Social Value UK

Tag: Social Investment

Is your workplace a fair place to work?

THE fairplace Award® COMES TO SOCIAL VALUE UK

What effect does the management of your workplace have on you, your colleagues and on all the other people in the building–including contractors’ staff you may never see? What positive contribution does your workplace make to the local community and the planet? What does your workplace say about your company’s values and ethics? So is your workplace a fair place to work?

Newest Social Value UK organisational member the Ethical Property Foundation is a registered UK charity dedicated to promoting its vision that buildings should be managed for the benefit of people and planet, not just profit.The Foundation’s accreditation the fairplace Award® has been developed in partnership with the property industry, civil society and CSR profession. It is a rigorous transformational process which evidences an organisation’s commitment to people in the workplace, the community outside its front doors and the environment, in a single comprehensive measure of excellence. Each Award lasts 3 years, assessed by top property professionals and providing recommendations for improvement.

The fairplace Award® is also a great business improvement tool, because it brings together colleagues from across the business, gathering evidence and sharing ideas. Current award-holders include the workplaces of RICS, Sodexo, RBS, EMCOR UK and leading aid charity CAFOD.

“ It’s a tranformatonal process, Fairplace is the opposite of a box ticking exercise – to gain the award you need to look carefully at actual on the ground practices, not just policies. We have all learned a lot at RBS. We’d recommend any business to go for fairplace.”
Mike Lynch, Sustainable Workplaces department at RBS

Now for the good news. The Ethical Property Foundation is offering a 25% reduction on fairplace Award® licence fees to all current Social Value UK member and associates who apply for their work place before 1 July 2018.

The Ethical Property Foundation is delighted to be part of Social Value UK and wants to hear from you – kindred spirits who already understand the power and potential of social value for your business. The fairplace process helps you capture how you create this in your workplace – and indeed by encouraging your suppliers to apply for fairplace too, you can ensure they are also offering their people a fair place to work. More good news is that all fairplace income is ploughed back into the Foundation’s charitable work: supplying free property education and advice to local small voluntary groups. To date the Ethical Property Foundation has supported 3500+ organisations and is currently sole referral partner to the Charity Commission for land & property advice.

So, put your workplace ethics to the test and apply for your fairplace Award® today! For more information contact mail@ethicalproperty.org.uk. Full details on the website www.fairplaceaward.com

Press Contacts

Ethical Property Foundation

mail@ethicalproperty.org.u

Social Value UK

Christina Berry-Moorcroft, Membership and Communications Coordinator, Social Value UK

E: christina.moorcroft@sv-test.wp-support.team T: 0151 703 9229

About Ethical Property Foundation

The Foundation works specifically to empower charities and community groups to make the most of the property they occupy and manage, and to improve the environmental and social performance of the commercial property sector. The Foundation is part of the wider Ethical Property Family which includes the Ethical Property Company and Ethical Property Europe. The Ethical Property family is committed to making the best use of property for society and the environment. We work to define what Ethical Property means, to demonstrate it in action and inspire others to put it into practice.

About Social Value UK

Social Value UK is the national network for anyone interested in social value and social impact. We work with our members to increase the accounting, measuring and maximising of social value from the perspective of those affected by an organisation’s activities, through our Social Value Principles. We believe in a world where a broader definition of value will change decision making and ultimately decrease inequality and environmental degradation. To achieve our mission, Social Value UK provides training and assurance services, as well as hosting regular meetings and events, creating new tools and resources, and running campaigns. Through supporting and working with our members, and as a National Member Network of Social Value International, we are creating an international movement for change.

28/06/2017
Social Value Videos

Social value is the quantification of the relative importance that people place on the changes they experience in their lives. Some, but not all of this value is captured in market prices. It is important to consider and measure this social value from the perspective of those affected by an organisation’s work. Examples of social value might be the value we experience from increasing our confidence, or from living next to a community park. These things are important to us, but are not commonly expressed or measured in the same way that financial value is. At Social Value UK, we believe that social value has a huge potential to help us change the way we understand the world around us, and make decisions about where to invest resources. By changing the way we account for value, we believe that we will end up with a world with more equality and a more sustainable environment.

Recently we have began sharing interesting and inspiring talks and presentations that relate to the Principles of Social Value, and our mission to improve equality and reduce environmental degradation. These videos span interests, sectors and topics but they’re all under 20 minutes and should be added to your “to watch” list. We have been sharing these videos on Twitter using the hashtag #socvalvid and will continue to do so in the weeks to come, so keep an eye out each Monday and Friday! Please search the hashtag for an enjoyable and informative afternoon distraction and share your own finds using #socvalvid.

We have included a talk to get you started below, let us know your thoughts in the comments.

You might not expect the chief operating officer of a major global corporation to look too far beyond either the balance sheet or the bottom line. But Harish Manwani, COO of Unilever, makes a passionate argument that doing so to include value, purpose and sustainability in top-level decision-making is not just savvy, it’s the only way to run a 21st century business responsibly.

19/06/2017
£500,000 awarded as part of Impact Management Programme
The Impact Management Programme announces the first grantees of its Impact for Growth strand. Eleven charities and social enterprises will receive grants totalling almost £500,000 to improve their impact management systems and processes. Grantees will work with an approved provider who will support the project and help embed impact management into the organisation. This pilot grant round will be followed by approximately 30 more grants to be distributed from January 2018.

The Impact Management Project (ran by a cohort of organisations, including Social Value UK) announces today the eleven organisations, based across England and delivering a number of different services, that will receive almost £500,000 in grant funding through the Impact for Growth strand. This supports charities and social enterprises that are seeking to raise investments or contracts to improve their ability to quantify, report on, increase and ‘get paid for’ their impact.

The first grantees and the providers they are working with (in parentheses) are:
- Mencap Liverpool (Eastside Primetimers)
- YMCA North Tyneside (Helmepark)
- Empire Fighting Chance (Good Economy Partnership)
- Chiltern Rangers CIC (Eastside Primetimers)
- Speakers Trust Ltd (CAN Invest)
- Action West London (Aleron)
- London Irish Centre (Aleron)
- Noise Solution Ltd (Measuring + Managing the Good: Volunteering Matters, Coalition for Efficiency and DataKind UK)
- Dementia Care (ATQ Consultants)
- Murray Hall Community Trust (Cogent Ventures)
- Legacy School Sport CIC (Pulse Regeneration)
77 organisations who attended the pre-application impact management training were eligible to apply for a grant at this pilot stage and 30 submitted applications. This was shortlisted to 20 by our grant administration partner Social Investment Business and then the final decisions were made by our Investment & Commissioning Panel, chaired by Rob Abercrombie.

“We were impressed with the range of applications we received and appreciate the engagement we have had from both the social organisations and the support providers they are working with. It was clear from the applications that charities and social enterprises are operating in a tough environment, so it is more important than ever to support organisations to achieve a positive impact and access the funding they need to do this effectively. We are excited to see how these funded projects develop and what it tells us about the link between improved impact management and securing an investment or contract. Our grantees will be encouraged to share their experiences and we will publish our learning for the benefit of the whole sector too.”
Rob Abercrombie, Director of Research & Consulting at NPC

This pilot grant round will be followed by approximately 30 more grants to be distributed from January 2018. To apply, eligible charities and social enterprises must first attend a free one day impact management training session. These session will be held September to November 2017 and full details will be available on the programme website soon. We are also currently recruiting further providers to be involved and the deadline for provider applications is midday 30 June 2017.
16/06/2017
Impact Reports – Must Haves!

Ten things you should be looking for when reading an impact report. A blog by Christina Berry-Moorcroft, Social Value UK Communications and Membership Coordinator.

Here at Social Value UK we are incredibly proud of our Reports Database, at last count it had nearly 700 reports relating to social value in there for you to peruse and learn from. The reports database is made up of SROI reports, assured and non-assured, social impact reports and cost benefit analysis reports. So whatever sector you work in, whatever level of riguer you’re working at and whatever you need examples of, you can find it in one place. But, what if you’re not sure what you’re looking for, or at? We know that many people like to read impact reports before setting off on their own, so to make the process easier we’ve compiled a handy list of ten things you should be looking for. We hope it helps!

What is it for?
What is the report you are reading for? Who’s the intended audience? What are they hoping to communicate and/or achieve with this report? If this is immediately clear, then great, keep this in mind throughout the rest of the report. If it isn’t, then this may not be the end of the transparency issues…

What has and has not been included?
Have the authors been completely transparent about what has and hasn’t been included? Have they also explained how they came to their decisions about what was and was not material? At this point, it’s also wise to check that the report uses enough data, that it’s representative and that the authors have considered all possible biases. If a report isn’t inclusive of all of these things then there’s a fear the authors of the report are over-claiming, meaning they may be claiming the value of activities they were not a part of creating.

Is this an output or outcome?

What’s an outcome? What’s an output? What’s the difference? This can all too often be confused when people start measuring their impact but it’s vital that we aren’t claiming outputs as outcomes if we are to avoid over claiming. An output is a way of describing the activity in relation to each stakeholder’s inputs in quantitative terms, for example the staff who work on the project or the hours a volunteer put into the project. Outcomes are the changes resulting from an activity. The main types of change from the perspective of stakeholders are unintended (unexpected) and intended (expected), but more on that later. For now, ask yourself, has the report you’re reading made clear the difference between outputs and outcomes? We have produced some supplementary guidance on well-defined outcomes that will help.

Who decides what?
The Principles of Social Value provide the basic building blocks for anyone who wants to make decisions that take this wider definition of value into account, in order to increase equality, improve wellbeing and increase environmental sustainability. The first principle is the underpinning for all of the following six, and one that you must not forget when reading or writing an impact report! Principle One is Involve Stakeholders and we define stakeholders as people, organisations or entities that experience change, whether positive or negative, as a result of the activity that is being analysed. Were stakeholders involved? And importantly, were they involved in identifying and valuing outcomes? No two outcomes are equal to stakeholders, have the authors shown how they decided which outcomes were more valuable?

What about stakeholder segmentation?
Unless the only people impacted by your activities are the exact same in every way: age, gender, socio-economic status, health, relationship status, family set-up, and so on, and that’s highly unlikely, then not including stakeholder segmentation is a massive flaw. Segmentation is the process of looking at different groups of stakeholders, based on anything that makes them different from another group of stakeholders. Each type of stakeholder will have different outcomes, and indeed different valuations for those outcomes, and if the report you are reading hasn’t taken that into account then they could be over-claiming!

Is it all positive impacts?
The report you’re reading may be full of positive impacts, in fact we hope it is, we fully believe that measuring and maximising social value will lead to a more equal, more just and more sustainable planet for us all. However, every project, despite how great it’s theory of change is, will have negative impacts, it’s unavoidable. So has the report you’re looking at made allowances for that? Have they asked stakeholders what those were? Have they put measures in place to reduce these? Are they improving their work next time based on this? These are all questions you should be looking for the answers to when reading an impact report.

And what about the change we didn’t mean to cause?
Much like with point four, another key thing to look out for is whether the report lists the unintended outcomes of the project. If a report just states the intended outcomes, then they have only looked at, and asked stakeholders about the project objectives. This doesn’t give a full overview of the project, could be neglecting significant impact and is stunting future project improvement based on impact data. Examples of intended outcomes could be increased confidence, a secure job or reduced isolation, whereas as an unintended outcome could be that attendees on a course suffer a reduction in self worth for not doing as well as their classmates. That’s not to say that unintended outcomes are always negative, organisations often create lots of social value that they aren’t accounting for, listing unintended outcomes makes sure this isn’t happening and allows for project design based on all of the information.

How much of this change can they claim?
So the authors of the report have considered all of the outcomes, based on the opinions of their segmented stakeholders, they’ve looked at intended and unintended outcomes and considered both positive and negative change, that’s all right? Well, not quite. In order to not overclaim (Principle 5) and be transparent (Principle 6) then the authors should have also calculated the likelihood of what would have happened to the stakeholders anyway, without their action and what other actors (organisations, people, interventions) may have played a part in the change experienced by a stakeholder. We call this considering the counterfactual and attribution. If 100% of a change is claimed it’s not only not true, it’s a little foolish and means the author is over-claiming, which means their project isn’t as successful as they claim it is, which means they are missing valuable opportunities to make it better!

Is this important?
Have the authors of this report demonstrated that they undertook a process of determining what information and evidence must be included in the accounts to give a true and fair picture? Some information is important is material and some is not, has this been considered? Enough information should be included so that stakeholders can draw reasonable conclusions about impact. On top of this, has the information been ranked with relative importance, and importantly, were stakeholders consulted on this?

Can I trust this logic?
One thing to consistently consider with impact reports is transparency (Principle 6), authors of impact reports should demonstrate the basis on which the analysis may be considered accurate and honest, and show that it will be reported to and discussed with stakeholders. Have they? And finally, but crucially, have they sought independent assurance of their impact data, assumptions and reports? Verifying the result (Principle 7) is crucial, and shows a mark of quality. You can search our Reports Database for only assured reports, to ensure you are reading reports that have met the standards we require, and find information on the assurance and accreditation services we offer on our website.

For further information on conducting social value measurement please see ‘The Guide to SROI’ and supplementary guidance. We offer a range of support services, including mentoring, that can support you further.

What are your top tips for reading, or writing impact reports? Do you have advice for other community members? We would love to hear your thoughts!

12/06/2017
Social Value Matters 2017
Today Ben Carpenter, Operations Manager, Social Value UK shares updates from Social Value Matters 2017.

On the 10th-11th April Social Value International (SVI) teamed up with Turkish member Koç University Social Impact Forum (KUSIF) to deliver their annual conference; “Social Value Matters” in Istanbul. This year the conference title Social Value Matters (SVM17) carried the tag line “More Than Ever”. The backdrop being a world with rising inequality and a collective feeling that we must all act now and quickly to reverse this trend. The conference had a distinct emphasis on Maximising Social Value and Amplifying Stakeholder Voices; empowering the views of the vulnerable – the very people that many of us are providing service or products for. How can we make sure that we are maximising the value we create for these people? I was delighted to see that these themes ran deeply through all the sessions I attended.

This was the third SVI conference I have attended and each one leaves me feeling motivated and inspired. They bring together talented professionals from diverse spheres – united in their desire to see social impact information being used to inform decision making and make the world a better place. SVM17 was no exception; over 250 delegates came from over 25 countries representing the public sector, private sector, academia and civil society. Cross cutting these sectors there were investors, delivery organisations and advisors. Throw in the stunning setting of Koç University overlooking the banks of the Bosphorus and it’s a heady mix.

“It’s great to have so many people from all over the world working together to improve the way in which managing impact can reduce inequality.”

Jeremy Nicholls, CEO Social Value UK and Social Value International

The format of Social Value Matters was extremely participatory – there were no lectures or ‘expert panels’, instead there was always several workshop options, interactive in their delivery and the majority of the conference consisted of small roundtable discussions. Plenary sessions were kept to a minimum with high quality keynote speeches to start both days and then delegates taking to the stage with an open mic session to reflect and summarise at the close of each day (with a live jazz sound-track too!). You can check out some conference highlights and the conversations attendees were having on social media on this STORIFY.

What I personally learned from the conference?

The one thing that struck me was that, we should all (regularly) take a step back and ask ourselves why we are collecting this information about social value in the first place? The answer is surely: “So that we can maximise the social value we create”. So, rather than focussing on the measurement of impact as an exercise in itself – and getting caught up in the complexities of ‘empirical evidence’ or ‘formative evaluation’ – we should focus on collecting the information we need to improve our products and services. Or, in the case of investors/governance; “Is that organisation collecting the information it needs to improve it’s products or services?”

I have written before about an emerging shift from impact measurement to maximising impact. This conference reaffirmed that it is definitely time to stop nit-picking about methodologies or metrics. More important is creating an organisational culture of listening to stakeholders and responding which means designing services or products to meet their preferences. This involves all of the complex and geeky things we love to discuss and are necessary to practice (such as stakeholder involvement, valuation techniques, counterfactual, materiality) but doing it proportionately and with a clear raison d’etre: to maximise the social value of our activities.

As our conversations shift more towards ‘managing impact’ and ‘maximising value’ there are more references to subjects such as ‘design thinking’, ‘social innovation’ and ‘customer profiling techniques’. These are exciting topics and practices – arguably more exciting than ‘measurement’ and ‘accounting’ (but ssshh don’t tell the accountants I said that!). The truth is, accountability and maximising value are two sides of the same coin; if you are being accountable to your stakeholders then you are relentlessly innovating to provide the best services for them. I can’t wait to bring in more experts from these fields to help develop our movement!

What happens next, ACTIONS?
- SVI will soon be publishing some write-ups of all workshops and roundtables, many of which have some clear actions for the community moving forward.
- We will be analysing feedback from the conference that will give us a NPS and some qualitative data on what impact the conference has had on attendees!
- SVI will be launching a campaign for maximising value, which was also a need highlighted by SVI’s annual survey
- The turkish chapter of Social Value International was officially launched at the conference and we expect more national networks to emerge or continue to grow. If you would like to join a national network or form one please contact SVI.
We hope all attendees and also people who couldn’t attend can stay in touch using Social Value International social media.

Join the movement, by becoming a member today, and see you next year!
17/05/2017
Social Value and Procurement

This is a guest blog by organisational members HACT on social value and procurement. This is part of the Member Exchange Series. Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

HACT launches toolkit

Housing associations have long been committed to improving the communities they work in, providing opportunities for residents in the form of employment, training, skills and broader health and wellbeing activity. As community investment budgets are increasingly scrutinised, housing providers will look to core activities to drive social value. Procurement is central to this, but established models – heavily reliant on apprenticeships – are unsuitable for all contracts, nor are housing associations satisfied that the social value promised at tender stage is monitored or measured to validate delivery. Likewise, contractors committed to delivering social value are often uncertain what housing providers wanted – how is ‘social value’ defined, and what outcomes are of most interest?

To address this, the Social Value and Procurement toolkit was created by HACT, supported by Trowers & Hamlins LLP and echelon Consultancy Ltd. To ensure the final guidance responded to challenges and answered critical questions, we convened a working group of housing providers and supply chain organisations (Affinity Sutton, North Hertfordshire Homes, Riverside, Thrive, Wandle, Mulalley, AkzoNobel, United Living, Wates and the Northern Housing Consortium). This vanguard supported and shaped the development of the toolkit, ensuring it was relevant, practical and easily applicable.

The toolkit provides end-to-end guidance for both housing providers and contractors on how to most effectively and efficiently generate social value through the procurement process, alongside legal guidance and a plethora of practical tools, from example wording for tenders and contracts to templates and checklists.

What next?

With the toolkit now published, what’s next? There are four areas we’ll be focusing on:

First, and testament to the toolkit’s usefulness, beyond the original supporters a good number of further organisations have adopted it: Catalyst, Circle (now part of Clarion Group), Fusion 21, Genesis, Liverpool Mutual homes, mhs Homes, Places for People, Viridian, Keepmoat and Mitie.

Second, HACT is delighted to have these organisations on board and we are continuing to promote the role of procurement in generating social value. HACT staff have taken part in a number of events recently, and we were delighted to be invited to speak with members of Social Value UK at the 2016 Social Value Members Exchange. Additionally, HACT has hosted a series of well attended masterclasses for contractors and housing providers, which will continue in 2017.

Third, although much of the previous engagement on social value and procurement has been around repairs and maintenance, following publication there has been significant interest in applying the toolkit to a wider range of goods and services. Further, a number of exciting discussions are underway, exploring opportunities for implementing the toolkit beyond housing. These avenues of further work offer great potential to begin firmly embedding social value across a range of housing and non-housing procurements.

Lastly, over the next year HACT will continue working with organisations, individually and collectively, promoting the importance of effectively delivering social value through procurement, providing packages of support to unlock the full potential for social value generation.

Want more information? Contact rob.allen@hact.org.uk or william.howard@hact.org.uk.

13/02/2017
The Kent Impact Model: measuring the impact of AgeUKs in Kent
This is a guest blog by organisational members Sinzer, on their work with members Aleron. This is a case study about impact management. This is part of the Member Exchange Series. Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

During the Social Value Members Exchange 2016 in Birmingham last November, Aleron and Sinzer jointly presented the Kent Impact model, an impact framework developed on the Sinzer software platform to help AgeUKs in Kent (part of AgeUK, the largest UK charity delivering services to the elderly) measure and manage the impact of their work, across their near 20 member organisations. Aleron, a social impact consultancy based in London, partnered with AgeUK Kent’s consortium early in 2015 to help the consortium change the way outcomes and impact were recorded across all members. In order to do this, Aleron helped AgeUKs in Kent draft a Theory of Change as well as data collection model, and piloted this in paper-based form.

Using the Sinzer software platform

A specific request of AgeUKs Kent however was to operationalize the model by means of an IT system, in order to make data collection and measurement more consistent, as well as access aggregation and benchmarking options. This need led Aleron and AgeUKs Kent to partner with Sinzer in early 2016, an Amsterdam based organisation offering software solutions for social impact measurement and management. Sinzer’s software platform can be used to develop bespoke impact frameworks, collect data via online surveys, view results in a dashboard and export impact reports.

Currently, the Kent impact model has been “digitalized” on the Sinzer software platform and has been tested in a few training sessions. Staff and other users have been trained and instructions materials have been delivered. Front line staff in each one of AgeUKs Kent member organisations will soon start using Sinzer to collect data by surveying elderly people that visit the locations, over three measurement points in time. Collected data can be analysed on individual client level as well as per each AgeUKs Kent location by using Sinzer’s dynamic dashboard and ‘slice and dice’ functionalities. Moreover, data collected from all locations can be analysed and visualised in an aggregation dashboard, which can also be used to benchmark the different AgeUK’s locations.

Lessons learnt

The Kent Impact Model (KIM) provides AgeUKs Kent with a better understanding of clients and service delivery through more robust evidence, as well as providing the ability to show something tangible: not just a process change, but a mindset change supported by a specific software tool.

Some of the immediate benefits include:
- Real understanding of impact across the Network
- Common guidelines/training standards
- Having a county-wide view for the first time
- Commissioners onboard
- Data will feed into contract bids and research projects
- Development process built consensus and started indirect conversations around service design and ‘what works’
Next steps for KIM

Recognizing that measuring impact is an iterative process, possible next steps for KIM could include:
- Linking in control groups
- Integration with CCG datasets, via NHS numbers
- Data analytics capacity building
- Introducing the tool to non-Kent AgeUK Networks and non-AgeUK organisations.
Interested in learning more, or want to know what the KIM looks like in the Sinzer software? Download the case study here.

Using software for standardisation and aggregation of impact data:

Besides showcasing the Kent Impact Model during SVMX16, Sinzer also hosted a round-table on standardisation and aggregation of impact data. During this round-table Sinzer demonstrated an impact measurement template for Inclusive Businesses, which has recently been developed on the Sinzer software platform.

The Sinzer software platform is an IT system that organisations can use to measure and manage social impact. The platform allows for the creation of standardised ‘impact templates’ for a certain sector or domain: ‘blueprints’ in which certain elements (e.g. indicators) are pre-filled. These templates can be used to measure the impact of multiple projects, programmes or organisations, thereby ensuring a consistent way of measuring. Moreover, projects or organisations using the same template can benchmark their data, as well as aggregated the data of all of these organisations to gain insight into the total impact of these organisations.

Following a project Sinzer undertook for BoP Incubator last year, a Dutch organisation delivering business development services to businesses that operate in the Base of the Pyramid, Sinzer has now build on this work by developing a template to measure impact for Inclusive Businesses.

The template includes indicators from IFC, IRIS, UN and other sources, and aims to provide a starting point for any organisation that is an Inclusive Business or invest in them. The emphasis here is on the word ‘starting point’. Recognisably, not all IBs are the same or operate in the same contexts, which means not all indicators can be standardised. When using a template in the Sinzer tool therefore, organisations can choose which template indicators are relevant (and delete the ones that aren’t), as well as add their own organisation or context specific ones to tailor the measurement to their situation.

Want to learn more about the IB template, or templates and the Sinzer platform in general? Read the IB case study or contact Sinzer.

This is part of the Members Exchange Series, for more information, see here.
23/01/2017
Impact Management – A Matter for the Board!

This is a guest blog by member Jim Brooks, Director of Cogent Ventures on why impact management and social value maximisation needs to be addressed by the board. This is part of the Member Exchange Series. Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Imagine this scenario:

You are the Chair of a charity or social business discussing next years annual cycle of business with other board members. It’s a full on cycle so you suggest that finance should be removed from the monthly agenda to free up time. This is done on the basis that we all know how important financial performance is and anyway, we have all the right policies and procedures in place in any case. You would probably get some odd looks and comments such as “you’re kidding right?”. Most would actually be thinking that its time to get a new Chair because this current one has lost the plot. In short, everyone knows how important financial governance is and quite rightly it has a place as a regular item on the agenda.

So why, I ask, is it perfectly ok for impact management not to be a standing agenda item for boards. Surely we can’t rely on the same “we all know how important it is” argument, can we? But this is exactly what i do hear when talking with people from the social enterprise and charity sector! Whats more as I increasingly raise the subject I tend to get answers such as. “impact is implied, its why we are here” or “impact in our DNA” or even “we report outcomes in the annual report”. However, most people I talk to quickly realise that of course impact management should be on the agenda and then together we ponder why the heck it is not.

Let me be clear

Let me be clear about what having impact on the board agenda means. I’m talking about impact strategy, impact reporting and impact performance improvement, in that order. Firstly, the board should be involved in setting the impact strategy, by which I mean the development of the theory of change that leads to the outcomes for beneficiaries and other stakeholders. This way the board are fully attuned to what it is that the organisation does and how this leads to social impact. Once targets have been set the board should review performance against the targets and clearly this needs to happen regularly, in the same way that management accounts are reviewed by the board. Finally, and possibly most importantly, the board then have an opportunity to engage with the management team in impact performance improvement, whether that be to address poor impact performance or to learn from good performance.

Think about why you won’t be taking finance off the agenda and then apply the same arguments to impact

None of the above means that having impact management as a regular item needs to be an onerous task and it may not always require a great deal of time. On the occasions where impact strategy is discussed and agreed it may be a fairly lengthy agenda item, similarly when performance improvement is being discussed. There will, however, be times through the year where the slot could be helpfully used for hearing impact related case studies for example. These sessions are likely to take less time but are just as important as they ensure board members remain grounded in the work that the organisation does.

It will, of course, be for individual chairs reading this to decide if impact needs to be a stand alone agenda item as opposed to being inherent in other standing items. To these people I say think about why you won’t be taking finance off the agenda and then apply the same arguments to impact.

This is part of the Members Exchange Series, for more information, see here.

16/01/2017
Leaders in sustainable development join Social Value UK

Professor Erik Bichard and Phil Higham have joined Social Value UK/Social Value International as organisational members following the launch of their company RealWorth. The company primarily values the social and environmental change of built environment projects, programmes and investments. They have wide set client groups ranging from developers and investors in property, through to membership bodies and local authorities, social landlords and place-making social enterprises. Their approach is based on the use of multiple social, material and ecological valuation methods, and is underpinned by the pair’s long association with the development and construction community.

Erik is based in Liverpool and developed the methods employed by RealWorth while working as a Professor of Regeneration and Sustainable Development. As an individual member he was invited onto the Social Value UK Council and also serves on the Social Value International Methodology Sub-Committee. He is a former executive director of the UK National Centre for Business and Sustainability and a Trustee of the social enterprise the FRC Group. Erik said: “while conventional methods of valuation used by built environment professionals mainly focus on the market-based and the physical, RealWorth puts a value on the social and environmental changes experienced by people who are the most affected by development decisions”.

Phil, a Manchester-based chartered surveyor, has had a full and varied career in international development and leadership roles at companies including Laing O’Rourke and Rider Levett Bucknall. Phil said “we have always thought that society in general, and the built environment industry in particular, fails to value the importance of social and environmental factors when making decisions that affect people’s lives. Our business has been created to redress this shortfall.”

The company has secured a contract with an innovative social enterprise in Pittsburgh that empowers local people to improve the environmental conditions of their underinvested neighbourhoods and is in the final stages of negotiations to be appointed a key advisor to one of the largest mixed use development schemes in the north of England.

News of RealWorth’s innovative approach has also spread to Malmo and Vienna where Professor Bichard has spoken of the need to value things differently to avoid further division in society.

For more information see the RealWorth website.

RealWorth will also be taking a lead on the Social Value UK ‘Social Value in the Built Environment’ working group, which will launch in the new year. We are very excited about this, for more information or to request to join, visit our Working Groups list.

Press Contacts

Real Worth

E: askus@realworth.org T: +44 (0)20 7193 7235

Christina Berry-Moorcroft, Membership and Communications Coordinator, Social Value UK

E: christina.moorcroft@sv-test.wp-support.team T: 0151 703 9229

About RealWorth

RealWorth is a consultancy that represents a unique blend of skills combining academic and commercial expertise to help our clients to create better and more sustainable outcomes for their organisations and wider society.

About Social Value UK

Social Value UK is the national network for anyone interested in social value and social impact. We work with our members to increase the accounting, measuring and maximising of social value from the perspective of those affected by an organisation’s activities, through our Social Value Principles. We believe in a world where a broader definition of value will change decision making and ultimately decrease inequality and environmental degradation. To achieve our mission, Social Value UK provides training and assurance services, as well as hosting regular meetings and events, creating new tools and resources, and running campaigns. Through supporting and working with our members, and as a National Member Network of Social Value International, we are creating an international movement for change.

22/11/2016
Impact management is a state of mind!

This is a blog by Ben Carpenter, Operations Manager, Social Value UK.

There’s a slight change in the air… You may have heard it whispered on the grapevines… “Impact Management” is the phrase on everyone’s lips. No longer are people talking about impact measurement. Now, the word on the street is ‘impact management’! Now this may seem like a very subtle change and perhaps not one that warrants a blog. However, I do want to pick up on this nuance in language. I do think it’s worth a blog and I do think I’m justified in feeling quite excited about it. I want to share with you why this could be the start of a significant shift in thinking and practice for the social sector.

Look up measurement in the dictionary and it’s defined as “the act of measuring something”; “the size, length, or amount of something”; and; “a unit or system of measuring”. That sounds about right. For years we’ve all been fixated on the measurement of social impact. Is this the right way to measure an ‘outcome’? What’s the best tool/system for measuring this outcome? Look how much impact we’ve had this year?!

In truth, when I walk into a room and say “Impact measurement” people’s eyes roll, there are groans or if I’m lucky perhaps a polite resigned sigh. “Yes we do it.” But ‘it’ has become a chore, in many instances; measurement is seen as something that has to be done. It’s part of the charade of proving impact to ensure funding continues. For so many; ‘measurement’ and collecting information has become an onerous and often meaningless task.

What difference will a shift in language make?

So why am I excited that swapping measurement for management will be any different? Back to the dictionary… Management is defined as “The process of dealing with or controlling things”. Whilst I don’t love the word ‘control’, this immediately sounds much more practical and worthwhile. No longer are we measuring for the sake of measuring. Management to me means ‘making decisions’ and let’s throw in another M word: maximising a situation. So perhaps the new questions will be: ‘how can we have more impact?’ or ‘are we creating the most impact we can with the resources we have?’

If I walk into a room and say words like ‘agile’, ‘iterative design process’ and (wait for it…) ‘pivot’ people’s eyes light up! (OK it helps if the room is full of ‘lean start up’ types or those who are comfortable with a culture of change). The lean start up movement is all about using information to make decisions about design. Let’s build something, collect information to see if this is working, learn from it and re-design. If you read Eric Reis (whose book the Lean start-up has achieved almost biblical status amongst entrepreneurs) the emphasis is on finding one or two bespoke metrics (not standardised) that can quickly give you the information you need to validate your model or help you re-design to make sure you are maximising your success. This is management, not just measurement.

OK, before you typecast me with full on hipster beard and shout “Oi! You’re not in silicon valley now mate!” let’s just root this in the context of the social sector: UK charities and social enterprises. I think it’s completely possible and the time is right for these social purpose organisations to start adopting a ‘management’ approach to impact. (Check out Acumen’s recent Lean Data initiative.) Success to a charity or a social enterprise will not be measured with financial profit but that doesn’t stop them from behaving in the same way: using information to inform decisions about programme design to maximise their social impact. This is management.

The crowd who are sick and tired of collecting information for measurement sake are understandably bored. Nothing ever comes of this data collection. A (soon to be published) piece of research from Social Value UK finds that most organisations do nothing with the impact information they’ve collected. What if suddenly staff at charities and social enterprises were collecting information that was being used to inform decisions and change the way services are delivered? I reckon it wouldn’t seem like a chore anymore.

Isn’t it easier said than done?

Quick wins?

There are some small changes that charities and social enterprises can do very easily that can make a big difference: Make data collection less formal. It’s the form filling, questionnaires and rigidity that kills it. Start having conversations. Regularly sit down with beneficiaries (and other people who are affected by your work) and ask them simple questions like:

What has changed for you? Was that expected? Has anything else happened? What did that lead to? Out of all of these changes, which is the most important to you? Would that have happened anyway? Who else has helped with this?

Collect the results of these conversations and discuss them at team meetings! Regularly. It won’t be long until you have a rich picture of the changes that are happening (good and bad) and what’s important to people and probably how you can change things to make it better. This to me is management.

If anyone says they don’t have the time or the resources to do that, they’re talking nonsense. Charities and social enterprises should be talking to their stakeholders and they should be having internal staff meetings. The new questions may lead to some uncomfortable answers but let’s face it – asking beneficiaries to complete mundane questionnaires is equally as uncomfortable. Trust me I’ve been there.

This doesn’t sound very rigorous?

Perhaps it’s time we stopped worrying about rigour when it comes to impact measurement. The parallels with highly rigorous academic evaluation are not healthy and if you look at businesses; low levels of rigour is used frequently to support decisions. (Low levels of rigour often better than nothing) As someone one said to me… “it’s about enough precision for the decision”

I don’t think my funder will like this!

You’d be surprised. Most investors I’ve spoken to would love to see a ‘management’ approach by their investees. Access Foundation and Power to Change have recently launched an Impact Management Programme that we are very excited about being part of. Bridges Ventures are a world leading impact investor and have recently published a report titled ‘More than Measurement, A practitioner’s journey to Impact Management.’ And it was a grant maker Nominet Trust that have done some excellent work around lean social metrics and instilled a mantra of: ‘a learning organisation is an effective organisation’. I encourage more funders/investors to be bold enough to move away from shared measurement frameworks and look for evidence of their investments collecting useful information, being agile and responsive to change. (Let’s talk about aggregation another day.)

If I was an investor, above anything else, I would want to know that my investees are collecting information that is useful. Perhaps the only metric I would be interested in is “How many changes have you made to your service/product based on impact information?”

I am genuinely excited about a shift to a more management approach to collecting impact information. For the measurement professionals and geeks out there (myself included) there are some technical changes required around what questions to ask, how to analyse qualitative information and then extrapolate that with quantitative data. Rest assured, those blogs will be coming over the next few months. The key thing is that impact management is ultimately about creating a culture within an organisation. A culture that is brave enough to ask the tough questions, listen to stakeholders and embrace change. Impact Management is a state of mind.

Find out more about the work SVUK are doing with NPC and other partners: NCVO/CES, SEUK, SIB, Young Foundation and Impetus PEF by subscribing to the Access Impact newsletter.

07/11/2016
The Seven Principles of Maximising Social Value

This month we published a new report “The Seven Principles of Social Value, and why they are important for accountability and maximising social value”, that is available for free on our online resource library.

Social Value is the value that stakeholders experience through changes in their lives. Some, but not all of this value is captured in market prices.

The Principles of Social Value provide the basic building blocks for anyone who wants to make decisions that take this wider definition of value into account, in order to increase equality, improve well being and increase environmental sustainability. They are generally accepted social accounting principles.

The Principles are not individually remarkable; they have been drawn from principles underlying social accounting and audit, sustainability reporting, cost benefit analysis, financial accounting, and evaluation practice. There are other guides available on the process of measuring and reporting social value and impact that also refer to principles, such as the Social Investment Taskforce Guidelines for Good Impact Practice. However, the Principles of Social Value can be distinguished by their focus on what underpins an account of social value, and on the questions that need to be addressed so that the information can be used to better inform decisions.

The Principles were originally developed in 2009 and were updated in 2015 following the merger of the SROI Network and the Social Impact Analysts Association. This new report from Social Value UK explains the thinking that underpins these Principles.

Please read the report here and let us know what you think in the comments section.

28/07/2016