Crown Commercial Service: What is social value in recruitment?

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More and more employers consider environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals as part of their recruitment and attraction strategies, but fewer do so as part of their contingent recruitment. Government procurement arm the Crown Commercial Service talked to Personnel Today about its commitment to social value. Investment in temporary labour is on the rise across many organisations – particularly as they deal with the unpredictability unleashed by the pandemic. But it’s perhaps less well known that the public sector makes up around a third of the UK’s spend on contingent workers, investing around £3.2 billion per year. The public sector recruits contingent workers from right across the board - from cleaners and office managers to scientists and even interim chief executives. The Crown Commercial Service, the government’s procurement department, works with 18,000 public sector bodies to support their contract and temporary worker needs. CCS is part of the Cabinet Office and is responsible for setting up commercial agreements for public sector organisations to contract with suppliers. Since 2018, it has been working with AMS Ltd on a Public Sector Resourcing (PSR) agreement to supply workers to both central government departments and wider government employers, with more than 20,000 workers engaged.

Social value

While the mechanics of engaging contingent workers through the PSR are working well, CCS is now focused on ensuring it generates social value in the way it recruits. In September 2020, the Cabinet Office published new guidance requiring all central government contracts to evaluate social value as part of their procurement processes, and groups this under five overarching themes: fighting climate change, Covid-19 recovery response, tackling economic inequality, equal opportunity and wellbeing.