What is the Social Value TOM System™?
The Social Value TOM (Themes, Outcomes, Measures) System™ is the most widely adopted and trusted framework for recording and reporting Social Value.
Developed by Social Value Portal in collaboration with 40 organisations across the public, private, and third sector, it provides a robust and standardised approach to measuring positive impact.
The system is structured around four key Themes:
- Work: Providing opportunities
- Economy: Driving inclusive growth
- Community: Empowering communities
- Planet: Environmental stewardship
Within each Theme are specific Outcomes that describe the targeted change or benefit an organisation wants to create through its activities and initiatives. The Measures then represent the quantifiable actions it takes.
How does it help create positive change?
The TOM System offers practical and visionary ways of creating Social Value for communities – the Measures we have laid out provide numerous potential focus areas for organisations to choose from.
Another key strength of the TOM System is that it can monetise an organisation's Social Value efforts by calculating a financial proxy value – a SV£ figure. It draws from authoritative national data sources like the Office of National Statistics, HM Treasury's Green Book, and the Unit Cost Database, to produce over 100 proxy values.
By translating Social Value into monetary terms, the TOM System allows organisations to tangibly demonstrate the good they do and benchmark their performance over time. This quantification provides vital visibility into where they can have the greatest positive impacts across social, environmental, and economic dimensions.
The TOM System isn’t just about monetisation, however. It also enables users to tell and enrich their Social Value story using supporting qualitative evidence, creating a well-rounded account of Social Value commitments and delivery.
What ensures the TOM System’s robustness and credibility?
The TOM System is underpinned by extensive research, based on 17 official, accredited and publicly available government data sources, and review of over 1000 research papers. It also boasts the backing of a team of 10 economists and data analysts with 80 years of cumulative experience.
All Social Value project data also goes through our internal validation process, with around 4,000 records reviewed per year, ensuring the highest standard of credibility. We are stringent about rooting out mistakes in reporting which could result in inaccurate or inflated claims, such as double counting, misattribution, or lack of additionality.
Moreover, the widespread adoption of the TOM System across the public and private sectors over nearly a decade has allowed Social Value Portal to establish an unparalleled database of Social Value activity and insight into the most impactful measures across industries. This enables us to continually refine the TOM System based on 150,000 data points and over 10,500 projects which have been managed through our platform.
Does it offer flexibility to users?
While providing a consistent measurement framework, the TOM System can be adapted to reflect an organisation's unique priorities, contexts, locations, sectors, and requirements. Because Measures can be recalibrated based on defined parameters, the system offers thousands of potential metrics.
It also aligns to standards like the UK Government's Social Value Model, UN Sustainable Development Goals, GRESB, SASB, GRI, and more.
How will the Social Value TOM System™ evolve?
The robust methodology and widespread adoption of the Social Value TOM System makes it the leading standard for measuring and amplifying Social Value delivery.
We aren’t stopping here, however - the TOM System is continuously evolving based on user feedback and the latest research. We have just completed a significant review of its methodology and structure, enhancing its usability and accuracy, which involved over 7,000 hours of research. We are currently expanding its scope to support global Social Value reporting.
We are excited to continue working with our customers and stakeholders across the Social Value landscape to drive the movement forward.
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