Introduction

Affinity is committed to operating to the very highest of standards, not just in terms of our commitment to the service quality delivered to our clients but also as a responsible, ethical organisation. This is reflected in our quality objective 3.3.3 as set out in our Quality Policy and Objectives, which states that, 

“We will conduct our business in an ethical and professional manner.”

Affinity’s stance on social value is implicit in our strong and positive cultural values. Now, with this policy, we are formally setting out our commitment and intentions. 

Political Context

With significant changes to Government procurement being brought in through The Procurement Act 2023, PPN 002 has been released to provide guidance on incorporating social value into Government procurement. It updates the Social Value Model for central government, aligning with the Act's requirements and ensuring that procurement supports the Government’s missions.

This has prompted Affinity to formalise our standing on how we, as an organisation, can align our service to these requirements. As a result, this Social Value Policy has been compiled to set out some practical, achievable ways we can add value and help to bring about positive change within the various communities in which we do, or have the potential to, operate, service, or otherwise enrich. 

Social Value Methodology

We are committed to ensuring that we consider opportunities for bringing social value, wherever possible, to the clients we serve through the contracts we deliver. 

Benefits To Affinity Of Our Social Value Contribution

1. Having ethical integrity brings a very real sense of job satisfaction, something which we consistently strive for in order to:

   1. Nurture and retain the very best people;

   2. Enrich our working lives, leading to the better health and wellbeing of our colleagues;

   3. Bring our best selves to work, maximising our ability to provide exemplary services. 

2. Being able to articulate, plan for and measure our contribution to social value also gives our clients confidence that we always put the right solutions in place to help them deliver real benefits - whether that’s aligned with national aims or their own unique local priorities. 

3. All of this gives us a competitive advantage. 

Measures We Will Take

We will ensure that we can bring social value by:

• Listening to our customers, working to understand their needs and building these into our service offering.

• Defining the priority social value themes which Affinity feels are both relevant to our stakeholders and achievable for us. 

• Making sure that we consider social value opportunities when responding to all relevant new and repeat sales opportunities. 

• Expressing our social value propositions as an integral part of our competitive offering, wherever relevant. 

• Giving our clients the flexibility to specify and evaluate social value according to their own organisation’s needs and priorities, wherever we can.

• Considering social value realisation as a headline in project retrospectives and in our quarterly contract performance reviews. 

• Learning from other organisations.

• Identifying communities where there is real opportunity for Affinity to contribute in a positive, lasting and measurable way. 

• Working with our suppliers to create a positive ripple effect right along the supply chain. 

• Seeking out ways to effectively measure the impact of our social value contribution. 

• Measuring and reporting on our social value impact at our monthly SLT performance review meetings, as part of our Quality Management System (QMS).

• Periodically assessing the effectiveness of this policy in delivering social value.

Measurement Of Our Performance

We will ensure that our approach is delivering a positive social, economic and environmental legacy by:

• Monitoring our delivery against contractual aims and obligations, to assess social value realisation in practice;

• Seeking regular feedback from customers, stakeholders and the communities within which we are targeting our efforts, in order to evaluate the effectiveness of our approach and their perceived value of it;

• Putting this policy under the control of our Quality Management System, placing it within scope of our ISO9001 standard compliance and evaluation.