Final SROI Reports Published

I am pleased to present the full and final SROI reports for the Safe Consortia, Dot Art Services CIC, Safe Productions and Sefton Play Council. All reports and supporting documents are now available for download on the SROI Reports page.

SROI analysis shows how collaboration creates more social value than competition

One of the key goals of our project was to demonstrate the ‘added value’ that we believe our collaborative consortia approach creates. 

There has been a great deal of research into creative clusters, or networks, and models like the Local Multiplier (LM3) have been applied to assess the economic impact of organisations, but we found it difficult to find an accessible methodology that had been proven suitable for use in both the creative and social sectors; that could capture both financial and non-financial outcomes including social, cultural and environmental outcomes; and that could be used to demonstrate the ‘added value’ of a collaborative/consortia/cluster approach.

While it is not recommended that SROI ratios are used, in isolation, to compare different organisations, we felt that through developing a set of shared outcomes and proxy values, where this aligned with stakeholder perceptions and experiences, we could develop a methodological approach that would enable us to better understand, compare and contrast the impact created by different organisations within our network, enabling a more effective strategic planning function at the network or consortia level.

Crucially, this approach enabled us to balance the value of the overall outcomes achieved with the overall investments. Because the overall investments to the network were lower than the sum of the organisational investments, owing to the ‘flow’ of money between organisations,  we were able to demonstrate that through working together as a network, the overall SROI ratio was higher than had the organisations been working alone, essentially in a competitive rather than a collaborative manner.

The increase in ratio in our pilot study was small (around 3%) however we are confident that this small increase reflects the small sample size in terms of organisations and projects/services that were included in the final analysis (see post from 10 November 2013). Crucially, we have demonstrated that the SROI approach is capable of quantifying the ‘added value’ of collaborative working, and are confident that future analyses engaging more members and services will create increased levels of ‘added value’, strengthening our belief that collaboration, not competition, is a key strategic driver towards more effective, more productive and more sustainable enterprise, and ultimately towards a more sustainable economy.

Looking forward to sharing our learning with the Safe Productions Board of Directors

Just been preparing to present the key findings and recommendations of the CVEI project to the Safe Board of Directors at next week’s Board Meeting. It’s hard condensing 14 months of hard work into 15 minutes! (Note to self: leave out intricate workings of proxy values, attribution, deadweight and drop-off…)

One of the main things I think the process has taught us is that creation of social value needs to be at the forefront of our thinking as a board, that we need to understand how and where value is created within our organisation, for and with all of our stakeholders, even when this might challenge some of our pre-conceived ideas and perceptions. It’s only by understanding value creation through the eyes of our stakeholders that we can ensure our decisions, strategies, policies (and everything else) supports the creation of social value and reduces those factors that impede value creation.

Updated evaluation forms available

Some minor changes have been made to the evaluation forms. From now on please use the new forms available from the Evaluation Forms page. Thank you.

Final proofs completed…

Nearly there… !

Final drafts of the Safe Consortia SROI Reports have been sent to members for final checking and proofing. Hopefully they’ll be finalised within a week and published here soon after.

Excellent social returns predicted for Safe Productions Business and Enterprise Programme

Initial findings from an SROI analysis of Safe Productions’ services suggest that its Business Enterprise in Communities programme will achieve some fantastic social returns on investment, with more than £19 of social value created for every £1 invested in the programme.

Data suggest that the most value will be created for social enterprises and small business participants, who each co-create more than £48,000 of social value through their engagement with Safe, with 35 organisations benefiting from £1.7 million of social value. The most value for organisations is created through improvements to their financial performance and growth, followed by increased awareness and profile of the organisation, increased skills and capacity within the organisation, and improved range of goods and services provided.

As a group, adult participants are predicted to benefit from £517,010 of social value. On average, each participant receives £4,308 of social value. The most value for adult participants is created through moving into employment or starting a business, followed by improved general work and job-specific skills and increased confidence.

Volunteers benefit from £66,283 of social value creation, on average £6,628 per volunteer. Most value is created through volunteers moving into employment, with further value created in relation to gaining general work and job-specific skills as well as increases in confidence and health and wellbeing.

Further benefits are predicted for children and young people, communities, community groups and the State.

Overall, more than £9 of social returns are expected for every £1 invested in Safe Productions.

And then there were 3…

Sadly we have had to accept that the challenge of SROI has proved too much for some of our number. While it has been hard work for everyone involved in this project, I think it’s no coincidence that the only organisations to have completed the stakeholder engagement phase of the project are those with at least two workers… some of the smaller organisations have simply found it too difficult to commit the time and resources to this phase, despite much enthusiasm and dedication to the cause!

Obviously this will mean not every organisation will receive a full SROI report this year. We also expect this reduction in our number to lessen our ability to demonstrate the ‘added value’ of our collaborative / consortia approach, which was one of our key aims for the project, however we are still hopeful that we will be able to prove the concept that SROI is capable of demonstrating that ‘added value’, even if the value is not as great as we had hoped!

I hope that everyone has found the process useful even if you haven’t been able to complete the full analysis. We have definitely learnt from the process this year – we have already been discussing how we can make it easier for all members to fully complete the process next year. More of the stakeholder engagement will be undertaken by external associates – we will begin discussions and planning for this in the new year to ensure as many organisations are possible are fully involved.

Strong outcomes for children and young people at Sefton Play Council

Initial findings from an SROI analysis of Sefton Play Council suggest that the most value is created for children and young people, with 800 children and young people benefiting from £506,350 of social value. On average, each child and young person receives £633 of social value. The most value for young people is created through increased confidence, followed by improved relationships with family and peers, the development of fundamental movement skills and improved physical health.

As a group, families benefit from £222,918 of social value, with 400 families each co-creating around £557 of social value. The most value for families is created by improved confidence followed by improved family relationships.

Individually, volunteers receive the most social benefits, receiving on average £5,623 in social value. The most value for volunteers is created by moving into employment, followed by improved confidence, then improved physical health and improved general work skills.

Communities are also expected to benefit from around £3,508 of social value creation, through improved community cohesion.

Overall, for every £1 invested in Sefton Play Council, social returns of more than £6 are expected.

Strong value creation for Artists and Young People at Dot-Art Services CIC

Initial findings from an SROI analysis of Dot-Art Services CIC suggest that the organisation creates almost £1,000 of social value for and with each of its artist members. The most value for artists is created by building their industry and public profile, by increasing their confidence, and by increasing their revenue through new customers or sales.

Due to the large numbers involved, the most value is created for young people, with 1,500 young people benefiting from £349,613 of social value. On average, each young person receives £241.23 of social value. The most value for young people is created through enabling them to develop their own creative and artistic practice, by building their confidence and self esteem, and by improving their relationships with their families, as well as increasing understanding of careers opportunities in the arts and increasing the likelihood of selecting arts at options level. More value is created for young people who progress beyond the school-level activity into the inter-school level including the city centre public exhibition and awards ceremony.

As a group, schools benefit from £38,055 of social value creation, with 60 schools on average receiving £634 in social value for the school itself (rather than for its pupils). The most value for schools is created by improving their partnership working and by increasing their range of arts provision.

The initial analysis suggests that overall, Dot-Art Services CIC will create more than £11 of social value for every £1 invested.

New Evaluation Forms added to Resources Page

Fear not! The much anticipated new impact evaluation forms have arrived!!

Please visit the Resources Page to download the pdf of all forms. You can begin using these immediately with all participants, volunteers and other stakeholders.

As agreed there are 3 forms for individuals (adults) – one relating to Health and Wellbeing, one relating to Work and Employability, and one relating to Creativity. You may decide to use one or more of these with each adult you work with, depending on the nature of your work and the type of outcomes you’ve put in your impact map.

There is a separate form for Children and Young People, and another for Organisations/Businesses.

Please get these completed for each of your participants as soon as possible when they begin engaging with you, and again at the end of their time with you. If they are engaged with you for a long time (say a year or more) you might want to get one completed midway through their engagement, this is optional.

They have been designed to be as user-friendly as possible. Hopefully your participants will be able to complete them themselves, or with support with you.

There are a small number of personal details to complete at the top of each form eg. your organisation, your project/service, participant name/ID, their role (participant, volunteer etc.), date of completion. There is a space here to indicate if the form is being completed at the start / middle / end of their involvement with you.

I will send round a template shortly where you can input the data from the completed forms, in the short term I will collate it across the network and feed it into your Evaluative SROI reports next year. I will also provide project/organisation reports for you that you can use for reports to funders etc. In the long term we are looking at setting up an online system where this will be automated.

Please note this is a trial period, we would like to get feedback on the forms and the process of getting them completed, and will review them in a few months.

One last thing, if you don’t feel these forms are right for you then you are encouraged to use the questions that you think are most relevant to you, along with the 1-5 ratings scale – you can incorporate the questions into any other forms or systems that you already have, and we can extract the relevant data from them. Please try and keep the wording of the questions the same though, so it’s a fair comparison.

As always, if you’d like to discuss anything please let me know and we can have a chat on the phone whenever convenient.

Kerry