THE NATIONAL TOMS FRAMEWORK 2020
The National TOMs were officially launched at the National Social Value Conference on the 14th of November 2017.
Updated proxy values and guidance have since been published in November 2018 and now, even further expanded, in January 2020.
The 2020 update includes the Real Estate Plugin (originally published as part of the 2019 update), and the COVID-19 Plugin as integral parts. Further Plug-Ins are due for publication in 2020.
To be kept up to date in the development of these Plugins, or if you would like to contribute, please contact taskforce@socialvalueportal.com.
Why a National Measurement Framework?
The aim of the National TOMs Framework is to provide a minimum reporting standard for measuring social value. For those organisations (private and public) just starting out on their journey to embed social value into their procurement and management processes, it provides an easy to use solution that is immediately available, and may be applied to any project. For those organisations that are already well advanced, the hope is that they will integrate these standards into their measurement approach as a minimum, and add any Measures that they presently do not have in their own toolkit.
The principal benefits of a minimum and consistent reporting standard for social value are that it:
- Provides a consistent approach to measuring and reporting social value
- Allows for continuous improvement
- Provides a robust, transparent and defensible solution for assessing and awarding tenders
- Allows organisations to compare their own performance by sector and industry benchmarks and understand what good looks like
- Reduces the uncertainty surrounding social value measurement for businesses, allowing them to make informed decisions based on robust quantitative assessments and hence embed social value into their corporate strategies
The National TOMs Framework has been designed around 5 principal issues, 20 Core Outcomes and 48 Core Measures:
- Themes – The overarching strategic themes that an organisation is looking to pursue
- Outcomes – The objectives or goals that an organisation is looking to achieve that will contribute to the Theme.
- Measures – The measures that can be used to assess whether these Outcomes have been achieved. For the National TOMs Framework, these re action based and represent activities that a supplier could complete to support a particular desired outcome.