Social value for two immigration removal centres

The challenge

From 2021, social value was worth at least 10% of central government evaluations, and every winning commitment became part of the contract. The Home Office scored five outcomes: jobs and skills, supply chain, environment, disability employment, and health and wellbeing. The two centres sat in very different places, one in west London with high in-work poverty and many residents who did not speak English well, the other in rural County Durham with high youth unemployment. Commitments copied from earlier bids would not fit either.

What our Solutions Director did

Our Solutions Director led the social value strategy from the local evidence to a set of commitments the provider could deliver and report. The work covered:

• A local needs analysis for each centre: with a national volunteering charity, evidence on each area’s challenges, such as a disability employment rate of 17.9% locally against 52.3% nationally, with every commitment then tied to a named local need
• An initiative funnel: 174 ideas screened against the model, the national measures framework, the provider’s own commitments and the cost of each, down to 40 commitments, with 29 held back for the best and final offer
• Commitments for each outcome: from the London Living Wage, guaranteed interviews for disabled applicants and a refugee pre-employment programme, to a net zero fleet, a travel plan co-designed with Transport for London, and mental health first aiders on every shift
• Metrics, owners and reporting: a target, measuring system and owner for each commitment, a monthly social value committee, quarterly reviews with the Home Office and independent verification of results
• The negotiation stage: a presentation of the strategy, working nationally and thinking locally, with targets then refined for each centre

The result

The provider won both centres.

Services: Social Value Strategy · Solution & Service Design · Bid Writing

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