Request for Expressions of Interest for Measuring Social Value Project
The Office of the Third Sector (OTS) is running a new project on Social Return on Investment (SROI), which will be taken forward over the next three years.
This project will be taken forward alongside a complementary project to be funded by the Scottish Government’s Third Sector Division (TSD). The Scottish Government’s project will in particular, have responsibility for the development of a SROI portal and of new training materials for practitioners.
OTS is currently looking for expressions of interest to bid for the running of the project, which will start in Autumn 2008.
The Office of the Third Sector project will involve:
- Building on current work around social impact measurement, working closely with OTS, the Third Sector Division of the Scottish Government and social investors who want to measure and report their social impact; for example the Department of Health’s Social Enterprise Investment Fund (SEIF), Department for Communities and Local Government and others with an interest in this area.
- Developing agreed principles and an accessible methodology to standardise SROI, for a range of social investors.
- Producing revised guidance on SROI across government departments, third sector intermediaries and third sector organisations for the UK.
- Disseminating revised guidance on SROI across government departments, third sector intermediaries and third sector organisations for England.
- Encouraging usage of SROI by social investors and third sector organisations in England.
- Developing a network of practitioners that will raise awareness of SROI with social investors, government agencies and third sector organisations in England.
- Rolling out training on SROI for practitioners in England.
- Supporting the development of a portal site for information on SROI, including a bank of SROI results and a bank of indicators/proxies.
- Working with public service commissioners to research and develop further uses of SROI (e.g. through social clauses).
- Clearly evaluating the project and its impact.
The successful bidder will need to have:
- A deep knowledge of, and real credibility with, the social enterprise sector in England, with a strong track record of working with, or on behalf of, the sector.
- Expertise in SROI and other social reporting mechanisms, with a minimum of three years of carrying out SROIs.
- An understanding of the development of SROI methodology and networked connections to draw on best practice both nationally and internationally.
- The ability to develop a networked consensus among different SROI practitioners, including the academic, social investment and third sector communities.
- The ability to work with the Scottish Government, who will also be delivering work on SROI alongside OTS.
- A track record of and capacity to communicate with the wider audience of practitioners, policy makers and participating organisations.
Given the wide range and specialist nature of the criteria, we would encourage consortia to bid for the project.
If you are interested in bidding for this work, please email sroi.tender@cabinet-office.x.gsi.gov.uk by Wednesday 2 July with the names of the organisation(s) who will be bidding.
Please also write no more than a paragraph on the background of the organisation bidding.
If you are bidding as part of a consortium, please state clearly who will be leading the bid, any other organisations that will be involved in delivering the project along with a paragraph on each organisation.
Please note that this initial background information will not be evaluated. You do not need to provide evidence of your eligibility against the above criteria at this stage.
We will then either send a Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) or an Invitation to Tender (ITT) depending on how many expressions of interest we receive.
