Whilst Paul was Director of Environment and Sustainability for Balfour Beatty Construction Services UK he established a new community investment programme called Involved. Paul’s rationale, which the board ratified, was that the company was not able to answer what else their clients got when they bought its services. Clients knew that Balfour Beatty could build a new school, a new office block and refurbished a road but other benefits can they deliver?
Working with other departments, especially procurement, human resources and communities, Paul led a process that brought together all the activities that contributed to social value. From this analysis, a more systematic approach to offering skills and training, support to SMEs and social enterprise and community engagement was developed. The approach was underpinned by measurement and evaluation, so that for projects, in both bid stage and delivery, the additional social value could be tracked. This work foresaw the implications of the social value act and the drive by the public sector to account for how its spend benefits the local community. As a result, the Involved programme contributed to the company success at winning new work and raising customer satisfaction.