Taylor, Chief Executive at LARAC, commented: “LARAC is encouraged to see that many local authorities recognise the importance of social value in their tendering processes, but there’s still more to be done to ensure officers fully understand how these benefits are measured and applied. Social value has the potential to drive meaningful change that not only meets statutory requirements but also genuinely enhances the lives of the communities they serve.”