The County Durham Pound: driving social value and economic opportunity through regional partnership
County Durham is a diverse area spanning 862 square miles that over half a million people call home. As the region focuses on creating a future that is more equal and sustainable, local anchor institutions have recognised the profound link between good employment, economic stability, and long-term health. Large public sector and civic organisations, such as the local authority, housing providers, emergency services, and universities, possess immense collective buying power. By deliberately leveraging this scale through their procurement decisions and a shared commitment to social value, these institutions have a vital role to play in tackling regional inequalities and driving inclusive economic opportunity.
This case study explores how a collective of these local organisations formed the County Durham Pound, creating a highly engaging, place-based approach to community wealth building.
Background to the work: from crisis response to collective action
The idea for the initiative was sparked by the collaborative response that emerged in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the beginning, it was a group of anchor organisations based in County Durham that started working much more closely together out of necessity, predominantly to coordinate shared activities and to procure personal protective equipment.
After COVID the partnership expressed interest in deepening its collaboration by pursuing joint procurements. After some initial exploration, the partnership quickly realised that joint procurement was unworkable; the different anchor organisations were bound by varying national frameworks and regulations, making it challenging to buy goods and services as a single entity.
Anticipating the upcoming Procurement Act, the group decided to pivot their focus towards standardising their approach to social value. This presented an initial hurdle, as many of the partners were new to the concept of social value and lacked a consistent way to measure it. To ensure the initiative did not feel entirely council-led, the partners worked collaboratively to define shared objectives, eventually agreeing on core priorities such as creating more jobs for local people, supporting meaningful training, and prioritising better health and wellbeing.
Developing the model: localising social value
To turn these shared ambitions into measurable action, the partnership adopted the National TOMs framework, working with the Centre for Local Economic Strategies and the Social Value Portal to conduct a comprehensive local needs analysis. This research was crucial, as it allowed the network to generate thirty-six core measures tailored specifically to the needs of County Durham. Because the local needs analysis heavily highlighted the region's need for jobs and business investment, improving employability became the bedrock of the newly formed County Durham TOMs framework.
The partners committed to embedding these shared measures into their individual procurement processes, ensuring that whenever they tendered for services, suppliers were evaluated on how they could contribute to these specific local priorities.
Building a movement: branding and the Supporters Charter
A defining feature of the County Durham Pound is its approach to communication and identity. They invested in professional branding: designing a distinct logo, launching a dedicated website, and employing local media companies to produce high-quality video content. This approach successfully captured the attention of both the public and the private sector.
As interest grew, the network created an invitation-only Supporters Charter to engage private sector companies and voluntary organisations. To ensure the initiative avoided tokenism or ‘social-washing’, the County Durham Pound explicitly requires its supporters to produce an annual report detailing the social value they have delivered within Durham against the locally agreed measures.
By requiring businesses to evidence their impact, the network has successfully demystified social value, helping companies realise that employing local people or hiring from disadvantaged backgrounds is a measurable and highly valuable contribution to the region.
The impact of working in partnership
This unified, well-branded approach to social value has delivered remarkable results. In its first year, the partnership delivered £305 million in social and local economic value. This grew to an additional £340 million in year two, and by the end of year three, the initiative hit a milestone of £1 billion in independently validated community benefits.
The real-world impact of this is seen in the network's employment outcomes. Since inception, the network has achieved 46.1k weeks of apprenticeships, dedicated 18.8k hours to supporting unemployed people into work, and provided 2.3k weeks of Level 2 or higher training opportunities to locals.
Beyond traditional employment pathways, the strong brand identity of the Pound has enabled creative partnerships, such as an affiliation with the Newcastle Falcons rugby club. Through this partnership, the network is running community health and fitness programmes in local leisure centres, using these events to simultaneously deliver seminars on how to get into work.
Key learnings for others
Anchor collaboration in real local needs - for example by using data to pinpoint employability as a core issue - in order to give partners a tangible, shared mandate. This should be strengthened by listening to the needs of the community through engagement with the local VCSE sector and frontline staff in relevant areas (for example those working in employability, health, business support or community development).
Invest in branding and communication. By working with media professionals to tell real-life stories of impact, the network elevated its profile nationally and secured the engagement of global businesses like Amazon.
Share your success. Actively celebrating achievements and securing national recognition, such as awards from the Social Value Conference and the GO awards, significantly boost the network’s profile. This drives engagement from like-minded suppliers and private sector companies eager to invest in an ambitious region, continually growing the project’s impact for local business, VCSE and residents.
Dedicate resource. Managing a network of this scale is impossible to sustain purely on top of existing day jobs; Durham County Council acknowledged this and invested in new, dedicated roles, including a Social Value Officer and a Social Value Apprentice.
Be flexible. When initial plans for joint procurement failed, the partners adapted, finding a more effective shared mandate in social value. Similarly, as the network evolves, they have introduced flexible participation models, allowing organisations facing resource constraints to step down to a supporter role, while exploring associate membership options to accommodate organisations with different geographical boundaries, such as the local NHS Trust.
Looking ahead
Moving into its 2026 to 2030 strategy, the County Durham Pound is refining its focus to target three specific priorities: increasing employment support, boosting health and wellbeing initiatives, and maximising support for the voluntary sector. This targeted approach will allow the network to map programmes more effectively and further connect the community with local anchor institutions.
Ultimately, this strategic focus is paving the way for the Durham Promise, a comprehensive collaboration that will seamlessly integrate employability, the power of the pound, and community wealth building for the long-term benefit of the region.
To find out more about this initiative contact: countydurhampound@durham.gov.uk