Posted 31st May 2019
We are proud to announce that Mantell Gwynedd have earned Level One of the Social Value Certificate!
We asked them a few questions about their Social Value Certificate journey so far:
Why have you decided to undertake the Social Value Certificate organisational pathway?
Mantell Gwynedd is a County Voluntary Council in North Wales, and for many years we have been embedding social value into our work. Social Value Cymru was established in 2014 which support organisations in the sector to measure and manage their social value by offering training, advice and consultancy services. As an umbrella organisation we felt that we were best placed to support and encourage third sector organisations to be more accountable for their social impact.
As an umbrella organisation, we wanted to lead by example by demonstrating a commitment to embedding social value in everything that we do.
We acknowledge the importance of measuring and managing social value, and we also acknowledge that monitoring impact is essential to ensure that we are responding to our stakeholders, and for planning towards the future.
The certificate enabled us to benchmark where we were and identify what we needed to do to help us embed the principles of social value across our work.
How have you formalised your commitment for Level One of the Social Value Certificate? What practices or processes are you putting in place?
We have formalised a stakeholder engagement plan and will be regularly reviewing our programmes. We now have an action plan in place to better measure our social value and ultimately enhance our service to the betterment of our stakeholders. We have revised our client and candidates’ surveys to better capture outcomes and created customised fields in our CRM system to record what candidates want to achieve when they first interact with us, so we can map whether we support them to meet this.
Are there any other specific projects you are doing at the moment that are related to SROI/social value?
• Measure and Manage your Social Value North Wales project –Mantell Gwynedd is the umbrella organisation working in collaboration with the other County Voluntary Councils across north Wales, supporting 27 organisations in the Third Sector with the aim of improving decision making https://www.mantellgwynedd.com/eng/measure-and-manage-your-social-value.html
• Arfon Community Link Officer – The Officer is based at Mantell Gwynedd and works closely and receives referrals for individuals mostly with non – clinical needs from GP surgeries and uses social prescribing to refer individuals to support and activities to create positive change in lives and to reduce demand on statutory services. https://www.mantellgwynedd.com/eng/social-prescription.html
What have you learnt so far in your commitment for Level One of the Social Value Certificate?
Is there anything that you believe you will gain or find useful in the next steps you will take for Level 2 of the Social Value Certificate?
Although we have a social value department and work with organisations daily to embed social value, going through the criteria and reviewing each department has helped us to have our own house in order.
The next stage is ensuring we can capture our impact in a meaningful and manageable way to progress
Bethan Williams, Chief Officer of Mantell Gwynedd, stated
‘We are delighted to be the first umbrella organisation in the UK and perhaps internationally to achieve the Social Value Certificate. We aim to ensure that we continue to capture our impact and make decisions towards the next level.’
For more info on Mantell Gwynedd’s social value journey, please contact:
Elaine Thomas
Social Value Development Officer
[email protected]
01286 672 626
Find out more about the Social Value Certificate.