Given Andy Burnham’s evident focus around prioritising social value within procurement, it will be even more crucial for contractors moving forward that any community benefit commitments made are well directed and delivered.
PeoplePlus works at exactly that point, helping employers turn social value from a procurement requirement into something tangible that embeds in the business alongside recruitment, workforce strategy, community engagement, long-term planning, and legacy impact.
In conversation with Copper, Liz Squire (Head of Employer Engagement) and Lydia Baker (Head of Social Value and Recruitment, Justice) share how PeoplePlus is working alongside employers to deliver measurable impact, and why the people at the heart of the work are never an afterthought.
Building a movement of employers
For PeoplePlus, social value is not bolted on at the end. It shapes how organisations attract, recruit, and develop talent from the start.
“We work at the intersection of skills, employability, and social value,” Liz explains. “Our role is to help employers bridge the gap between what they have committed to and what they actually deliver.”
A central part of that is their Social Recruitment Advocacy Group (SRAG), a network of employers committed to embedding inclusive recruitment. SRAG’s membership has grown by around 50% in the past twelve months and now includes organisations such as Sodexo UK and Ireland, Mitie, IKEA, and Laing O’Rourke.
“SRAG is more than a forum,” Liz adds. “It is where employers come together to share what works, challenge their own thinking, and take action. We are building a movement of organisations changing how they recruit and support talent, and they keep coming back because it works.”
From ambition to action
For many organisations, social value is already a requirement, shaped by procurement, ESG strategy or internal priorities. The harder part is making it real.
“That is where employers often get stuck,” Liz says. “They have the intention, but not always the structure or the confidence to deliver on it.”
PeoplePlus supports this through strategic consultancy and advisory work, practical tools and frameworks, access to employer and delivery networks, and shared learning through events, campaigns, and SRAG itself.
“SRAG creates a space that enables organisations to work out what is working elsewhere and apply it in a way that fits their business.”
Recruitment that opens doors
At the centre of the PeoplePlus approach is social recruitment, which means opening access to work for people who are too often shut out of traditional hiring routes. That includes:people who are long-term unemployed, disabled or managing a health condition; young people not in education, employment or training; people with convictions, and people from communities facing several barriers at once.
“These are people who tend to be described by what holds them back,” Liz explains. “In practice, the barrier usually sits in how recruitment is designed rather than in the person standing in front of it. Someone can have the skills and the will to work and keep hitting the same closed door, because the process was never built with them in mind.
“It’s about creating pathways; thinking differently about how you reach people, how you recruit, and how you support them once they are in the business.
“In practice that can mean working with community partners, adapting a recruitment process, or putting support in place before and after someone starts. The Social Recruitment Framework, which PeoplePlus delivers, has now supported more than 13,000 people into work alongside over 200 employers.”
Acting as the bridge into work
For Lydia, a particular focus is helping employers hire people with convictions, an area many still see as complex or unfamiliar.
Picture an employer with a real vacancy on one side and a person ready and able to work on the other. Between them sits a gap, made not of the person’s record but of unfamiliarity, assumption and a lack of confidence about where to start. PeoplePlus exists to close that gap.
“The willingness is usually there,” Lydia says. “What is missing is confidence.”
Her role is to connect employers with prisons and residents or prison leavers who are ready for work, while making sure the right support and understanding is in place on both sides.
“As the UK’s largest provider of prison education, we are well placed to bridge the gap between prisons and employers,” she explains. “We help employers understand the environment, meet candidates, and build something that delivers for everyone.” PeoplePlus now works with around 50 prisons across its justice recruitment activity, including reach into every prison in Scotland.
What shifts an employer’s view fastest is direct contact, Lydia says. “Exposure – when employers meet people and understand the reality, perception changes quickly – and that is when real opportunities start to open up.”
Collaboration that travels
Partnership runs through everything PeoplePlus delivers. Through SRAG, employers become part of something larger, sharing insight, shaping good practice and carrying change into their own organisations and supply chains.
“The real impact comes when organisations learn from each other and act together,” Liz says. “This was never meant to be done in isolation.”
Beyond tick-box social value
For PeoplePlus, success is measured by outcomes rather than activity. That means real jobs, sustainable long-term employment, impact that reaches into supply chains, and a genuine fit between what an employer needs and what a community gains.
“There is no one-size-fits-all,” Lydia explains. “We design the approach around each employer, but the focus is always on genuine impact rather than meeting a requirement on paper.”
“Behind every figure is a person who now has work they did not have before, and a household and a community that feel the difference. Changing those lives today is how the system changes tomorrow.”
Getting involved
Organisations looking to strengthen their approach to social value can:
- Add their signature to the Social Recruitment Covenant
- Join the Social Recruitment Advocacy Group (SRAG)
- Talk to PeoplePlus about embedding inclusive recruitment across their business.
To find out more, contact: elizabeth.squire@peopleplus.co.uk