Top Tips – Explaining Social Value TOMs in Bidding

Standing for ‘themes, outcomes and measures’, social value TOMs serve as a framework to evaluate the impact of bidders’ social value commitments.

Social value TOMs – explaining the toolkit

Social value TOMs allow contracting organisations to better define, qualify and quantify social value as part of their procurement. Individual elements of the TOMs are defined below:

• Themes: Organised into different categories, social value themes will often focus on environmental, social and economic benefits bidders can deliver – linking to the themes outlined in the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012, which requires public authorities to ‘have regard to economic, social and environmental wellbeing’ when awarding contracts.
• Outcomes: Sitting within the themes, social value outcomes define a specific result the authority will anticipate. Examples of this include concrete volunteer hours, donations or in-kind contributions, and jobs, apprenticeships or work placements created as a result of contract award.
• Measures: Specific quantitative commitment that bidders will commit to over the contract or framework agreement term. These can be expressed as a sterling value, number of hours or weight/tonnage for environmental waste- or emissions-based commitments.

The examples below illustrate the social value TOMs structure:

In addition to entering simple quantitative commitments against individual TOMs, authorities will evaluate the qualitative narrative elements of the social value submission. This will include a description of how each social value TOMs will be achieved, in addition to evidence submitted to the contracting authority to demonstrate progress against commitments.

Depending on the tender, bidders may also be required to complete a social value delivery plan, outlining how overall commitments will be monitored, measured and reported.

Why do authorities use social value TOMs?

Simply put, social value TOMs offer a predefined way to evaluate the quality of the social value element of the submission. Equally, TOMs can be customised depending on the opportunity and authority’s priorities – occasionally, priority TOMs are given ‘double weighting’ at the evaluation stage.

Outside universally recognised models such as the Social Value Portal’s TOMs calculator, many authorities may also choose to create their own TOMs which align with their wider strategic aims. Once created, these can subsequently be reused as part of all future procurement activity.

Best practice approaches for responding to social value TOMs

Having supported clients with thousands of public sector tenders, many of which involve a social value quality question or method statement, we are ideally positioned to offer advice and guidance around responding to social value TOMs.

Read the guidance carefully

The trickiest part of social value commitments can be ensuring a compliant response, and guidance for the social value element of the submission can occasionally be included as a separate annex or appendix of the tender documents.

As part of your bid planning, read the guidance thoroughly at the beginning of the tender, making careful note of:

• Additional weighting to priority areas, such as creating new jobs or achieving significant reduction in carbon emissions
• How commitments should be quantified – this can vary depending on the authority’s preference, such as miles saved vs. emissions reduced (in tonnage) for an environmental commitment.

Localise your commitments

When providing a description of your social value commitments, avoid generic or vague statements regarding how you will deliver against the social value TOMs. Examples could include:

• Researching local charities and community organisations and naming them in the submission
• Including local sixth forms and technical colleges to target recruitment when providing work placements or apprenticeships
• Linking initiatives to the authority’s preferred social value partners by searching their website and social media for potential candidates.

As always, your social value TOMs commitments should be targeted, tangible and proportionate to the overall value of the contract. Commitments which the authority feels may be undeliverable could be subject to a post-tender clarification, requesting additional information to inform the evaluation decision.

Ensure there is no ‘double counting’

Often, a clause in the social value submission will stipulate that commitments in the same theme cannot be ‘double counted’ – for example, hours donated to provide business advice to small businesses also included in more general volunteer hours.

Prior to the submission, read the guidance and your inputted figures carefully to avoid your submission being disqualified or marked down due to a non-compliant offering.

Social value and bid writing support

In recognition of the growing emphasis on social value in public sector procurement, our dedicated internal Social Value Practice division supports clients with social value bid writing, review and training services to ensure a high-quality, competitive social value offering as part of the wider submission.

If you would like to know more about the social value support or wider bid services we can offer, our sales and marketing team are contactable at info@executivecompass.co.uk or 0800 612 5563.