Charities could lose out on opportunities created by the Public Services (Social Value) Act by not being as proactive as commercial organisations, Don Bawtree, partner at accountancy firm BDO, has warned.
Speaking at the ICAEW Charity and Voluntary Sector Group conference this morning, Bawtree said commercial organisations were working out how to deliver social value in line with local authority strategies while charities were sitting back.
“If charities don’t get switched onto to this they could be left behind,” he warned.
Speaking to civilsociety.co.uk afterwards, Bawtree said he had seen case studies from Serco which show they had a good awareness of the Act and a clear idea of how to incorporate it into the bidding process. Charities did not seem as up-to-speed, he said.
The Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 was passed on 28 February 2012 and requires all public bodies “to consider how what is proposed to be procured might improve the economic, social and environmental well-being of the relevant area” – and, where appropriate, to write that social value objective into the procurement process.
