Social Value Act - What is it and why is it important?

Thursday, 19 September 10am – 12pm (arrivals for 9.45am)

Oasis: the venue, Arundel Street, Portsmouth, PO1 1NP

This event will bring together voluntary and community sector and statutory colleagues to explore how the Social Value Act could and should be applied.

The Social Value Act, which came into force in January 2013, calls for all public service commissioning to factor in social value. For the first time, all public bodies in England and Wales will be required to consider how the services they commission and procure might improve the economic, social and environmental well-being of the area.

John Tizard, a trustee of NAVCA and an independent strategic advisor and commentator on public policy and public services will provide a keynote speech explaining;

“Public bodies can and should use the power of their procurement spend to drive public policy objectives to secure social, economic and environmental well-being. To this end the Social Value Act offers enormous potential to the public sector, the voluntary and community sector, other providers and communities. But this potential will only be realised if leaders use the Act to shift mindsets not to introduce another boring exercise in technocratic 'compliance'”

This event will enable voluntary and community organisations to:

• understand the aims of the Act and how you can use it to strengthen your proposals
• have a clearer idea of commissioners expectations
• develop a shared understanding of the Act alongside Commissioners
• find out how it is being used elsewhere with good effect

To book your place on this event please visit the eventbrite page: https://socialvalueactportsmouth.eventbrite.com

This is a joint Portsmouth City Council and Community Action in Portsmouth event, being held as part of the joint action plan produced following last November’s Voluntary Sector Summit.