RSSB2630 - T1127 Creating a common framework of how rail can measure and understand its social impact value as a system

The GB rail industry has robust means to measure the economic value of rail, however, social sustainability still relies largely on narrative explanations and limited metrics.

While there has been much progress on understanding and targeting the social value of rail projects, the absence of a robust methodology and baseline to measure, monitor and evaluate social impacts has resulted in inconsistencies across industry and little trust in existing metrics.

This has made it challenging to assess the social return on investment (SROI) within the investment optioneering, planning and delivery of the railway.

Sustainability is becoming increasingly embedded within industry, as such, there is an increasing need to consistently and proportionally measure and monitor social impacts across the rail system.

Recent examples of social impact expectations include • South Western franchise Invitation to Tender (ITT) - Bidders required to 'develop a dashboard of metrics for Stations or groups of Stations that ... evidence improvements to ... meeting the community's needs'; • East Midlands Franchise Prospectus - Franchisees 'required to proactively develop meaningful relationships with the communities the franchise serves, working with stakeholders across the region to encourage greater social inclusion'; • Thameslink and Crossrail - Network Rail teams have been challenged to report on the social value delivered through the life of projects; This work package sets out to develop a common framework for understanding and measuring social value impacts across GB rail industry organisations, projects and programmes.

The common framework will • Build upon existing research to reduce the risk of duplicating existing work; • Be applicable across the whole life of franchises, projects and programmes; • Be scalable and useable across the GB rail industry.

In order to achieve this aim, this work package will • Undertake a literature review on existing frameworks to assess social value impacts, to include a mapping of o WebTAG o Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) Balanced Scorecard o Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Index o United Nations Millennium Development Goals o Crossrail Sustainability Programme o T1074 Developing a sustainable stations framework ; • Collate and analyse social impact data (metrics) from rail and other industries; • Review social value monetisation frameworks, tools and techniques used in other industries. • Develop (and trial) a framework that includes o List of relevant metrics for rail with appropriate measures/monetisation o Benchmarks of good practice o Guidance on decision making on metrics, implementation and measurement/monitoring