Social Audit

In 1981 Freer Spreckley wrote a book entitled Social Audit - A Management Tool for Co-operative Working published by Beechwood College in the UK. This was the first description of an organisational system for measuring social and environmental, as well as financial, performance. This book helped established the concept and practice of corporate organisations undertaking social responsibility assessments.

The basic methodology for organisational social auditing and accounting has not changed since that time. There are four standards, these are:

1. Planned and Actual Measurement is undertaken by setting indicators for each objective and using these to measure actual results against, which can be verified through an evidenced based audit trail.

2. External Stakeholder Involvement can be showed to have taken place through answering a set of questions AbOUT how the organisation operates, how it promotes itself, how it sources raw materials and how it processes and sells finished products/services. External stakeholders include customers/users and suppliers/supporters.

3. Internal Organisation Assessment including the type and structure of ownership and management organisation, staff status and perceptions, board members’ status, roles and responsibilities, and volunteers’ status and perceptions will have taken place.

4. Open Process and Documentation is available on request, to stakeholders. Social Audit processes and exercises are documented and saved, in a manner accessible and understandable to stakeholders, for a minimum of three years.

These standards are applied to the operational four elements:

Element One Governance Statement establishes clarity about the organisation: the principles and values, its objectives and commercial operations. The element includes a review of the constitutional aims and objectives, a review of the rule book and clarification of the main values that guide the operational management. Current practices and new areas for development are identified and objectives set for the following period.

Element Two External View and Stakeholders examines the organisation’s relations with a broad set of stakeholders and its social, environmental and commercial environment. The element includes stakeholder mapping, profiling and analysis, and an assessment of consistency between the Governance Statement and how current practice is carried out. This will identify strengths and weaknesses in current practice, new areas for development, and set objectives for the following period.

Element Three Internal View and Organisation examines the organisation’s structure and relations with its staff, board members and volunteers, and how it delivers its operations. The element includes an analysis of Roles and Tasks and a comparison with job descriptions and terms of reference for consistency. It will also test consistency with the Governance Statement. This procedure will identify strengths and weaknesses in current practice and new areas for development and set objectives for the following period.

Element Four Social Accounting and Verification measures planned and actual, the impact of objectives, and examines the consistency between the results of each element and determines the organisation’s degree of integrity. This final element brings together the Objectives set in the other elements, subjects them to a rigorous risk analysis and planning process and designs their implementation and monitoring for the next period. The process is reported on to stakeholders.

For a free copy of the Social Audit Toolkit please go to www.locallivelihoods.com Publications and download a PDF copy.