Halton - a social value borough

Halton & St Helens Voluntary and Community Action have been working with a range of partners to implement social value in Halton. This case study shows the areas of work that they have been involved in and the benefits of these.

Social Value Core Group
Halton & St Helens VCA took on responsibility for facilitating the Social Value Core Steering Group in the area during the 2015/16 financial year. This group has provided leadership to the programme in Halton and has met several times in the last twelve months. It's main responsibility is to build on the social value work that already existed in Halton and to drive the work forward, bringing the concept of social value to life.

Ann-Marie Lawrenson, Halton & St Helens VCA Capacity Team Leader stated that "Every partner involved in social value in Halton is passionate about driving this forward. It is going far beyond just implementing the Social Value Act to ensure that it is embedded in everything we do. All partners have a valuable contribution to make to its success."

Social Value Charter
A session attended by more than 70 people provided the initial input to the creation of Halton's Social Value Charter. Following further work by the Core Group and a consultation, a final version was agreed which was also approved by the Council's Executive, the Health & Wellbeing Board, Local Strategic Partnership and the CCG's Governing Body. Halton & St Helens VCA have arranged the design and printing of the charter, following a competition with design and art students at Riverside College. The students designed a logo and the winner received a £100 voucher sponsored by the Core Group.

The charter has now been fully agreed and it will be launched in the near future.

Training Package
A small sum was set aside to allow a VCA member of staff to undertake a CLES Train the Trainer course on understanding social value. An awareness session was subsequently developed for VCSE organisations to improve their understanding of social value and 20 groups have attended so far to understand how it works in practice.

Wellbeing Enterprise are leading, on behalf of the Halton Social Value working group, the development of a bespoke training package which has been designed to be delivered to high level strategic contacts within the borough.

If you would like any more information on this work, please contact Ann-Marie on 01928 593 111 or at alawrenson@haltonsthelensvca.org.uk.