Posted 20th August 2019
Social Value UK are proud to announce that Behind Closed Doors, an organisation instrumental in the creation of the Social Value Certificate, have become the first organisation to achieve Level Three of the Social Value Certificate.
Behind Closed Doors supports women & men affected by Domestic Violence & Abuse (DV&A) to enable them to live safely, free from fear & harm, make informed choices & manage their own lives. They deliver the outreach element of the Leeds Domestic Violence Service (LDVS) under contract & a non-contracted Prevention & Recovery Service (PARS) for people unable to/who do not wish to access help from statutory services. Both provide individually tailored, 1-1 support in safe community spaces.
Behind Closed Doors staff & volunteers support people to:
• Identify their experiences & problems;
• Develop & implement their own plans to address or manage these;
• Develop their autonomy & life skills
• Parent their children better
• Build new support networks of family & friends.
Behind Closed Doors work closely with statutory services to support clients & their families
Behind Closed Doors systematically monitor all of their work to learn how to improve the support they offer, using data & stakeholder feedback to identify gaps in services & develop & pilot new projects. Behind Closed Doors are currently delivering a pilot project to support people aged 16-30 whose personal capacity has been impacted by their experience of DV&A, to improve their mental wellbeing and self- confidence to enable them to return or start further education or training and/ or to volunteer to improve their employability, focuses on additional support for individuals to help them retain or prepare for employment including access to education.
Behind Closed Doors learning also feeds into the design of the training we deliver to professionals in all sectors who identify and support people affected by DV&A.
Why have you decided to undertake the Social Value Certificate organisational pathway?
We decided to undertake the Social Value Certificate organisational pathway because we recognised the value of the impact data collection and theory of change process in our 2016 SROI study, in terms of enabling us to change and develop BCD and increase our Social Value.
The SROI process experience taught us how to systematically collect data and feedback from stakeholders in a structured, focussed way and how to analyse and ask relevant questions.
Most of our staff had been involved in consulting stakeholders and/or constructing Theories of Change and refining Outcomes from the evidence and had recognised and discussed the findings and come up with their own recommendations to improve. This experience was that the process had confirmed the value of the work they did and they were interested in how we could collect and use this information on a regular basis.
We saw the Social Value Certificate pathway as an opportunity to help us to do this.
How have you changed your decision making processes using the data collected through the processes implemented in the previous stages of the Social Value Certificate?
We now use data in almost all decision making about the services and the organisation’s strategy. We are more confident about what we deliver and the difference it makes. We are also more able to question what works best and to make decisions and changes quickly, based on the data. When we use the data, we now automatically question what it means and identify gaps that trigger further investigation in order to understand more.
We have added further areas of data collection across all areas of service delivery, to better reflect the aspects of support provided as a direct response to stakeholder feedback in our recent SROI report.
We have reviewed and revised monitoring systems and now have a robust weekly data capture and capacity review process. This provides us with information about areas of the service support most in demand and capacity levels both individual and service wide, so that resource requirements can be determined and service decisions can be made in real time.
Weekly reports also provide a service snapshot and allow a continuous comparison that highlights trends and data that may warrant further investigation.
Are there any other specific projects you are doing at the moment that are related to SROI/social value that we can mention?
We are currently delivering a pilot project to support people aged 16-30 whose personal capacity has been impacted by their experience of DV&A, to improve their mental wellbeing and self- confidence to enable them to return or start further education or training and/ or to volunteer to improve their employability.
The long term impact of DV&A on mental health can impact on personal capacity to find or retain work, access to education and training, and on the ability to function in everyday lives.
We have identified through the feedback from PARS clients, and particularly those in the 16 to 30 age group, that the confidence that they have gained as a result of the support they have received has been key to them retaining or securing employment/accessing education/continuing in education and taking up volunteer opportunities.
What have you learnt from Level Three of the Social Value Certificate? Is there anything that you believe you have gained or believe you will find useful in the future? Conversely, were there any challenges you faced?
Having a structured approach to service delivery allows us to systemically meet individual needs based on what our target population tells us is effective for them, and a system in place to pick up and quickly implement any necessary changes. We have learnt the importance of having a formal performance management system which has enabled us to review project data at all levels of the organisation. Regular impact management review meetings look at systems for collection as well as the data that they produce, to ensure that they are fit for purpose and regularly updated. Data reports reviewed at board level are used to inform strategic direction. We have learned the importance of allocating resource to ensure continuity and quality of data collection and for the development of our systems. In response to this we have recruited an additional admin and monitoring role to carry out data collection reports, client consultation and to support and further develop impact management systems.
We have summarised our learning in the Social Value section of our Annual Accounts and Report for the year end March 2019 as we felt that this was more meaningful in terms of explaining what we do and the impact we make. .
“Achieving the level 3 Social Value Certificate with Social Value International marks a significant point in the organisation’s Social Value journey, a time when we can reflect back and feel proud and confidently confirm that we have embedded a Social Value culture within the organisation. This is not a ‘fait accompli’ but rather, a statement of our commitment to continue the journey we began in 2016, to ensure that the services we provide are continuously evolving in response to the needs of our service users.”.
For further information, please contact Louise Tyne, Director of BCD:
[email protected]