Good intentions are not the same as good evidence
Most social value activity — volunteering days, community donations, school visits — is well-intentioned and genuinely welcome. But when it reaches a procurement scrutiny panel, a social value return, or an ESG audit, it consistently fails the same test: there is no independently verifiable evidence that anything changed.
A contractor planting trees in a community park is a positive thing. But "we planted 40 trees" is not social value evidence. It is activity data. The evidence question is different: what changed for the community, and how do you know?
The Procurement Act 2023, which came into force in February 2025, made this distinction material rather than academic. Contracting authorities in Wales — already operating under the Well-being of Future Generations Act and the Welsh Government's Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Act 2023 — now face stronger obligations to demonstrate that social value commitments in procurement are real, monitored and independently evidenced.
The gap between what most contractors deliver and what scrutiny-ready evidence looks like is wider than most procurement teams realise.
What the frameworks actually require
The Social Value TOM System — Themes, Outcomes and Measures — is the most widely used measurement framework in Wales and England. It translates social value activity into reportable outcomes under five themes: Jobs, Training and Skills; Supporting Growth of Responsible Business; Healthier, Safer and More Resilient Communities; Stronger, More Inclusive Communities; and a fifth theme focused on net zero and decarbonisation.
Each theme has defined outcome measures. The key word is "measures" — not descriptions of activity, but quantified evidence of change attributed to that activity. A session with a vulnerable young person produces activity data. A validated wellbeing score, tracked from a baseline at the start of a block of sessions to an endpoint, with changes documented against a recognised instrument, produces outcome data that can be mapped to a TOM System measure.
The difference matters enormously when a client asks a contractor to evidence their social value return — particularly on major infrastructure projects where social value obligations were built into the bid at weighting of 10%, 15% or more.
The practical test: if your social value activity data couldn't answer the question "what changed and how do you know?" in front of a scrutiny panel, it is not evidence. It is activity. The frameworks require evidence.
The five markers of social value evidence that stands up
Not all social value delivery partners produce evidence of the same quality. Here is what separates scrutiny-ready reporting from activity records:
Why children's wellbeing is one of the strongest social value commitments you can make
Construction and infrastructure projects land in communities. The communities around a major development often include schools, families and young people with significant unmet need — particularly in areas prioritised for Welsh Government investment, where deprivation and ACEs prevalence tend to be higher.
Investing in evidenced early intervention for vulnerable young people in those communities does something that tree-planting and volunteer days cannot: it produces measurable change in individual lives, with outcomes that can be tracked over time and mapped to multiple TOM System themes simultaneously.
Improved emotional wellbeing maps to Healthier, Safer and More Resilient Communities. Re-engagement with education maps to Jobs, Training and Skills. Reduced risk of long-term disengagement maps to Supporting Local Economic Growth. A single block of well-evidenced animal-assisted intervention can produce reportable evidence across three TOM themes from one commission.
"Their approach brings something genuinely unique to our social value delivery, and the response from the school community has been incredibly positive."
— Nina Williams, Social Value Advisor, Bouygues UKQuestions to ask a social value delivery partner before commissioning
If you are evaluating social value delivery partners ahead of a bid or an active project, these are the questions that separate evidence-producing partners from activity-recording ones:
What the Bouygues UK model looks like in practice
Bouygues UK commissioned The Baxter Project to deliver social value activity alongside construction of the Barry Waterfront Campus and Advanced Technology Centre for Cardiff and the Vale College. The commission was structured around a block of 1:1 animal-assisted sessions for vulnerable young people at Whitmore School in Barry — a school within the direct community impact zone of the construction project.
Every session was tracked through ODISSYS, The Baxter Project's specialist intervention management platform. Wellbeing scores were recorded at baseline and endpoint using validated instruments. Engagement data, practitioner observations and safeguarding notes were logged in real time. At the end of the block, Bouygues UK received a comprehensive outcome report — structured, exportable and mapped to TOM System categories — ready to drop into their social value return.
The evidence was strong enough that a second cohort was commissioned before the first block had concluded. That is the outcome data speaking louder than any summary report could.
The principle: social value evidence that stands up to scrutiny is built session by session, not assembled at the end. The infrastructure for that evidence — validated instruments, real-time tracking, outcome reporting — has to be in place before the first session begins.
A note on Welsh procurement specifically
Wales operates under its own legislative framework, and Welsh Government social value expectations sit alongside — and in some respects exceed — the Procurement Act 2023 requirements. The Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Act 2023 requires public bodies to promote socially responsible procurement and to consider the well-being goals set out in the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 when they exercise procurement functions.
For contractors bidding on Welsh public sector work, this means social value evidence cannot be an afterthought assembled from activity records. It needs to be designed into delivery from the outset — with reporting frameworks agreed, outcome measures in place, and delivery partners selected for their ability to produce evidence rather than just activity.
The organisations best placed to help contractors meet this bar are those that have been delivering in Wales, understand the local context, and have already proven their reporting in live contractor commissions. A named Welsh Government-familiar delivery partner with an existing track record is a material advantage in a competitive bid.