Decision Maker:

Outcome:

Is Key Decision?: No

Is Callable In?: Yes

Date of Decision: February 24, 2026

Purpose:

Content: Salford City Council - Record of Decision   I Paul Dennett, City Mayor, in exercise of the powers contained within the City Council Constitution do hereby approve the content of the social value and impact strategy and action plan for 2026-9 period, approve actions around people, processes and tools in order to deliver on action plan and approve the publication of the strategy and action plan, alongside the directory of social value opportunities. The Reasons are: Over the past 12 months, the council’s internal Social Value & Impact Group (SV&I Group) has come together with a renewed focus and commitment to maximising social value and impact in order to improve outcomes and opportunities for local communities and residents.  Social value is a strategic enabler for delivering our corporate plan priorities. By better coordinating and targeting the social value efforts of our corporate, supplier, developer, and regeneration partners, we can more effectively address persistent inequalities in the city. The SV&I Group have seen a number of successes this year including the development of a directory of social value and impact opportunities to be shared with businesses, development of a creative brand for social value and impact in Salford and the publication of town centre developer guides for Pendleton, Swinton and Eccles to support community engagement and outcomes through regeneration. Identifying that although Salford City Council has some excellent practice in social value impact, there is always more we can do for improving resident and community outcomes. Local Growth and Place funding has been used to develop a strategy and action plan to strengthen this area of work over the coming three years, with strategic support from Social Value Portal. By involving officers from across the council and key stakeholders, the action plan sets out how we make the most of the available social value levers to increase the opportunities and outcomes for residents and communities and ensure that we target social value efforts corporately and from suppliers, developers, regeneration partners towards priority areas and to reduce inequalities. Options considered and rejected were: Take no action – this would be inconsistent with the council’s ambitions for good growth Assessment of Risk: Low: Salford City Council is proactively developing its practice around social value and impact to support improved outcomes for local people and communities The source of funding is: There are no direct financial implications of this report. Legal Advice obtained: The report sets out the Council’s Social Value and Impact Strategy and Action Plan, and summarises the work and progress done to date by the Council, with the strategy for future action in increasing social value in its activities.   The introduction of The Social Value Act in 2013 made it mandatory for public sector buyers to consider social, economic and environmental benefits when procuring goods and services. Since then, the Procurement Act 2023 and PPN002 have built on the way the public sector thinks about social value and reiterates that in-scope contracting authorities must consider social value when awarding contracts. Specifically, in-scope organisations must "apply a minimum 10% weighting (or equivalent measurement) of the total score, for social value". When doing so, in-scope authorities should utilise the Social Value Model, whose use has been mandatory from 1 October 2025. The PPN 002 Social Value Model is a menu of options from which In-scope Organisations select the most appropriate social value outcomes and criteria for their contract. The Model provides authorities with a pre-built set of goals and success criteria that they can use when implementing social value in their tenders. In recent years, public contracts were awarded to the “Most Economically Advantageous Tender” (MEAT) under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. However, Section 19 of the Procurement Act 2023 updates this principle, allowing authorities to award contracts based on the “Most Advantageous Tender” (MAT) instead. This change empowers authorities to take a broader view of value and base procurement decisions not just on cost, but on Social Value benefits like those described in the body of the report, which can be supplemented if needs be by the Open Access TOM (These, Outcomes, Measures) System – a free to access tailored set of Social Value measures. Financial Advice obtained: Whilst there is no direct budget impact from approving the report itself, any resource implications to deliver the action plan would go through the usual approval routes. Procurement Advice obtained: No direct procurement implications with the content of this report. Procurement have been involved in the development of the strategy & action plan and will continue to play a key role in our combined efforts to drive additional social value and impact through our contracting activity. HR Advice obtained: There are no direct and immediate HR implications arising from this report. However, delivery of the Social Value & Impact Strategy and Action Plan will require teams across the council to align resources to support implementation, and this needs to be balanced alongside other council priority workforce change programmes. HR & OD has and will continue to contribute corporate impact data and lead actions to develop our corporate impact, including maximising impact through the Step into Salford programme.  Improved workforce data and analysis around volunteering leave will be available later in 2026 when iTrent is implemented for the organisation.   Climate Change Advice obtained: Responding to climate change is a key element of the activities supported by social value and the directory identifies a number of ways that we and our suppliers, developers and regeneration partners can practically commit to measures and local community organisations around climate change.  Officers leading climate change and zero-carbon programmes have been involved in the development of the directory of social value opportunities to ensure it signposts to actions, initiatives and organisations to take action on climate change. The following documents have been used to assist the decision process: Social value and impact strategy 2026-29 Directory of social value and impact opportunities   Contact Officer:  Nina Howells                Telephone number: 01617932834 This decision is subject to consideration for briefing purposes by the Lead Member for Finance, Support Services and Regeneration. The Lead Member is supportive of the decision. This decision is not subject to consideration by another Lead Member. The appropriate scrutiny to call-in the decision is the Growth and Prosperity Scrutiny Panel                          Signed:              Paul Dennett                   Dated:         24.02.26                          .                         City Mayor   For Democratic Services use only This decision was published on 24.02.26                                             This decision will come in force at 4.00 p.m. on 03.03.26 unless it is called-in in accordance with the Decision Making Process Rules.