A collaboration model where public buyers and suppliers are helping build real benefits from healthier, safer and more resilient communities...
Public buyers aligning social value from their suppliers: public contracting collaborating with communities to help suppliers support dual impact activities.
Suppliers no longer working in social value silos: businesses collaborating with the community providers to support activities already recognised for delivering dual impact.
Protecting vital dual impact activities from trusted community providers: converting contracted social value into sustainable resources to underpin charities and social enterprises providing vital activities delivering a dual impact.
The Dual Impact Collaboration Model (DICM)
Launched and piloted in 2023, DICM is a uniquely designed model created with senior public procurement leaders and hosted within our ecosystem.
Covering 45 territories of the UK, the DICM is operated through public contracting to provide the formal mechanism and support needed to nurture collaborations between public buyers, business suppliers and community providers; using public contracting to underpin the local activities delivering dual impact.
Primary Impact
Geographically connecting businesses into the programmes/services proven to be building healthier, safer and more resilient communities;
Secondary Impact
The primary impact leading-onto tangibly reducing the frontline costs of policing, healthcare, social services and criminal justice..
Not-For-Profit
100% of the social value generated by the DICM is collected by charities & social enterprises from businesses. There are no administration charges or hidden costs to be covered. The DICM is self-financed by the Pluggin Ecosystem and free of any profit.
A new support for public buyers to align supplier social value and underpin dual impact ...
The model aligns to the objectives of the Procurement Act and places public buying central to how community-led provisions are resourced long-term within the UK. It sets-out a level playing field for how social value reaches and sustains the local activities delivering a dual impact.
Public buying teams join the DICM within a territory free of any cost. This provides full ecosystem access, with support and processes in place to seamless support the buying and post-contract award processes.
Business members within our UK ecosystem are able to support the DICM within all 45 territories, public buyers are able to see HOW & WHERE each supplier intends to support/is actually supporting the delivery of dual impact within any territory.
Target!
Community-facing colleagues connect-in the locally-led activities already delivering a dual impact
Spotlight!
Our ecosystem helps digitally position these activities (dual impact) for suppliers to find and engage with.
Score!
The SPO supports contracting helping to score social value within tenders, pinpointing HOW & WHERE.
Contract!
Buyers contractually lock-in the SPO and the specifics of social value, formalising this commitment.
Real-time!
Ecosystem technology helps category management teams evaluate an SPO progress in real-time.
Shape!
Ongoing metrics are fed-into each territory's DICM collaborators, supporting internal and external ESG reporting.
Our ecosystem's Social Purchase Order (SPO) process
The SPO is a purpose designed digital process, hardwired into our ecosystem to enable business and public buyer members to formally link-into the local community provisions which are strategically embedded into the DICM within 45 UK territories.
A relationship mechanism, the SPO establishes the intent for and tracks progress of dual impact social value support agreed between a business and community provider(s). For buyers across a territory, it specifically signposts within our ecosystem to HOW & WHERE social value will be contributing towards the dual impact objectives of a provider a territory.
The SPO is submitted by a business as part of their social value statement within a bid for a supply contract, and becomes the tool buyers use to evaluate and score social value on bids against a dual impact objective.
The SPO only becomes a live document when a contract is awarded to the supplier, and is then embedded contractually for ongoing reviews.
Dual Impact Evidence...
Central to the DICM is evidencing the results through our ecosystem's independent longitudinal research structure within the UK.
Hubs regionally collect data, evaluating and then publishing the socioeconomic results.
Join the DICM in your territory
Public buyers join the DICM free from any charge, enjoying full access to the ecosystem as a Procurement Member.
Click the button below to arrange a discussion.
The DICM first launched into the Thames Valley region...
Thames Valley Police were instrumental in the creation and piloting of the DICM, the first of the UK 45 police buyers to see the long-term benefit of the DICM.
In 2024, 8 more police commissioning & procurement territories came into the DICM. In January 2025, the DICM opened to support all 45 police territories.
Within each territory, police are engaging strategically with their buyer colleagues in councils, NHS, fire and criminal justice service contracting.