Impact in Social Enterprise Workshop: Working together to increase social value

Our Building Public Trust Awards 2022 workshop on Social Value, in association with the School for Social Entrepreneurs, was hosted at PwC’s Birmingham office. The workshop had a distinctly local feel, with a strong focus on social entrepreneurship and creation of social value in and around the West Midlands.

Setting the scene

Kicking off the proceedings, PwC’s Head of Community Engagement David Adair provided a whistle-stop overview of PwC’s long-standing support for the social enterprise sector – including 12 years of running the PwC Social Entrepreneurs Club offering mentoring and masterclasses. “We also spend money with social enterprises,” he added. “We're part of the Buy Social Corporate Challenge, where we spend £1.5 million a year on purchases from the sector. But what's really exciting today is that we’re not only buying goods from social enterprises, but we're also collaborating with them in our client work in support of our focus on social value.”

David then handed over to Matthew Hammond, who is PwC’s Strategic International Markets Lead Partner as well as Midlands Region Leader & Birmingham Senior Partner. Matt began by describing PwC’s role at the heart of the reinvention of Birmingham city centre. He went on to stress his – and PwC’s – commitment to creating social value in line with the firm’s purpose, including by fostering employment and skills for young people. He explained: “While I could give lots of numbers spelling out how many of our people are based here and the jobs we've created, we think the real ‘magic sauce’ that we bring is actually what we do in terms of our communities and social value.”

Varying perspectives on creating social value

Following these introductory presentations, we now heard from several highly experienced practitioners in social entrepreneurship and social value creation, each providing their own unique perspective. First up was Nicola Turner MBE, Director of Legacy at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, who described how she’d helped the Games create £300 million of social value through partnering with social enterprises. What had the experience taught her? “The most important thing I’ve found is, don't start anything new,” she said. “Go to the local community and find someone who's already doing it and making an impact. Who’s already built trust and credibility in their community. Find out who knows what needs doing, and form a partnership with them. Don't start from scratch.”

Rosie Ginday MBE, Founder and CEO of Birmingham-based social enterprise Miss Macaroon, then provided a supplier’s-eye view of partnering with the Commonwealth Games – and described her wider experience of working with corporates. Some of the keys to success? Turning the transactional relationship into a true partnership based on aligned values, and having the confidence to stand by the extra cost required to create social value. “It's really important to understand how much time you’ll have to spend to deliver before you deliver,” she explained. “That's been a real learning curve. I think some of the corporate relationships that work really well are where the organisation has a real commitment to the values and social impact that we have.”

Building on these insights, Charles Rapson – Midlands Director of the School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE) – began by setting out what the SSE does. “At the SSE, we provide people with an opportunity to learn what it is they need to learn about running this sort of business,” he said. “We don't teach, because teaching is one-size-fits-all, and every social enterprise is different. So what we do is actually run a process whereby they learn the skills they need to run their business, but also develop and build their confidence and networks of support that allow them to do that.” He then recounted some powerful success stories – each highlighting the importance of understanding your own social impact, and of knowing the right people to help deliver it.

A view from PwC’s Social Value team

Now it was time to hear from the PwC team working to create social value through public sector client work. Judy Rantzen, PwC Social Value Senior Pursuit Coach, said her role includes challenging PwC engagement teams to work out how to benefit society and engage with diverse teams while delivering on contracts for clients. “When we work with social enterprises, it aligns with our purpose and specifically, by nature, diversifies the economy as we’re working with diverse businesses,” she explained. “But what we're also looking to do is support our social value pillars of empowered, inclusive communities, lower emissions and a greener economy.” She then provided a great case study of these dynamics in action with a public sector client in the region.

The panel session

These various contributions set the scene for a lively panel debate, where members of the audience also aired their own perspectives and questions. Some key themes that emerged? One was the vital importance of social entrepreneurs having access to experienced mentors who can help them “learn the ropes on how to get through the labyrinth” of partnering with corporates. Another was that rising awareness of social value is making collaboration with corporates easier – but that there are still barriers in the way, including a continuing lack of “knowledge of what the social economic sector actually looks like.” We also heard some inspiring thoughts from an audience member running a social enterprise focused on resettling people coming out of prison.

Finally, the panellists were asked whether they would do anything differently if they were starting out again. One said they’d learned that there’s no substitute for experience – and, looking back, they would “probably say yes to a lot more things just to get that experience.” Another commented that they would like to make it easier for people to meet and learn from each other, perhaps by “doing it informally ourselves rather than relying on the public purse”. A third commented that “social enterprises often don't realise the true value of what they're doing – and they shouldn’t be hesitant putting that value up-front and charging for it.”

Previewing next year’s awards

Rounding off the session, Emily Webb, Social Value - Environmental Manager with PwC, previewed next year’s Building Public Trust Award for Impact in Social Enterprise. Applications via the PwC website will open on 9th May 2023, with the winner to be announced in October. In the meantime, social enterprises wanting guidance or more information are welcome to contact PwC’s Social Enterprise team or dedicated BPTA team. The momentum behind social value creation is growing. Together, we can build it further and faster.