Posted 29th August 2014
Measuring social value is often used as a evaluative, backwards looking process, to look at how effectively a service has delivered outcomes and value. However, an equally useful route is to use social value as a forecasting tool, and the FRC Group have done just this. Adam Richards explains more:
FRC Group has developed social value budgets that are now used alongside traditional financial budgets in order to aid their strategic decision making. Working in the same way as their financial counterparts, social value budgets compare actual and forecasted performance and allow FRC Group to better understand how they are creating social value – and importantly where improvements can be made.
By adhering to SROI principles of stakeholder engagement and the understanding of significant changes in the lives of those that experience them, FRC Group is now in a position where social value is accounted for and used to drive performance improvements at all levels of the organisation. regular data is monitored and entered into systems that are used to create social value metrics, ultimately used by senior management and the board to maximise social value creation.
Being able to make decisions based on reliable social value data ultimately allows FRC Group to create more social value, thereby better serving their social mission – and as a social business this means being ever more accountable to those targeted by the Group’s activities.
FRC Group and SROI Network will be running a training course on Embedding Social Value Measurement later in the year.
Adam Richards works as social impacts special advisor to FRC Group and SROI practitioner – for a full archive of FRC Group’s social impact reports please go to www.frcgroup.co.uk. You can also follow Adam at @DrADRichards