measuring the difference social return on investment adrian dewhurst

Measuring The Difference

Social Return On Investment

Adrian Dewhurst

OUTLINE FOR TODAY

• Overview of SROI Principles & Process• Impact Mapping• Stakeholders, outcomes & indicators• Financial Proxies• Calculating SROI

SROI: what it is

• A framework for measuring and accounting for value (rather than money)

• A cost benefit analysis tool • An outcomes measurement process• A story of change

SROI: what it isn’t!

• A kite mark• A fixed process• A guarantee of business

Misconceptions

1) SROI is all about the money2) SROI is always time consuming,

expensive and impossible without external support

3) Organisations or projects can be compared using the SROI ratio

4) SROI is just for the 3rd sector

SROI – The Process

Principles of SROI• Involve stakeholders• Understand what changes• Value the things that matter• Only include what is material• Do not overclaim• Be transparent• Verify the result

What funders want

For their INPUTS

Move away from OUTPUTS

Move to OUTCOMES

Your IMPACT – the CHANGE you have brought about

Establish Scope•Forecast OR Evaluation•Organisation or Service (Project)

Establish ScopeConsiderations

• Purpose of your SROI• Who / What is it for?• Why – Background to your decision• Who will undertake the SROI?• Focus?• Timescales for analysis

Stakeholders

• Beneficiaries• Families• Volunteers• Staff• Partner Organisations• Other service providers• Funders

• Better health• family relationship• Skills• Job Satisfaction• Improved service

delivery• Less pressure on

services• Achieving their aims

Intended/ Unintended Changes

• Outcomes are the changes brought about by the activities your organisation delivers

• It's about the effectiveness of what you do• Outcomes can be experienced by a range of

different stakeholders:• the individuals you work with• their family/support network• communities• the environment• public sector bodies

Outcomes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUrJ2xqcUHE

Exercise

• A Stakeholder– An input– An output– An Outcome– Impact – a value?

What is an Outcome?

• Developing Outcomes requires the “language of change”– The individual experiences improved health and

well-being

– The family experiences reduced stress

– The community experiences fewer incidents of ASB

– The environment benefits from restored wildlife habitats

– The public sector are better informed of user needs

Easy to Measure outcomes

Difficult to measure outcomes

Material to stakeholder  Can measure

Find ways to measure

Not material  Avoid temptation

to measureDon’t measure

Stakeholder Outcome Indicator

Person with mentalHealth problem

Improvementin mentalhealth

• Amount of time spentsocialising• Extent to whichparticipants engage innew activities• Level of use of mentalhealth services

Localcommunity

Improvedaccess to localservices

• Take-up of those services,and by whom

Person with physicalHealth problem

Improvedphysicalhealth

• Number of visits toGP surgery• Extent of improvements inhealth (self-reported)• How often they exercise

Woman offender Improvedfamilyrelationship

• Child continues living inthe family home

FINANCIAL PROXIES

Identify what it would cost to achieve a similar outcome

e.g increased confidence = cost of confidence training

Stakeholder Outcome Indicator Possible Proxies

Person with mentalHealth problem

Improvementin mentalhealth

• Amount of time spentsocialising• Extent to whichparticipants engage innew activities• Level of use of mentalhealth services

• Cost of membership of asocial club/network• Percentage of incomenormally spent on leisure,• Cost of counsellingsessions

Localcommunity

Improvedaccess to localservices

• Take-up of those services,and by whom

•Savings in time andtravel costs of being ableto access services locally

Person with physicalHealth problem

Improvedphysicalhealth

• Number of visits toGP surgery• Extent of improvements inhealth (self-reported)• How often they exercise

• Cost of visiting privateGP clinic• Cost of health insurance• Cost of gym membership

Woman offender Improvedfamilyrelationship

• Child continues living inthe family home

• Amount that parentsspend on their childrenannually• Value of time spent withchildren• Cost of childcare

Where do we find Proxies?

• VOIS Database – SROI Network• Unit costs of health & social care -

PSSRU• Family Spending Survey – office for

national statistics• Research

CALCULATING SROI “Reality Check”

• Deadweight - would the outcomes have happened any way? If so what %?

• Displacement – what activity did you displace?

• Attribution – what % of the outcome did others contribute to?

• Drop off – is the outcome worth the same in future years? By what % does it drop each year?

Impact Calculation

Impact=

OutcomesMINUS

Attribution, displacement and deadweight

SROI Calculation

Total Impact = SROITotal Input

SROI Network

Thesroinetwork.org

• VOIS Database

THANK YOU FOR TAKING PART

Contact

Adrian Dewhurst adrian.dewhurst@umbrella.uk.net

01332 521229