Enhancing our Social Return on Investment policies on public procurement

By enhancing our Social Return on Investment policies on public procurement, we can boost the business climate for a specific category of social enterprises in our region, leading to sustainable participation of people with a distance to the job market.

A job provides people with income and a social network: both important building blocks for resilience. However, getting and keeping a job is not for everyone. Some of our residents need intensive assistance and guidance, making them less employable in the regular job market.

The municipality of The Hague prescribes contractors of larger projects to achieve a social return on investment. This means that the contractor uses 5% of the contracted budget to help people with a distance to the labor market. Contractors can meet this obligation by (1) providing these people with work themselves, (2) by purchasing products or services from a social employment programme, or by (3) offering activities or training that reduce the distance between this group and the labor market.

Building on this experience, The Hague wants to offer contractors a fourth opportunity to meet their SROI obligations. In addition to the three existing options, contractors can also choose to purchase goods or services from regional social enterprises, of which at least 30% of the workforce consists of people at a distance from the labor market.

This improves the business environment for this specific category of social enterprises, resulting in a professional and sustainable integration of people into the labor market.

Lead:
City of The Hague: SZW

Partners:
Dutch Employee Insurance Agency (UWV), RTH

When and how?
Together with our neighbouring cities and the Dutch Employee Insurance Agency (UWV), The Hague will build a uniform SROI-policy in 2019. RTH will facilitate knowledge exchange with other cities from the 100RC network that have a tradition of using social enterprises to build an inclusive society.