News & Opinion

April 2026 opens the shadow year for Surrey and a two-year preparation window for Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk. For VCSEs, the commissioning landscape is changing substantially, and the evidence base you need is changing with it.

The start of the new financial year in April offers a vital window for organisations to move from reactive to proactive social value.

Scotland's Community Wealth Building (Scotland) Bill will change what public bodies expect from the organisations they fund and contract with. For third sector organisations, that means new requirements around procurement practices, employment standards, reporting obligations, and strategic alignment with local economic development, going beyond better impact storytelling. This article explains what the Bill requires, where it connects to existing social value practice, and the practical steps organisations can take now to be ready for the procurement landscape it will create.

2025 has been a landmark year for the Social Value Engine, and we would like to start by thanking all our customers, partners and supporters for everything you have contributed over the past twelve months.

We are delighted to share that our co-founders, East Riding of Yorkshire Council, have won the Outstanding Impact award at this year’s Institute of Economic Development (iED) Annual Awards for their work measuring and maximising social value using the Social Value Engine.

From January 2026, charities preparing accruals accounts will need to follow updated accounting rules under Charities SORP 2026. The changes introduce a three-tier reporting system based on charity size, with new requirements for impact reporting that will affect organisations with income over £500,000. This article explains what's changing, why impact measurement is now part of the formal reporting framework, and what it means for charities of all sizes.

Scotland's Community Wealth Building Bill will require every council to measure and demonstrate local impact by 2026. Will we build 32 separate measurement systems, or connect to shared infrastructure that already exists?

Measuring social value is difficult, but AI is being touted as a transformative solution to speed up reporting and cut through complexity. In this article we explore whether AI can truly deliver on this promise, or if it risks flattening essential human nuance for the sake of efficiency.

Social value has become a cornerstone of UK procurement and economic development, shaping how councils, government bodies and contractors frame their responsibilities to communities. But as the agenda has grown, so too has the risk of “social value washing”: ambitious claims that look impressive on paper yet fail to deliver in practice.

We’re entering an exciting new era at the Social Value Engine, and we can’t wait to share what’s coming next.

Recently a colleague mentioned the 18th century philosopher [Jeremy Bentham](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Bentham), and I was immediately left pondering why the connection between Bentham and social value calculation had never occurred to me before, and why Bentham’s ethical system has found

Collaboration is increasingly a condition of survival for charities and social enterprises. With funding stretched and competition intensifying, partnerships are often the only route to securing resources. But collaboration without genuine alignment risks failure. Establishing shared purpose, values, and measurement is now essential to delivering credible, community-focused social value.