The ICRS 10th Anniversary

10 June 2024

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The ICRS 10th Anniversary

2024 marks the 10th anniversary of the ICRS since its founding.

To mark this special occasion, we held an event for our members at the Prince Phillip House, London on the 3rd of July 2024.

Welcome Address – Jennie Galbraith FICRS

The welcome address was given by Jennie Galbraith FICRS, ICRS Chair.

Key Note Speech - Helen Goulden OBE

The Keynote Speech was given by Helen Goulden OBE, Chief Executive Officer, The Young Foundation who spoke on The Young Foundation’s research, The Quest for the ‘S’ in ESG, and the evolution of social impact measurement.

The keynote speech highlighted the achievements of the ICRS over the last 10 years and raised questions about the future. Helen highlighted The Young Foundation's focus on building bridges between communities, policymakers, public institutions, and the private sector to create collective social impact and outcomes. Three questions were posed to the audience: how to make better sense of the complex operating environment, how to broaden the approach to social value and impact, and how to prepare for substantial changes in the next 10 years.

Helen began the session by introducing the concept of ‘grey rhinos’; predictable yet ignored risks that are charging toward us. The grey rhinos in plain sight today include the climate crisis, demographic changes, rapidly accelerating technologies, and the impacts of inequality and disinvestment in the state. The necessity to rethink where we draw the boundaries of responsibility we have towards ensuring a functioning society was made clear.

Helen set out the need to be incredibly clear-sighted on ‘what outcomes you are trying to achieve and why in your social value strategies?’. She discussed the lack of standardisation in reporting and the limited nature of most efforts, which primarily prioritise the workforce. This is necessary, but not sufficient to create meaningful change on societal issues facing the UK.

Since the canvas for creating social impact is so large, Helen recommended taking a journey-based approach to social value creation, working out from workforce-related activities towards the idea of driving ‘collective impact’ in partnership with those from other sectors and industries.

Following on from this, Helen described the development of The Young Foundation’s Quest for the S in ESG report, and its Four Scope Social Framework, grounded in an analysis of how the FTSE100 are reporting their social activities – and how that needs to evolve. The Four Scope Social Framework sets out a structured approach to expanding social impact from the workforce to the supply chain, to communities, and to collaborative partnerships for driving long-term change; where social, economic and environmental challenges are viewed as one.

Helen was keen to emphasise the history of how radical social innovation can happen, which is often driven from front-line practitioners and communities themselves; organising in new ways to meet seemingly intractable challenges.

Helen rounded off the keynote speech with a prediction that perhaps in the next 10 years, creating social value may become more closely linked with the need for people, businesses and communities to be prepared for major crises. Helen stressed the potential for businesses to contribute significantly to crisis response, but noted they are not adequately engaged by government in their strategies for civil contingency.

The key highlights from the speech were:

The importance of recognising both controllable and uncontrollable factors in ESG strategies and activities – and being clear where you claim attribution for your work, and where you are contributing to a much bigger societal shift.
The opportunity to innovate and incentivise new market entrants in your supply chain to meet business needs, but with enhanced social and environmental value.
The many reasons why engagement and involvement of communities connected to or surrounding your business operations is fundamental to meaningful social value creation, including how investment in social infrastructure (places to meet, things to do) is proven to impact crime, education, cohesion, and health.
The powerful impact of working in partnership to tackle social challenges, and how The Young Foundation facilitates this

It was concluded that we must get better at defining define the kind of social change and justice we are striving for, and pursue these goals in partnership with others. Acting together, we will move more quickly – and more effectively.

For more on The Young Foundation’s Four Scope Social Framework, click here.

* Four Scope Diagram