Posted 4th September 2023
Global engineering, management and development consultancy Mott MacDonald has successfully completed the Level 1 Social Value Management Certificate.
Social Value Technical Director Caron Dunlop said the firm was committed to building on their success by working towards Level 2.
“Our purpose is to improve society by considering social outcomes in everything we do, relentlessly focusing on excellence and digital innovation, transforming our clients’ businesses, our communities and employee opportunities.
“Social outcomes – accessibility, inclusion, empowerment, resilience and wellbeing – are at the heart of our purpose. It’s not just words, it’s a commitment to improving lives.”
Level 1 of the SVMC requires an organisation to demonstrate a commitment to embedding the Social Value International Framework and The Principles of Social Value into its policies and practices, with support from senior management and/or the board. This means an explicit commitment to managing the social value being created in the organisation for all stakeholders.
Social Value UK Advocacy Lead Matthew Mckew said: “As part of our role in delivering SVI qualifications, we are delighted to award Mott MacDonald a Level 1 Social Value Management Certificate. By completing this, Mott MacDonald have committed to put our principles at the heart of decision-making, valuing their people and the wider community. Only by recognising our impact on people, can we unlock the true value of our actions.”
To understand more about Mott MacDonald and why they choose to embrace our principles the joint SVI and SVUK principles, we asked Caron Dunlop more.
Why did you apply for the Social Value Management Certificate?
Mott MacDonald is committed to embedding social value in our business practices and in our projects. Doing this aligns with our group purpose: “To improve society by considering social outcomes in everything we do; relentlessly focusing on excellence and digital innovation, transforming our clients’ businesses, our communities and employee opportunities”.
We have a dedicated social value team and have implemented numerous policies and practices to embed social value in our business. We applied for the Social Value Management Certificate to achieve official recognition of our commitment to implement social value methods and practices.
How have you formalised your commitment for Level One of the Social Value Management Certificate? What practices or processes are you putting in place?
We have developed charters which formally outline our commitment to each of the criteria outlined by Social Value UK. We have also developed a social value policy for our business. We have a social value team in place driving forward the commitments outlined in our policy and charters. Based across the UK, the team has developed social value tools and resources to support the wider business with responding to social value tender questions and implement meaningful social value on projects. The team has established relationships with key stakeholders across the business to advocate, promote and support the importance of social value and our offering.
Are there any other specific projects you are doing at the moment that are related to SROI/social value that we can mention? If so, please provide some brief information.
Many of our projects include social value commitments as a core element and we are in the early stages of implementing and delivering on social value action plans. We are working with both our supply chain and project teams to embed social value thinking and activity as well as measure our performance and outcomes.
A good example of where we have had a positive impact on wellbeing is the Adoption Support Fund
Mott MacDonald has managed the Adoption Support Fund (ASF) since its inception in 2015 in collaboration with the Department for Education (DfE). Through our advisory services, we have increased the fund’s accessibility, as well as helped families that are struggling with the adoption and guardianship process. We’ve increased access to crucial support, delivering equal opportunity, and health and wellbeing social value impacts in line with the UK Government Social Value Model.
What have you learnt so far in your commitment to Level One of the Social Value Management Certificate? Is there anything that you believe you will gain or find useful in the next steps you will take for Level 2?
Level One accreditation was a great experience, enabling us to clearly identify what good social value governance looks like. This helped us to define our management approach more clearly in terms of systems, processes, stakeholder engagement and performance measurement. We have begun to roll this out throughout the business and the work we undertook for Level One is now supporting our journey to Level Two.