Centre of Excellence in Social Value

The London School of Economics and Political Science in collaboration with Simetrica-Jacobs, create a new Centre of Excellence in Social Value

Research

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Why?

The past decade has seen a surge in interest in measuring the wider social impacts and social value that organisations create. This movement has been global involving the public sector as well as the private and not-for-profit sectors. Increasingly, new legislation is being introduced that mandates organisations to account for and measure their social value impact. The UK is taking a leading role in social value through The Social Value Act (2012, 2018) and the creation of best-practice guidance on social value measurement in the latest edition of the HM Treasury Green Book (2018).

There is a critical need for best-practice methodology, training, professional standards, and accreditation in social value to ensure that research and work in this area is of high scientific standards and so that practitioners have the tools and skills to measure social value robustly, ensuring that decision-making and investment is informed by the best-possible evidence.

To this end the London School of Economics and Political Science, is coming together with Simetrica-Jacobs to form The Centre of Excellence in Social Value, the world’s leading institution on social value measurement.

How?

The field of social value measurement has expanded rapidly in recent years, and a proliferation of approaches and methodologies have emerged, many of which do not have scientific or academic grounding. Increasingly, therefore, there is the recognition that in-depth training, alongside a set of best-practice standards and a rigorous accreditation and membership body, are all absolutely essential and that current offerings in the space are inadequate and not fit for purpose.

By focusing on these areas, the Centre and its networks will promote and preserve the credibility of the most rigorous and robust methods in social value measurement, whilst providing practitioners and organisations the best advice and guidance available.

The Centre will have a global focus across all sectors and industries and training and accreditation will be offered in-person and also globally online.

Activities

The Centre of Excellence in Social Value will engage in a range of activities, offering global leadership on social value in areas including, but not limited to:

Developing technical and non-technical guidance on best-practice social value measurement;
Publishing academic peer-reviewed papers on social value measurement;
Curating a network of practitioners and providing a variety of fora for debate, development and knowledge-sharing;
Working closely with key organisations such as the OECD, HM Treasury, Cabinet Office and United Nations;
Hosting an annual conference on social value and regular workshop events;
Providing online training and information resources to social value practitioners;
Developing and delivering new social value training programmes at the LSE, including an accreditation and membership scheme;
Working with ISOs and other professional bodies to develop sector standards in social value; and
Providing guidance and support for the implementation of standards.

Who?

The London School of Economics and Political Science is ranked as one of the top universities in the world and with world-class faculties, research and academics in the fields of social impact is the ideal institution to host the Centre of Excellence.

Simetrica-Jacobs is a global leader in social value, with unparalleled expertise in social value measurement and the application of social value in the public and private sectors. Simetrica-Jacobs has developed many of the best-practice social value methods in use today across the world.

The Centre will work with key academics across the LSE and industry leaders, as well as involving practitioners and decision-makers with expertise and interest in deploying social value measurement in a multitude of business functions – from measuring the impact of direct delivery to driving more value through the supply chain.

There will be a variety of ways for organisations to get involved with the Centre, whether as core partners or sponsors, as members and as accredited practitioners. With a formal governance structure, a small number of core partners will be involved in overseeing and influencing the direction and activities of the Centre.

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