Blog

MeasureUp’s Response to the Open Letter at #SocialValueConference2024’s VCSE Online Panel

Posted: October 16, 2024

Dear Sandra Hamilton and the VCSE Panel,

The team behind MeasureUp, fully support your open letter highlighting the challenges with the TOM System™ framework in the public sector. 

Our response
As individuals from impact-driven and charitable backgrounds, we recognise that the world-class contributions of charities, social enterprises, and purpose-driven organisations inherently progress society and the wellbeing of people and the planet.  

Your letter rightly points out how the current approach often undervalues the unique contributions of VCSEs: “Tools like TOMs™ focus on economic value, neglecting wellbeing and social innovation, leading us to ask—does social value have to be priced to be valuable?” 

This narrow focus on economic savings and scoring points risks VCSE’s being seen as ‘bid candy’ and marginalises the true impact an intervention can have on improving somebody’s life. The Social Value Act was designed to foster more social value and innovation. But if social value can only be understood through a single, commercialised framework, we risk reducing the very impact that this legislation was meant to promote and improve. 

The need for change across all sectors
This overreliance on monetised social value is not just a VCSE problem but a system-wide issue, affecting how businesses of all types and sizes approach social value. The current framework often rewards transactional, tick-box solutions that fail to capture the deeper, inherent impact businesses can have on society. 

By focusing too narrowly on additionality—whether that’s through apprenticeships or volunteer days—we ignore the potential for businesses to long-term embed social value into the core of their operations. The broader business community must raise its ambition and align with a more inclusive and comprehensive understanding of social impact.

Small steps
MeasureUp was born out of similar frustrations we encountered when speaking with businesses across the civil, public, and private sectors. We developed a flexible valuation framework that takes into account the ten dimensions of wellbeing (based on ONS UK definitions) as well as including wellbeing valuation using the government-endorsed WELLBY methodology. 

Our model focuses on the individuals and helps bring harder-to-capture but vitally important measures and stories to life. Our decision to make this freely available is to encourage greater transparency and a more honest dialogue in the social value space.

While our model isn’t perfect, it was never intended to be a one-size-fits-all solution. It prioritises wellbeing on an individual level, aims to progress in the emergent field of social and environmental valuation practice and ultimately we hope it drives more meaningful conversations around social value and impact.

What’s next?
We advocate for a mindset shift that extends beyond the charity/VCSE sector to the entire business community, where the focus is on real, embedded social value rather than on scores and economic savings. This approach should be one of cooperation and open dialogue, to help businesses raise the bar for social impact across all sectors. As your letter asked, “Are we creating competition where there used to be collaboration?” and “Is this intervention going to improve somebody’s life?”

We encourage everyone to sign the petition to drive awareness and push for a more inclusive, effective approach to social value. 

Let’s ensure the future of social value reflects the genuine contribution of VCSEs while setting a new standard for the broader business world.

Sincerely,  

-Ends-

Notes to editor:

MeasureUp is a free resource for organisations concerned with evidencing the social, environmental and commercial benefits of doing ‘good’ business. 

The platform has been developed by three partners with a long track record in the social value space. Impact Reporting, State of Life and PRD came together to tackle the widespread frustration surrounding oversimplified measurement, valuation and a lack of collective action. 

MeasureUp is a pragmatic solution that prioritises progress over perfection. As broad sustainability reporting and procurement regulations come into force, being able to demonstrate the difference organisations are making to the world we live in, is fast becoming a business imperative. 

For the first time, this technology enables enterprises of all shapes, sizes and social value maturity to capture challenging metrics and carve out a path of continuous improvement. 

By taking the bold step of making the framework completely accessible, the MeasureUp coalition is backing the social value community’s strive for greater transparency and enabling the win-wins that come with transitioning to a purpose-led economy.

Media Enquiries: 

For further information, please contact Rachael Crowe at Hattrick:

Email: rachael.crowe@wearehattrick.com

Mobile: 07495 962647