Sustainable Procurement Initiative Amey and Hays setting social enterprises up for success

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We have collaborated with Hays, our long-term workforce solutions partner, to establish the Amey Hays Social Enterprise Initiative and create a lasting impact in the social enterprise sector.

At a glance

  • We have collaborated with Hays to establish the Amey Hays Social Enterprise Initiative, a unique partnership with social value at its core.
  • The programme supports Social Enterprise UK’s challenge to public sector procurement organisations to achieve long-term impact in the social enterprise sector and establish a Social Value Economy.
  • Together with Hays, we jointly established a Social Value fund to finance the initiative.
  • Throughout the 12-month programme, we delivered targeted business improvement roadmaps to provide tailored, functional business support to four VCSEs to develop and grow their businesses.
  • We drew from our combined expertise within the infrastructure and workforce solutions sectors to provide the VCSEs with topical, strategic advice and practical support that they did not have in their team or could afford to outsource.
  • We gave VCSEs access to our networks to build meaningful relationships and provide opportunities to secure future work.
  • The results of the first cohort serve as a blueprint and demonstrates that acceleration initiatives can play a pivotal role in fast-tracking the growth of social enterprises.

Key metrics

  • £40,000

    was given in grants to the VCSEs

  • 145

    hours of support was provided

  • £104,334

    in social value generated

The programme, designed to help foster an inclusive Social Value Economy in alignment with Social Enterprise UK’s (SEUK) goals, provides tailored support to Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise organisations (VCSEs) to scale-up their businesses and help them secure future work, by drawing from our combined expertise and networks.

With support from our strategic advisor SEUK, we selected four VCSEs within our respective sectors, infrastructure and workforce solutions, and worked with the VCSEs over 12 months to provide bespoke expert advice to help strengthen their operations and fast-track their growth.

We created customised roadmaps and implemented activity plans by understanding the VCSEs' businesses. This included providing mentoring, sharing subject matter expertise, and connecting VCSEs to our networks. The VCSEs were each given £10,000 in grants to fund business improvement opportunities identified through the programme.

With the first cohort now complete, we have successfully accelerated the capability of our VCSEs, strengthening their business operations and identifying opportunities to win work in our supply chain. The programme serves as a blueprint for organisations looking to support the VCSE sector, to enhance and expand their impact going forward as a Social Enterprise Supplier Accelerator.

Social enterprises play a critical role in driving economic, social, and environmental value.

Coming together to foster an inclusive economy

Businesses across the UK are increasingly turning to social value as a way to build a better future. As stated in SEUK’s Social Value 2032: Creating a Social Value Economy report, social enterprises play a critical role in driving economic, social, and environmental value, from innovating sustainable and low-carbon products, to reinvesting in community infrastructure. 

However, as SEUK outlines, while the understanding of the benefits of social value has increased, it has not yet achieved its full potential – finding we may have missed over £760bn worth of opportunities in the social value sector. To avoid more missed opportunities, SEUK has set out to accelerate the growth of social value utilisation over the next decade to cover all public sector procurement and across the UK’s largest business. SEUK is aspiring for social value to cover over £400bn of procurement spend in the UK every year, equivalent to 20% of UK GDP. 

As two of the UK’s largest businesses with wide-spread supply chains in public procurement, and with a shared commitment to supporting an inclusive economy, we saw an opportunity to build on our existing social value impact to achieve long-term economic, social, and environmental benefits and contribute toward SEUK’s goal of a ‘Social Value Economy’.

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With a shared commitment to supporting an inclusive economy, we saw an opportunity to build on our existing social value impact.

We designed tailored roadmaps delivered through flexible and evolving activity plans, providing mentoring catered to the VCSEs’ bespoke needs.

Utilising our combined expertise to maximise the VCSEs’ potential

Turning this commitment into action, we extended our long-standing partnership with Hays to establish the Amey Hays Social Enterprise Initiative, a unique partnership with social value at its core. The programme, spearheaded by the requirements of the Social Value Act, set out to empower social enterprises that exhibit strong potential to secure future work within Hays’ and our supply chains.

We lent support from SEUK to help identify and target potential participant organisations seeking to scale-up their operations, and who had clear ideas for how to develop their business but lacked the resources and expertise internally to deliver against their plan.

Four VCSEs were selected to take part based on their social and environmental commitment, inclusive recruitment, and their ethical approach. These include The Community Driving School CIC, which changes lives through back-to-work training and driving courses, making people more employable; Morgan Developments, a socially driven enterprise that delivers inclusion across public and private infrastructure sector frameworks; Rising Stars Property Solutions CIC, which provides practical work experience, training, and employment opportunities to marginalised groups furthest from the job market; and Standing Tall, which helps people experiencing homelessness to discover their hidden potential and secures them stable jobs in responsible businesses.

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We designed tailored roadmaps delivered through flexible and evolving activity plans, providing mentoring catered to the VCSEs’ bespoke needs.

Utilising our unique perspective of full lifecycle business operations, we sought to shape the VCSEs’ future thinking on business strategy, hone their focus on steps to win contracts, create meaningful relationships across our networks, and strengthen how they communicate their product or service to enhance how they compete in the market.

To achieve this, we drew from our combined expertise within the infrastructure and workforce solutions sectors to lend the VCSEs expert advice and practical support that they did not have in their team or could afford to outsource. We designed tailored roadmaps delivered through flexible and evolving activity plans, providing mentoring catered to the VCSEs’ bespoke needs.

This involved facilitating discovery sessions to explore each VCSEs' strengths and weaknesses, identifying opportunities for success, and connecting the organisations with prospective purchasing decision-makers and buyers within Amey. Alongside this, we provided guidance and advice on specific operational skills and knowledge through 73 hours of mentoring and 65.5 hours of subject matter expertise, pairing VCSEs with industry related mentors with the goal of enabling the VCSEs to overcome business growth pains, operational challenges and build on their strengths.

The initiative serves as a blueprint for Amey and Hays to enhance and expand our impact going forward as a Social Enterprise Supplier Accelerator.

A blueprint to accelerate success in the VCSE sector

After the first year, the programme has helped to pivot the VCSEs towards successful pathways, with one clear success story. As reported through an independent review conducted by SEUK, we have enhanced the knowledge, confidence, and skills of those across the VCSEs’ sales, marketing, finance, and operations departments. 

As a result of our efforts to connect the VCSEs with our networks, we have given two jobs at a total value of £7,000 to the social enterprise. Standing Tall now make up part of Amye’s inclusive recruitment supply chain and are able to be utilised for future roles.

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We actively helped a social enterprise overcome business growth challenges by leveraging our unique insight and understanding of the VCSE's needs, and matching this with internal expertise and an operational solution.

Employee skills-based volunteering offers significant social value and has been core to the success of this is initiative. It empowers VCSEs with strategic insights and in-demand skills while fostering employee growth and job satisfaction. For example, we actively helped a social enterprise overcome business growth challenges by leveraging our unique insight and understanding of the VCSE's needs, and matching this with internal expertise and an operational solution. Both Hays and our employees reported increased workplace fulfilment, growth in professional development, better understanding of social enterprise, and a deeper appreciation for social value.

The outcome from the first year has demonstrated that the programme can accelerate the growth of social enterprises, and that corporations can play a key role in making a positive impact within the social enterprise sector.

The Amey Hays Social Enterprise Initiative serves as a blueprint for Amey and Hays to enhance and expand our impact going forward as a Social Enterprise Supplier Accelerator. Following SEUK’s independent review of the programme, we intend to bring our learnings and SEUK’s recommendations into the second year to continue to improve the programme, support social enterprises and contribute towards SEUK’s vision of a prosperous social value economy.

Testimonials

Christy Acton, Standing Tall, Founder and CEO

“Amey and Hays have helped us in lots of practical ways to improve what we do; our contracts, payment terms improving our cash flow, build our CRM system and they’ve introduced me to a range of Hays Account Managers with the possibility of more jobs with employer partners. Amey’s videographer is helping us with our videos, and they’ve also confirmed 10 jobs with us over the next 12 months.”

John Nicholson, Community Driving School CEO

“We’ve been able to focus on our core strengths, which are recruiting driving instructors who understand our beneficiary needs. We’ve put the grant toward getting someone trained as well as utilising toward investing in a new car. I have really enjoyed working with Amey and Hays, being part of a family. They understand social value, they understand the difference it can make to human lives.”

Joe Sellwood, Amey, Finance Supervisor, Accounts Payable

“I felt I could use my skill set to really generate higher value. We talk about social impact (volunteering) days at my organisations, which are great, and people can volunteer for a day at places like a charity shop for example, but I really feel the value I can add is a lot higher by actually using my skill set. So, I would prefer to use my time in initiatives like this.”

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