Social Value in the West Midlands: What the WMCA's Social Impact Statement Means for Skills and Apprenticeships

In June 2026 the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) published its Social Impact Statement, updated in August 2026, setting out how it intends to embed social and environmental impact into everything it does — from strategy and programme design to procurement and partnership working.

The statement is one of the clearest regional signals yet that social value is moving from a policy aspiration to an operating principle. For organisations delivering apprenticeships and skills programmes in the West Midlands, it is well worth reading in full on the WMCA website.

A foreword focused on who benefits from growth

In his foreword, WMCA Chief Executive Ed Cox argues that the region has long had the ingredients for success — talent, creativity, productive businesses and distinctive places — but that growth only matters if it improves people's lives and strengthens the places they call home.

The statement is explicit that social impact is not an additional layer of policy or a box-ticking exercise, but a more intelligent and deliberate use of the tools the Combined Authority already has.

Mission-driven, meaningful, measurable

Three principles underpin the WMCA's approach. Investment of every kind should be mission-driven, focused on the social and environmental missions in its Inclusive Growth Framework. Social and environmental considerations must be meaningful — embedded from the earliest stages of activity rather than retrofitted. And impact must be measurable, tracked through clear and proportionate quantitative and qualitative assessment.

That third principle — measurement — is where the statement connects most directly with the aims of the Apprenticeship Social Value Index.

Eight inclusive growth missions

The WMCA aligns its social impact work to eight fundamentals of inclusive growth: climate and environment, an inclusive economy, power and participation, affordable and safe places, connected communities, education and learning, health and wellbeing, and equality.

The statement also names priority groups, including care-experienced people, young people aged 16–24 who are not in education, employment or training, disabled people, children in their earliest years, and households living in temporary accommodation.

Four kinds of impact

The WMCA draws useful distinctions between four concepts. Social impact describes the life-changing effects of its actions on people, place and planet. Corporate social responsibility is about how the organisation itself operates. Social value concerns the wider benefits that procurement can deliver beyond the goods or services being purchased. Place-based philanthropy is the voluntary mobilisation of private and charitable resources for public good.

Within social value, the WMCA identifies three elements: contractual social value delivered through core contract delivery, organisational social value created through how an organisation operates and spends, and added social value — additional benefits beyond business as usual.

Notably, the WMCA's own examples of added social value include creating apprenticeships and local jobs. Apprenticeships are firmly on the regional social value agenda.

What the WMCA plans to do next

The statement closes with an action plan. Commitments include launching a new Social Value Policy with training and guidance for officers, a Community Investment Fund to maximise the social value delivered through WMCA procurements, and an Annual Social Impact Report to strengthen transparency and accountability.

The WMCA is also developing a West Midlands Good Work Charter to define what good work means for the region, building on its Thrive programmes, and is working with partners such as Big Issue Invest and the Office for the Impact Economy to grow the region's social impact economy.

Why this matters for apprenticeships

The direction of travel in the West Midlands mirrors the national picture: public bodies increasingly expect suppliers and partners to demonstrate measurable social outcomes, not just activity.

For employers and training providers in the region, apprenticeships are one of the most tangible ways to contribute to the WMCA's missions — particularly education and learning, an inclusive economy and equality. But contribution alone is not enough; the WMCA's emphasis on measurability means organisations will benefit from being able to evidence who accesses apprenticeships, who completes, and who progresses.

The Apprenticeship Social Value Index helps organisations do exactly that: measure, demonstrate and improve the social and economic value created through apprenticeships, in a way that aligns with frameworks such as the WMCA's Inclusive Growth Framework.

We encourage organisations across the region to read the WMCA's Social Impact Statement in full and to consider how their apprenticeship programmes can contribute to — and be evidenced within — this regional agenda.