Although the concept of social value is new to social policy (Jordan, Welfare and Well-Being: Social Value in Public Policy. Bristol: Policy Press, 2008), the problem of its reliable maintenance in economic and political relations has been present for the UK for at least five decades. The division in the working class through subsidisation of low wages meant that the interests of taxpayers and claimants of such support were antagonistic, and this undermined the capacity of governments to sustain policies for the common good (Jordan, The Common Good: Citizenship, Morality and Self-Interest. Oxford: Blackwell, 1986). Yet the concept of social value did enter the field of social policy through its adoption in legislation in 2011, and very widely by voluntary organisations thereafter, and finally by the NHS in the past few years.
The Genesis of the Social Value Problem