Measuring and sharing social value can scale-up its benefits – everyone can learn from the best

Alison Ramsey is social value and performance manager at Scape

To illustrate the scale of what’s possible, Scape’s data shows that £860M of social value was created through 329 projects that completed in 2023 – a 27% social value return on investment.

And one of the biggest drivers of this social value is apprenticeships. As we outlined in our Social Value in Construction benchmarking report, job creation measures, including apprenticeships, made up 16.4% of the total amount of social value created through construction activity last year, more than double that of 2022.

Apprenticeships not only bring huge and tangible benefits for the individuals who undertake them – boosting their skills, experience in the workplace, professional network and, often, confidence – in the aggregate they also go a long way to help construction address its skills shortage. And this is critical to safeguarding the future of the sector.

Using Scape’s frameworks means apprenticeships and other practical ways of delivering social value are baked into the project procurement process and their measurement is assured. This helps all parties working on a project demonstrate social value, benchmark their contribution and lead by example – helping the whole industry learn from best practice.

For example, Scape’s new directly awarded £4bn utilities frameworks provide clients with specialist contractors who will help them deliver the low-carbon energy, transport and water infrastructure we all need, while boosting growth, developing construction skills and leaving a lasting legacy in local communities.

Given the scale of the government’s planned investment programme, particularly in areas such as infrastructure delivery, the opportunity to close the construction skills gap must not be missed. Sharing and adopting best practice consistently across the UK is the way to do this most efficiently.

Projects analysed for Social Value in Construction resulted in the delivery of more than 15,600 weeks of apprenticeship placements on site, equating to around 326 apprenticeships. But the data suggests delivery varied considerably between regions.

This is not surprising, since the potential for delivering apprenticeships relies on opportunities being available on site, and nearby education establishments providing relevant vocational training courses.

But we’ve seen it work at its best. Our experience of working in the West Midlands highlighted an appetite for collaborative social value planning, not least around the Commonwealth Games. If all regions achieved the level of social value delivery as the West Midlands, the projects in scope could have created 13,810 additional apprenticeship weeks, equating to around 288 additional apprenticeships. This would represent an 88% increase in the number of apprenticeship weeks delivered.

And this is in addition to the environmental, social and innovation value being added. For example, focusing on using local labour reduces transport emissions to and from site, helping to reduce a project’s carbon footprint – further reinforcing the value of the local supply chain and its role in driving sustainable outcomes.

All this shows what’s possible. And it gives the construction industry a powerful story to tell. Given ministers’ ambitions for UK growth through infrastructure delivery, we would like to see greater support from government for the training programmes needed to meet demand now and into the future.

But it’s our responsibility to demonstrate that such funding would be worthwhile. Measuring social value is the best way to make sure projects leave a legacy, help close construction’s skills gap and maximise not just growth, but all the other ways investment can ‘give back’.

• Alison Ramsey is social value and performance manager at Scape

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