Community benefits must focus on impact, not just numbers

To create lasting impact, we must completely rethink how we approach the creation and delivery of community benefits and social value.

This should not be reduced to a box-ticking exercise or a mere PR line in a tender document. Social value should be about targeted interventions that transform lives, not tallying meaningless metrics that look good on paper but fail to leave a lasting legacy. 

In the past we’ve seen many initiatives fail to ask the most fundamental questions that would reveal clarity around what a community genuinely needs.

This is why procurement professionals and businesses must engage early and meaningfully. The key questions to ask include: What does the community actually need? What are the gaps in local support? What initiatives already exist, and how can we complement them? 

Over the past year, the Scottish Procurement Alliance’s Community Benefit Fund has revealed clear trends in the types of support communities are seeking, with most funded projects focused on improving individual wellbeing, particularly through financial and social inclusion.

These aspects reflect where help is needed in communities across Scotland and highlight just some of the many areas in which we should be targeting our efforts.

However, each community is unique. To identify these needs, a significant part of shifting the dial is in education.

I’ve had engagement with a range of Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) on the topic and delivered a session last year focused on embedding meaningful community benefits into procurement and helping organisations identify where support is most needed. 

Workshops can be helpful in introducing the concept of social value and to encourage delegates to rethink what “good” truly looks like, shifting the focus from ticking boxes to delivering outcomes that reflect real community needs.

It’s true that resources can restrict organisations from dedicating time towards uncovering meaningful and sustainable community benefits. But our approach has always been to bridge that gap by providing useful insights and spending time to drill into community needs ensuring our suggestions are proportionate to the contract value and help plan out a roadmap that progresses ambitions. 

Scottish law requires public sector contracting authorities to consider including community benefit requirements in any regulated procurement contract valued at £4 million or more. However, a common misconception is that community benefits only apply to contracts above this threshold - in reality, they can be included in smaller contracts too, and research shows they can be just as effective in procurements below the £4 million mark.

It’s about looking at opportunities on a case-by-case basis, applying relevance and proportionality, assessing suitability and doing the right thing, no matter the contract size.

At SPA, we encourage clients and suppliers to think beyond these thresholds and consider outcomes early in the procurement cycle. Every piece of support has the potential to make a meaningful difference, and that is something worth investing in. 

Social value isn’t about how many CV workshops you’ve run, but about whether anyone left those workshops with the skills that enabled them to secure a job. It’s not about delivering an arbitrary number of cost-saving workshops each year, but about hearing directly from communities who have used that knowledge to save money and improve their lives.  Essentially, social value looks at the positive impact created from activities. 

There’s no shortage of goodwill in our sector. But if we want to turn that goodwill into genuine, lasting legacy, we must be bolder in our asks, smarter in our targeting, and relentless in our pursuit of outcomes that truly matter.

With the passing of the Community Wealth Building Bill earlier this month this will transform the view of community benefits from being a nice to have to a mandatory strategic goal.  It’s a progressive step in encouraging smaller local businesses to win work which will help the creation of local jobs and benefit the local economy. 

Public procurement has a unique and powerful role in shaping Scotland’s economic future.  As the primary mechanism for delivering the spending pillar of Community Wealth Building, it determines not only what is bought, but who benefits from that spend and where value is retained.

As we move through 2026, now is the perfect time to reflect on how you will shape your strategy. Will it be more of the same, or will you take bold action to deliver projects that create a lasting legacy?