Public Sector Sustainability and Social Value Training Course

Course overview

Public bodies are expected to demonstrate how spending, estates, services and commissioned programmes create environmental and social value while remaining lawful, affordable and auditable. Officers must translate broad net-zero, community-benefit and responsible-procurement commitments into requirements that suppliers can price, delivery teams can manage and decision-makers can defend. This is difficult when carbon data is incomplete, social value claims are inconsistent, and procurement, finance, sustainability and service teams use different measures of success.

This five-day course equips participants to build practical sustainability and social value into public-sector decisions. Participants learn to identify material environmental and social impacts; apply the UK Government Social Value Model; develop proportionate tender questions and evaluation criteria; set measurable KPIs; use whole-life costing; map stakeholders; and establish governance for contract delivery. The course also covers carbon-baseline concepts, Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, circular procurement, supplier due diligence, equality considerations and evidence-led reporting.

Teaching combines instructor-led briefings with worked public-sector cases covering estates, highways, facilities management and community services. Participants use structured templates, scoring matrices and Microsoft Excel-based calculators to test assumptions and make trade-offs visible. By the end of the week, each participant produces a Sustainability and Social Value Implementation Pack for a live or realistic procurement, programme or service area: a materiality assessment, outcomes framework, tender-evaluation approach, KPI schedule, evidence plan and 90-day action plan.

The course is designed for public-sector professionals who need working fluency rather than specialist environmental-science credentials. It is particularly valuable where organisations are strengthening responsible procurement, preparing net-zero delivery plans, improving supplier management or seeking more credible reporting of benefits to communities.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Conduct a materiality assessment for a public-sector service, project or procurement category
• Map Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions sources using the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard
• Apply the UK Government Social Value Model to define relevant policy outcomes and award criteria
• Draft proportionate sustainability and social value tender questions, weighting rules and scoring guidance
• Build an outcomes framework linking activities, outputs, outcomes, indicators and evidence sources
• Calculate whole-life cost comparisons in Microsoft Excel for competing procurement options
• Design a supplier KPI schedule with baselines, targets, reporting frequency and escalation routes
• Produce a 90-day Sustainability and Social Value Implementation Pack for a workplace priority

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Procurement Officers — who design tender processes and must justify sustainability and social value evaluation decisions
• Sustainability and Net Zero Officers — who need to convert organisational commitments into operational requirements
• Commissioning Managers — who specify public services and need measurable community and environmental outcomes
• Contract Managers — who monitor supplier delivery and require credible KPIs and evidence
• Estates and Facilities Managers — who influence energy, maintenance, waste and lifecycle decisions
• Policy and Programme Managers — who need to embed social value in business cases, projects and delivery plans

Requirements and prerequisites

This is a foundation-to-intermediate course. Participants should be comfortable reading procurement documents, service specifications, project plans or performance reports and should have basic spreadsheet confidence, including entering formulas and interpreting tables in Microsoft Excel. Familiarity with public-sector procurement stages, contract management or sustainability policy is helpful but not essential. No prior carbon-accounting qualification, environmental-management-system experience, data-modelling expertise or specialist procurement accreditation is required. Complete beginners should expect to learn the core vocabulary first, then apply it through guided templates and worked examples.

Training methodology

Each day combines concise instructor-led input with public-sector scenarios, including a facilities-management tender, an estate decarbonisation option and a commissioned community service. Participants work in small groups to interpret policy requirements, challenge supplier claims, construct scoring matrices and test whole-life-cost assumptions in Microsoft Excel. The instructor provides worked examples and feedback against practical decision criteria, not abstract theory. Daily exercises build towards an individual implementation pack, completed on day five with peer review and a structured 90-day application plan.

Course outline

Day 1: Public-sector sustainability and social value foundations

• Public-sector duties, policy drivers and accountable decision-making
• Environmental, social and economic value in public-service delivery
• Materiality assessment using impact, influence and stakeholder criteria
• Stakeholder mapping for residents, service users, suppliers and delivery partners
• Theory of change: activities, outputs, outcomes and impacts
• UK Government Social Value Model themes, outcomes and metrics
• Baseline evidence and data-quality assessment

Workshop: Participants complete a materiality and stakeholder map for a selected public-sector service or procurement category.

Day 2: Carbon, environmental management and circular value

• GHG Protocol organisational and operational boundary setting
• Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions-source mapping
• Activity data, emission factors and carbon-baseline limitations
• ISO 14001:2015 environmental aspects and impacts register
• Whole-life carbon across construction, assets, services and supply chains
• Circular procurement principles: reuse, repair, recycled content and end-of-life
• Climate adaptation and resilience requirements in service specifications

Workshop: Participants create an emissions-source map and prioritised environmental-aspects register for a public-sector operating area.

Day 3: Embedding requirements in procurement and commissioning

• Pre-procurement market engagement for sustainability capability
• Specification writing for environmental and social value requirements
• Selection criteria, award criteria and contract-performance distinction
• Tender-question design using evidence, relevance and proportionality tests
• Social value weighting and moderated scoring-matrix construction
• Whole-life costing models and sensitivity analysis in Microsoft Excel
• Supplier due diligence for modern slavery, labour standards and environmental risk

Workshop: Participants draft and score a sustainability and social value tender response using a moderated evaluation matrix.

Day 4: Contract delivery, measurement and assurance

• Translating award commitments into contract schedules and mobilisation plans
• KPI architecture: baselines, targets, tolerances and reporting frequency
• SMART indicators for jobs, skills, community benefit and carbon reduction
• Evidence plans, data ownership and supplier verification methods
• Performance dashboards and exception-based contract review
• Governance roles, escalation routes and corrective-action logs
• Avoiding greenwashing and social-value overclaiming in reports

Workshop: Participants build a contract KPI schedule and evidence plan for a supplier delivering a public service.

Day 5: Implementation planning and decision-ready reporting

• Prioritising initiatives using impact, feasibility, cost and delivery-risk criteria
• Business-case alignment with strategic objectives and budget controls
• Benefit realisation plans for environmental and social outcomes
• Data governance and reporting-calendar design
• Senior-leader briefing structures and decision-paper evidence
• Internal capability building across procurement, finance and operational teams
• Ninety-day action planning and implementation-risk management

Workshop: Participants assemble and peer-review their Sustainability and Social Value Implementation Pack, including a 90-day action plan.

Tools & standards covered

Microsoft Excel, GHG Protocol Corporate Standard, ISO 14001:2015, UK Government Social Value Model

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions