As the Chancellor made clear in his Spring Budget speech, public sector productivity remains almost 6% below pre-pandemic levels. Lao Tzu’s quote provides an insight into the problem and the potential solution.
One reason for poor productivity is that public sector bodies habitually pay for things they do not believe they can do for themselves. Even as the world changes and better tools become available to ‘self-serve’, such dependency becomes ingrained.
An example is the formal evaluation of the impact of the money being spent within communities. One would have thought doing so would be at the heart of any public body’s remit. However, that did not prove to be the case with the introduction of the Social Value Act of 2012.
Over the last twelve years, traditional consultancy firms have cashed in by offering an outsourced service that makes compliance with the Act easy for public sector bodies—at a significant recurring cost. This seems like a great solution until budgets are cut and your own team does not have the skills to do the job in-house. You have been paying for your fish, so to speak, without understanding how to catch them.
Casting off dependency
Twelve years ago, one council refused to outsource (and pay for) Social Value Act compliance. They took a different approach, seeing impact evaluation as fundamental to their core purpose, they developed a tool to do it better themselves: scorning the fishmonger and committing to catching their own.
That council was East Riding of Yorkshire Council, and the fishing rod they built was called the Social Value Engine.
The success story of East Riding of Yorkshire Council is a testament to the potential of a different approach. By developing the Social Value Engine, they not only reduced their reliance on external consultants but also gained a deeper understanding of the impact of their spending. This insight empowers them to make more informed decisions, ensuring maximum social benefit from public funds.
The Social Value Engine is radically different from other tools because it gives organisations the means to capture, analyse, and evidence social value returns themselves without needing any ongoing external help
