Dianne Richardson, Socio-Economic Manager at BEP talks about the importance of social impact, which is also referred to as CSR, socio-economic or social impact social value.

When a business or project is based in a community it makes an impact on that community.

Social impact is about making sure that’s as positive as it can be and reduces the negative impacts that the business or project might have.

For the supply chain, this is important because it’s now counted into the value for bids – social value has to be demonstrated in bids, and it’s weighted within bids.

This is passed down to the supply chain when you bid for work you get points for social value.

It might be about schools-based work that you have done or discounts given to charities – this all counts as social impact.

Small businesses in Cumbria are doing a lot of this but they’re not recording or measuring it in any way – which means that it can’t be used when it comes to bids.

Dianne’s role is to support the supply chain in making sure that you can do these things ie case studies.

This will help with bids – see the Sellafied website.

This concentrates on three areas:

Skills around education and employment – how to improve skills in the local area

Growth – how local small businesses can be helped and supported

Strong communities – giving a help up, looking at how local communities can be helped in practical ways.

BEP Delivery Team Socio-Economic Guide

Download the Socio-Economic Booklet

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