Definitions

Attribution

Attribution involves determining the extent to which an activity or outcome belongs to or is caused by some other activity or event. Examples:

  1. An organisation has a programme that covers several divisions, and we want to know what proportion of it can be counted or attributed to one particular division
  2. Two organisations pool their resources to deliver a joint programme. They will need to decide on what basis each can claim a share of the benefits (e.g. proportionate to their investment) – or how much can be attributed to each of them
  3. Company X plans to recruit three apprentices, who will divide their time between Contracts A, B & C. Contract A is with the local authority, who want to know how much social value is being created. Company X will need to work out the attribution of these apprentices to Contract A, based on how much of their time is expected to be on this contract compared with the others.

Circular economy

A circular economy is an economic system aimed at eliminating waste and the continual use of resources. In contrast to the ‘take-makewaste’ linear model, a circular economy is designed to be regenerative and aims to gradually decouple growth from the consumption of finite resources (see Ellen McArthur Foundation). An optimal circular economy solution minimises repurposing and transportation of

resources to keep environmental costs down (local reuse of materials or equipment from a demolished building, for example. Not to be confused with recycling, which generally entails a change of use for the

materials.

CO2e

The measure used for emissions of greenhouse gases (= “carbon dioxide equivalent”). Includes all greenhouse gases (including, for instance, methane) adjusted for the relative strength of their warming effect. Carbon dioxide is often referred to as “carbon” for short.

Deadweight

The likelihood of an event or action occurring, irrespective of a specific intervention. For example, the likelihood of an individual finding a job without the specific programme sponsored by the organisation committing or delivering against TOMs Measures.

Decarbonisation

Decarbonisation is the term used for the process of removing or reducing the carbon dioxide (CO2) output of a country’s economy. This can be achieved by decreasing the amount of CO2e the economy.

Direct employment

Employed directly by the organisation committing or delivering against TOMs Measures. This therefore excludes employment by the organisation’s supply chain / sub-contractors and self-employment contracts.

Disadvantaged groups

Disadvantaged groups is a collective term used in association with the the TOMs to describe people by reference to an identified barrier that they face, particularly in relation to their ability to secure employment. It covers TOMs measures NT3 – NT6 inclusive. Clearly these should not be treated as defining characteristics of the people involved; the sole purpose of the specific terms and the general term is to assist with the identification of relevant interventions and their associated proxy values.

Double counting

The act of counting social value promised or delivered or related financial or non-financial impacts more than once – this leads to an overclaiming of social value delivery and an overstatement of social value.

Expert staff time

Voluntary time donated by individuals who have a specific qualification or competence to support the activity. For example, a Health & Safety officer delivering health and safety training or an accountant helping with the accounts of a charity.

Full-time Equivalent (FTE)

A full-time equivalent, abbreviated to “FTE”, is a unit to measure employed persons in a way that makes them comparable, although they may work different numbers of hours per week.

An annualised full-time equivalent means the equivalent of one person working full-time for a year. 1 annualised FTE could be made up of more people working for the same length of time with a shorter working week, or a sum of people working for different periods, or a mixture of these.

If the target-setting or measurement is on a specific contract and people are not exclusively working on that particular calculation, an FTE calculation will need to be used to work out how much of their time can be allocated to that specific contract (see Attribution above).

Therefore, the number of jobs is in most cases not going to be the same as the number of annualised FTEs. It is essential that wherever the TOMs specifies FTEs as the unit of measurement, that a calculation is carried out to give the correct figure.

For example, where people are employed part-time, or if the duration of the contract is shorter than one year, the number of employees should be adjusted to calculate the full time equivalent (FTE) number of employees for the year. An FTE of 1.0 = one person employed on a full- time basis for a period of 12 months. One person employed full time for six months would equal 0.5 FTE.

Equally, if the target-setting or reporting period is longer than 1 year, the FTE may be more than 1. For example, a full-time employee committed full-time to a 5-year contract would represent a target of 5.

GDPR

GDPR stands for UK General Data Protection Regulation. This is the extensive suite of legal provisions covering the protection of personal data in the UK. Breach of GDPR regulations can have very serious

consequences for the offending party. All organisations will have staff responsible for ensuring compliance and should be consulted if clarification is required. In social value reporting, the most significant GDPR risks occur in relation to reporting on individuals involved. The evidence requirements for the TOMs explicitly do not require personal data to be provided and GDPR compliance should not be difficult to achieve provided care is taken to ensure reporting data is anonymised.

GVA

GVA stands for Gross Value Added. ONS says “Regional gross value added is the value generated by any unit engaged in the production of goods and services. GVA per head is a useful way of comparing regions

of different sizes. It is not, however, a measure of regional productivity”. In simple terms, it is a form of economic activity indicator. In the TOMs, it is used in developing the proxy values for the local spend measures NT18 and NT19.

GVA Type I Multiplier

Type 1 multipliers cover “direct” and “indirect” effects of economic activity only. They estimate the impact on the supply chain resulting from a producer of a certain product increasing their output to meet additional demand. In order to meet the additional demand, the producer must in turn increase the goods and/or services they purchase from their suppliers to produce the product in question. These suppliers in turn increase their demands for goods and services and so on down the supply chain. These Type 1 multipliers are also referred to as direct and indirect effects. Type 1 multipliers are considered to underestimate the effect on the economy as they do not estimate “induced” effects – consequential spending in the economy beyond the supply chain – spending by the households of employees of a contractor and its supply chain, for instance.

Hard to Recycle waste

Hard to Recycle waste exists across a number of product types, including:

  1. Card and Paper
  2. Hazardous waste
  3. Miscellaneous
  4. Organic
  5. Plastic
  6. Textiles

Inputs, Outputs, Outcomes and Impacts

These are the four different descriptors of units and proxies in the TOMs framework – according to whether the describe the investment cost or avoided cost associated with the activity or the benefit that is has on the people and places involved.

kWh

A kilowatt-hour is a unit of energy that is equal to the energy provided by a thousand watts in one hour

Leakage

Leakage is a concept in economics theory which describes how value escapes from a supposedly closed system. In practice it is used for the evaluation of economic impact in a defined area (a region, for example) to adjust the gross economic value by reference to the components of value that “leak” out of the area and out of the country. For example, the value of a major construction project to a region and to the country would be reduced by the value of the specialist steel imported from outside the UK. The TOMs uses a standard 20% leakage assumption in the calculation of GVA-based proxies for NT18 and NT19.

Local

The Greater Lancashire areaThe Greater Lancashire area (NUTS code UKD4), that includes the following unitary authorities and districts with their ONS codes;

  • BD = Blackburn with Darwen, E06000008
  • BP = Blackpool, E06000009
  • BY = Burnley, E07000117
  • CH = Chorley, E07000118
  • FY = Fylde, E07000119
  • HY = Hyndburn, E07000120
  • LA = Lancaster, E07000121
  • PL = Pendle, E07000122
  • PR = Preston, E07000123
  • RV = Ribble Valley, E07000124
  • RO = Rossendale, E07000125
  • SR = South Ribble, E07000126
  • WL = West Lancashire, E07000127
  • WY = Wyre, E07000128

Long-term unemployed

For the TOMs, this is defined as people who were previously claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) or Universal Credit unemployment benefits for at least the 12 months preceding the start of the employment contract. For a definition of long-term unemployment see Department for Work and Pensions research and analysis report (link).

MSMEs

MSMEs are Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises. In the UK these categories are defined as - Micro (0-9 employees), Small (10-49 employees), Medium (50-249 employees), so MSMEs overall can have anything between 0 – 250 employees.

Net zero carbon

A “net-zero” target refers to the objective of reaching a position where any continuing carbon emissions are balanced out by “negative emissions”, i.e. initiatives that remove carbon dioxide, so this makes it different from an absolute zero carbon target, where there are no carbon emissions at all. Where zero carbon cannot be achieved, offsetting through carbon credits or sequestration through rewilding or carbon capture and storage can in theory to be utilised. At a global level, achieving net zero carbon depends on a combination of rapid decarbonisation, sequestration strategies and as yet unproven carbon absorption technologies.

The UK has committed in law (through the Climate Change Act) to net zero carbon by 2050, but this is increasingly thought to be inadequate to avoid catastrophic climate change and the trend in decarbonisation commitments appears to be bringing this deadline forward – to 2030, for example.

Proxy

In the TOMs framework, a proxy is a generalised value, expressed in monetary terms, that can be applied to a defined unit of activity in a measure.

Prioritisation weightings

The prioritisation mechanism in effect changes the underlying value of the proxies by applying a multiplier. Prioritisation weightings can be used within the TOMs when setting targets to signpost:

  1. Measures that do not have a financial proxy where these might be overlooked;
  2. Measures that have a financial proxy that does not fully reflect the urgency of the measure e.g. we know that we urgently need to tackle climate change but current carbon pricing does not fully reflect that;
  3. Whole Themes or Outcomes that are key to a project or place;
  4. Individual measures that are key to a project or place.

Record Only

“Record Only” refers to measures which do not have proxies and their effects cannot therefore be quantified.

SLEVA

Social and Local Economic Value Add. The combination of social and local economic value recorded under the TOMs, expressed as a % or in £ terms.

SROI

Social Return on Investment. Specific technique for social value measurement that relies on primary data (e.g. surveys) to work out SROI for a defined project or programme. Because of the reliance on primary data, SROI findings cannot easily be extrapolated from one project to another.

Sub-localities

In the TOMs framework, “sub-localities” refer to areas within local authority boundaries, identified because the intention is to have a geographically targeted approach to social value delivery. Sub-localities could be council wards, defined postcodes, Low-level Super Output Areas, etc.

Supply chain

A supply chain is defined as the entire process of making and selling commercial goods, including every stage from the supply of materials and the manufacture of the goods through to their distribution and

sale. By extension, it is also taken to mean the companies that deliver the elements of these processes.

TOMs

The acronym “TOMs” stands for Themes, Outcomes and Measures. The founding principle of the TOMs is to provide the connection between a broad vision for social improvement (“Themes”) with strategic objectives (“Outcomes”), which in turn can then be expressed as measurable activities (“Measures”).

TUPE

Employees may be protected under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) regulations (TUPE) where there is a business transfer or a change of service provision. When TUPE applies, the employees’ jobs usually transfer over to the new company, their employment terms and conditions transfer and continuity of employment is maintained. Change of service provision is when a service provided in-house (e.g. cleaning, workplace catering) is awarded to a contractor; a contract ends and is given to a new contractor or a contract ends and the work is transferred in-house by the former customer.

VCSEs

VCSEs stands for Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprises. This definition includes charities. Sometimes the term Third Sector is also used.

Volunteering

Volunteering is defined by the International Labour Organisation (2001) as ‘unpaid non-compulsory work; that is, time individuals give without pay to activities performed either through an organisation or directly for others outside of the household’.