MeasureUp Marks One Year With Vastly Expanded Value Set

As the PPN02 social value model becomes mandatory in October 2025, Impact Reporting marks a year since the launch of MeasureUp – an entirely free resource enabling enterprises of all sizes to effectively compete for public sector contracts, while implementing best practice. 

Frustrated by the differing limitations of existing frameworks, in October 2024, a trio of social value experts took matters into their own hands. Partners Impact Reporting, PRD and State of Life published value sets that had previously been hidden behind paywalls. This data has since been expanded to include important, lesser researched values – supporting bidders and contracting authorities in achieving a more rounded picture of the outcomes resulting from various impact activities.

“Social value is an emerging field and every framework has its limitations – MeasureUp is intended to be used as a supplementary tool, not as a replacement,” says Matt Haworth, the co-founder of Impact Reporting and MeasureUp. 

“We’re proud of what we’ve achieved in the last 12 months. Besides a growing number of organisations using the platform, as we intended, we’re also building a real community of like-minded social value people that are pushing for progress. It’s been especially encouraging to engage a group of forward-thinking local authorities, who acknowledge the challenges of sticking with the status quo.”

Professional training provider, BPP Education Group, was an early adopter of the platform and has been enlisting MeasureUp to strengthen bids and support its longstanding commitment to delivering additional impact.  

“We’ve found it really beneficial because a lot of the values we were trying to measure didn’t fit neatly within the frameworks we were using,” says Lucy Wildig, Head of Social Impact at BPP. 

“The challenge with relying on a single platform is that you’re accessing a very narrow, limited value set that can make it a meaningless numbers game. By using MeasureUp as well, we have been able to really strengthen our bids and ongoing reporting because of the qualitative insights we can now incorporate.”

By supplementing current measurement methodologies to include more novel impact initiatives that are not easily captured by some frameworks, organisations can obtain a fuller understanding of their social and environmental efforts that supports continuous improvement. 

This rings true for Related Argent’s Social Value Manager for King’s Cross, Sizi Sibanda as well:

“We didn’t want to simply follow what was already out there – we wanted to be part of building a measurement framework that genuinely reflects the communities we serve.

Adopting MeasureUp at Related Argent has allowed us to be more honest, more intentional and ultimately more impactful in how we design and deliver social value.

This is just the beginning, but it already sets a new benchmark for what place-based social value measurement should look like.”

This includes tracking the outcomes from commitments such as attendance at cultural events, engaging in youth activities, improving digital skills and inclusion and supporting mental health and wellbeing. In particular, important updates have been made regarding the young person’s wellbeing programme (aligning with recent curriculum changes), service provision for mental health, charity shop participation (shopping, donating and volunteering), as well as around exposure to workplace technologies.

Other recent developments include bolstering the breadth and depth of MeasureUp’s environmental value set. Based on trusted, government-backed resources from DENSZ, Defra and WRAP, it now captures nuanced environmental insights on measuring greenhouse gas emissions (encompassing challenging scope 3), waste management, habitat conversion and pollution control. 

The MeasureUp platform is free to access and use but additional insights and support can be garnered within the Impact Reporting platform. 

-ENDS-

Notes to editor:

MeasureUp is a free resource for organisations concerned with evidencing the social, environmental and commercial benefits of doing ‘good’ business. 

The platform has been developed by three partners with a long track record in the social value space. Impact Reporting, State of Life and PRD came together to tackle the widespread frustration surrounding oversimplified measurement, valuation and a lack of collective action. 

MeasureUp is a pragmatic solution that prioritises progress over perfection. As broad sustainability reporting and procurement regulations come into force, being able to demonstrate the difference organisations are making to the world we live in, is fast becoming a business imperative. 

For the first time, this technology enables enterprises of all shapes, sizes and social value maturity to capture challenging metrics and carve out a path of continuous improvement. 

By taking the bold step of making the framework completely accessible, MeasureUp is backing the social value community’s strive for greater transparency and enabling the win-wins that come with transitioning to a purpose-led economy.