Some 43 per cent of NHS commissioners are not making use of the Social Value Act when procuring public services, research published today has found.
National Voices and Social Enterprise UK submitted Freedom of Information to all 209 Clinical Commissioning Groups in England and received responses from 191, a response rate of 91 per cent.
The resulting report, Healthy Commissioning, shows 57 per cent of respondents claimed that they had a social value policy, referenced social value in one or more of their procurement policies, said they are reviewing their procurement policies or adhere to the principles of the Act in commissioning.
The remaining 43 cent either had no policy, were not aware of a policy; or had a policy in some stage of development.
13 per cent 'highly committed'
Moreover, only 13 per cent demonstrated what the researchers defined as “highly committed, evidenced and active” use of the Act, such as including social value measurements in their tender evaluations.
Even with the most compliant CCGs, the researchers found many commissioners gave little weighting, about 2 per cent, to social value considerations.
An analysis of commissioners’ sustainability and transformation plans found that just 13 per cent mention social value.
The report authors have called for social value to be built into NHS England’s Right Care programme which assists CCGs with commissioning value-based patient pathways.
It also urged NHS England, the Department of Health and Public Health England to issue joint guidance on implementation of the Act.
SEUK: 'CCG's lag behind'
Peter Holbrook, chief executive of Social Enterprise UK, said: “This is the first research that confirms what we knew anecdotally: that outside of a small number of encouraging examples, the healthcare system's uptake and application of the Social Value Act is currently very low.
“In this way, Clinical Commissioning Groups are lagging behind local authorities and housing associations in seizing the opportunity that the Act provides.
“The healthcare system needs to tap into the reach and knowledge of the social sector, to join up across services and agencies, and to maximise the value from each pound spent. The Social Value Act can help with each of these.
“It is now imperative that NHS England, Department of Health and Public Health England give clearer guidance to the system as a whole, and demonstrate social value principles in practice themselves."
Don Redding, director of policy at National Voices, said: “The NHS needs a serious review of how it supports commissioners to have the knowledge, confidence and skills to adopt social value principles and approaches.”
See in Charity Finance
The Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 requires public bodies to consider the social, economic and environmental benefits of services they procure, which the charity sector hoped would offer it an advantage when bidding for contracts.
But in December, the House of Lords charity committee heard that the Act is either not referred to or is "an afterthought" in public sector commissioning.
In February, minister for civil society Rob Wilson announced there would be a review of the Act.
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