The Social Value Awards
Submissions now open!
For nearly a decade, the Social Value Awards have recognised trailblazers across a variety of sub-sectors and industries who are leading the way in community empowerment, sustainable innovation, inclusive economic growth, and cross-sector collaboration. Like last year, the focus of these awards will be on promoting the contributions that organisations and individuals have made towards the Social Value Economy. In particular, the judges will be looking at how organisations are delivering against the following 4-Step Commitment that the Social Value Taskforce identified as essential to achieving success:
Make Core - Every organisation across all sectors has a social, environmental, and economic impact which means they have a role to play in a Social Value Economy. We are asking every organisation to make a fundamental strategic commitment to maximising their positive impact and to actively manage how they can best generate Social Value and contribute to the Social Value Economy.
Be Accountable - Every organisation should ensure that strategic intention translates into measurable real world social and environmental impact. This requires meaningful engagement with key stakeholders inside and outside the organisation, linking needs with clear targets, measurement and being transparent about delivery.
Create Capability - Social Value is a collective endeavour, and organisations should broaden their knowledge, and build the skills and capacity needed to ensure Social Value is considered and generated where possible throughout their operations. This includes engaging with and supporting their wider supply chains especially with regards to smaller and medium-sized businesses.
Radically Collaborate - Collectively we cannot achieve the scale of change required if we do not collaborate in a radically different way – we need to work better across silos, share more knowledge about what works on the ground, build sector specific expertise, drive learning and improvement openly and without exclusivity or judgement.
Whether you're a changemaker, a policy influencer, or an advocate for corporate responsibility, this is the platform to elevate initiatives that redefine what it means to create meaningful, measurable change in our communities.
Submissions for the Social Value Awards are now open until the 7th of August 2025.
Entries will be reviewed by an independent panel of judges using a consistent set of criteria. Shortlisted entries will be announced in September, with winners revealed during the evening awards ceremony in Birmingham—marking the grand finale of the Social Value Conference.
Award ceremony tickets will go on sale in early June.
Check out the full list of categories below.
This year’s categories
Social Value Champion Award
For an individual in any sector who is leading the way in delivering the Social Value Economy through their own work or the work they are doing within their organisation. This will include making Social Value core, being accountable, creating capability and demonstrating how they have collaborated across multiple stakeholder groups to achieve this.
Public Sector Leadership Award
For a public sector organisation that has made a significant contribution to the Social Value Economy through how it is delivering its services. The judges will be looking for innovative approaches to solving the challenges being faced through Social Value. Leadership may be evident across the organisation as a whole or within a particular part.
Private Sector Leadership Award
For a private sector organisation that has made a significant contribution to the Social Value Economy through how it is delivering its services. The judges will be looking for innovative approaches to solving the challenges being faced. Leadership may be evident across the organisation as a whole or within a particular part.
SME and VCSE Leadership Award
For a small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) or a voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisation that is making a significant contribution to the Social Value Economy through what they do and how they are working. In addition, the judges will be examining how this nominee has made a notable impact on the needs of the communities where they operate.
Making Core Award
The first step along the journey of delivering a Social Value Economy is for organisations to embrace and then ‘make core’ the principles behind said Economy. This award is looking for organisations that have made a notable shift in their culture and a discernible change in their governance that supports transformation. Examples may include how a business has adapted its ESG strategy to embrace Social Value, how a voluntary organisation has successfully adapted to meet the requirements of the Social Value Act, or how a buyer has overcome significant internal challenges to deliver Social Value.
Accountability and Reporting Award
For any organisation that is going one step further in holding itself accountable to its key stakeholders, including how it has engaged and communicated with local communities.
Creating Capability Award
An award that recognises the contribution that an organisation has made in building knowledge and capability to deliver the Social Value Economy. The award is looking specifically at how an organisation is supporting the upskilling of its own internal teams and secondly, how they are engaging with and building capability across their supply chains. The contributions will be judged on both their innovation and also breadth and depth of impact and may be through a learning management system, or through better supply chain engagement or even the development of a knowledge hub.
Radical Collaboration Award
This award recognises the importance of collaboration to deliver the Social Value Economy. It will be awarded to an organisation or cross-sector team that has delivered an amazing Social Value outcome or innovation through the power of radical collaboration. This may be through a project, technology, or innovation or even a networking group.
Enabling Technology Award
This award will be given to an enabling technology, business system or process that has been designed to enable the successful delivery of a Social Value Economy. Judges will be looking for a clear description and evidence of how the enabling technology addressed or proposes to address a market failure, as well as evidence of the outcome delivered.
Excellence in Planning
Embedding Social Value into the planning process is the new frontier and this award is for a planning team that is leading the way in this respect. The planning team may be changing their local plan or updating their planning requirements. The award winner will have found a way of unlocking additional value from development teams either through a Social Value action plan or Section 106 and have the evidence to show this.
Excellence in Real Estate
This a collaboration award for a real estate team, including developers, professional services teams, contractors, and property managers, that has demonstrated the extra steps required to embed the principles of Social Value into the design, construction and occupation of a building or masterplan. The award covers any phase of a project, from inception to re-use. It may be still on the drawing board or completed, but will need to show clear evidence that consideration of Social Value has impacted decision making and outcomes. This might include how community engagement has impacted project design, how specification and procurement has helped build the local economy, or how a building management team has helped unlock value for communities during occupation.
Global Excellence in Social Value
This award recognises organisations that have demonstrated exceptional innovation and commitment to social value across international contexts. The award celebrates initiatives that bridge the gap by standardising social value reporting or that create breakthrough innovations benefitting global communities through social impact.
Rising Star in Social Value
For a young professional aged 35 or under who is actively driving the Social Value movement forward. This individual is a catalyst for change—championing social value through their own work or by influencing their organisation and wider networks. They are embedding social value as a core principle, demonstrating accountability, building capability, and fostering meaningful collaboration across diverse stakeholder groups. Their leadership, innovation, and commitment are helping to shape a more inclusive and impactful Social Value Economy.