Social Return is an instrument where the government uses its purchasing power to create more social impact with the market. With the Social Return Growth Garden, Rijkswaterstaat, together with contractors, focuses on guiding people with a vulnerable position in the labor market to sustainable work.
The Growth Garden bridges the government procurement organization, contractors, 35 labor market regions, social enterprises, and candidates.
Enthusiasm About the Contract Model
Rijkswaterstaat has included a set of social return contract provisions in the GWW contract models, making the Growth Garden method uniformly requested. Bert-Jan Jonker, a senior infrastructure expert for the procurement domain of Civil Engineering, was involved in the creation of these contract models.
We had been looking for a proper implementation of social return in the contract for a long time, says Bert-Jan. We could include social return in the contract, but the background also needs to be well arranged so that contractors get a push in the right direction. With the arrival of the Growth Garden, that could be realized.
The Growth Garden gives that push by closely cooperating with labor market regions, the National Employee Insurance Agency (UWV), and the National Employers Service Point of Municipalities, and by evaluating the social return implementation by contractors. That evaluation is very valuable, continues Bert-Jan.
And with this evaluation and the ingredients at the back end, I went to the contractors and asked, can you live with this? They were actually immediately enthusiastic.
The Importance of Speaking the Same Language
One of those contractors was Mustafa Al Shabaki, Coordinator of the Social Return Office at the Dura Vermeer Group. As a sparring partner, he provided input from the contractors side. I am very happy with this development. It ensures that you, as a contractor and client, always discuss the implementation of social return.
And if you discuss this early, you can explore together whether the project lends itself to applying social return. Not every project is the same. In one project, you can ask for 1%, and in another project, 15%. So the sooner you talk to each other, the sooner you can see where it is possible to, for example, make a social purchase.
Because we now have contact persons who speak each others language, we can make it a realistic agreement. That helps in expectations, but also in applicability.
The Green Arch as an Example
An example where social return is well arranged is the Green Arch, the contractor combination working on the A16 Rotterdam project, which will connect the A16 at Terbregseplein junction with the A13 near Rotterdam airport. Eelco Negen is the project manager at the A16 Rotterdam Project: After the award, social return was implemented within the Green Arch. In the past five years, people have been employed through the social return program at the Green Arch during the projects realization. I have encountered various success stories in my role as project manager.
Not only have people found their place within the project, but they have also transitioned to other roles and thus found a lasting and sustainable work environment. All credits go to the people within the Green Arch who made this possible and filled it in professionally.
They showed commitment, and as a result, it works. By using social return within the Green Arch, we, as Rijkswaterstaat, have made an important social contribution. It shows that we do more than just build a new highway, and I am extremely proud of that!
More Information on Social Return
Through Social Return: Growth Garden, you can learn more about the Social Return Growth Garden or get in direct contact.