Social Value Add – Identifying & Selling Your Hidden Assets
A Quality Workshop from SEDA
Workshop Objective
For the VCS organisation:
At the end of the workshop the attendee will be equipped to assess, map and assign a value to the social value-add provided by his/her VCS organisation.
For other organisations:
At the end of the workshop the attendee will have an understanding of how VCS social value-add may be assessed, mapped and valued.
Workshop Summary
This is a one day workshop. For the VCS to be successful it needs to be able to take advantage of its hidden asset; social value-add. It is almost universally accepted that VCS service delivery automatically creates social benefits. Yet recent research suggests that many in the VCS and the public sector are unable to make these benefits tangible or agree on just what they are worth.
If this wasn’t a tough enough challenge there is a further twist. In many cases the VCS organisation creates useful value that falls outside the immediate sponsor remit. For example, successfully tackling drug use may also reduce related crime. It may ultimately produce better academic achievement. These cascaded wins are of benefit to the responsible agencies but rarely does the initiating VCS organisation gain reward for this value. The emergence of the Local Strategic Partnerships and associate Local Area Agreements creates a focus on joined up service procurement and delivery. This provides an opportunity for VCS organisations to explore this cascade value.
This workshop distils and explains much of the current theory and practice aimed at understanding value. Further it provides a simple, practical method allowing VCS organisations to document and “price” the social value add they deliver.
Workshop Content
What Does It All Mean – a review of the often bewildering myriad terms used today. Social audit, accounting, value add, enterprise and others. Are these all the same or are they useful phases that help us understand the modern VCS?
Value Add – to ensure attendees are familiar with the notion of “value add”. What it means in commercial terms and how it might be applied in the VCS context.
Social Value Add – dipping into contempory writings on the subject to explore some of the myths and legends surrounding this oft used phrase.
Value Network Analysis – an introduction to this and other methodologies in common use in the private sector. These ideas are developed to create a practical process for VCS organisations.
Assessing Social Value Add – A Practical Guide – using simple examples and exercises attendees are taken through a simple process. This will enable the identification of four types of social value add:
- Derived – value added as a result of the organisation existing and operating.
- Directly Delivered – the value inherent in the core outputs and outcomes of service delivery.
- Indirectly Delivered – the additional value produced as a by-product of delivering the core service.
- Cascaded – the value created as a knock on effect of successful output and outcome delivery.
The sum of these describes the social and economic impact of the VCS organisation across its local operating community, its service user community, its sponsor and the wider service delivery community.
Review & Action Planning – a recap on the key messages of the day and an opportunity for individuals to plan the actions they will take to exploit the new learning.
Workshop Methods
The workshop is based around information provision, understanding and rehearsal. Information is presented in short interactive sessions with discussion and questions actively encouraged. Simple but challenging exercises are used to get attendees using the information to check understanding and to provide a “safe” practice environment.