Reports Database

“This report from nef (the new economics foundation) asks why inequality is increasing when investment in deprived areas is growing. It is not only an important question to ask but also a timely one as the Government is pumping significant funding into regeneration initiatives in the build-up to the 2012 Olympic Games.

Focusing on the experience of St Helens metropolitan borough on Merseyside, our research suggests that the methods used by policy makers to measure the success of Local Economic Growth Initiatives (LEGIs) , although an improvement on what went before, are still inadequate. A more sophisticated approach is needed for the shortcomings of successive regeneration programmes to be understood and overcome.”

“Residential child care is often in the news, and nearly always for the wrong reasons. Good residential care services can still be found behind the dramatic headlines about ‘failing’ care homes and ‘delinquent’ young people. But the best work in this area is going unnoticed or has been undermined by a preoccupation with inappropriate performance targets and cost cutting.

This is one of the key conclusions reached by nef (the new economics foundation) which has used the concept of Social Return on Investment (SROI) to examine closely how young people are benefiting from the work of two of the UK’s well-regarded care homes – Bryn Melyn Care Ltd and Shaftesbury Young People.

SROI analysis is a process for understanding, measuring and reporting on the social, environmental and economic value created by an intervention, and provides a valuable framework for measuring the long-term change created by public policy. In applying this form of analysis to residential care, nef has found that policy-makers are putting some of society’s most vulnerable young people at even greater risk of exclusion because they are failing to grasp the benefits that high-quality care homes bring to children and to wider society.

The Commission for Social Care Inspection reported in 2005 that the performance of the UK’s residential care homes was improving. But it also found that the improvements made were not translating into better outcomes for children. nef’s research suggests that the Government and some local authorities are paying lip service to a ‘child-centred’ approach while making cuts that betray a lack of understanding of what young people in care really need and value. How we care for the young and old in the future is arguably one of the greatest challenges the public sector faces; although focussed on residential child care the findings from this research have more far-reaching implications.”

“In this report nef (the new economics foundation) presents the findings from SROI analyses of seven voluntary-sector projects across England, from Northumberland to Bristol. All seven have received support from Adventure Capital Fund (ACF), an investment fund that is keen to explore new ways of measuring and improving the value of its investments.

The projects evaluated include a social enterprise that composts green waste; a community childcare service; an organisation providing inner-city workspaces and training; a trust set up to regenerate a former mining town; and a charity that provides barrier-free workplaces for individuals with disabilities. nef has examined these initiatives both to quantify their social value and to test the potential use of SROI analysis by other third sector organisations and social investors.

Overall, the participating organisations found the experience of SROI evaluation to be a positive one. The process enabled them to identify areas where they were performing well, to highlight where improvement was needed and to communicate their impact powerfully to funders and other stakeholders.

A number of obstacles also came to light – notably the difficulty in understanding and establishing new concepts and evaluation processes and freeing up capacity to undertake the SROI.”

Author: NEF

Date: 11.13.2013

“The Dame Kelly Holmes Trust aims to get lives on track by using World Class athletes to engage, enable and empower disadvantaged young people.

By developing World Class athletes following a challenging period of transition after sport, the Trust in turn is able to support disadvantaged young people utilising the unique skills and inspiration of the athletes.

Our young people come from a range of backgrounds. Some may have been in care, are homeless, have previously had criminal convictions and some are just increasingly facing challenges in finding employment or engaging in education.”

Based in Cardiff, Pack-IT is a social firm that provides mailing, storage and distribution, and on-line fulfilment services to a variety of customers. Approximately half of the company’s employees have a severe learning disability. Moreover, the company tends to take on those who are especially disadvantaged and who have the greatest difficulty obtaining and sustaining employment.

This SROI analysis of Pack-IT, commissioned by Social Firms UK, focuses on the incremental social value created by the company by employing people with disabilities, over and above what would be expected if all of its employees were non-disabled. The returns are calculated annually due to the nature of social firms, in that their ‘output’ is the ongoing employment of people with disabilities. Therefore, no benefits are projected forward.

The Wise Group is one of the UK’s largest providers of employment and training opportunities for unemployed people. It works across a range of sectors, and runs programmes in a variety of occupational areas, and uses different models in working with its client groups.

This report presents an analysis of the social added value delivered through the funding investment in one of the Wise Group’s projects in their community regeneration programme, in Cadder, Glasgow.

Gateway2Media is one of the programmes developed by Subliminal Directions, a social enterprise which specialises in multimedia work with young people in their community who are at risk of offending or involvement in anti-social behaviour or drugs, or who would not otherwise have the chance to get involved in this type of activity.

The course was commissioned by Lochgelly High School’s Special Educational Needs Unit. It presents an analysis of the value created by the investment in this course for 8 young people attending the unit who were at risk of joining the NEET group, i.e. young people not in education, employment or training.

The Gateway2Media course aimed to provide a new opportunity for the participants, to enhance their skills, but mainly to support their motivation and personal development. All participants were in S3 at school.

A social firm is a business which exists to create employment opportunities for those disadvantaged in the labour market, and support them to engage in real and meaningful work. The aims of Solstice are to create a supportive working environment for people, within a strong team working ethos, which aids their recovery and assists those who wish to move on to other employment opportunities.

Solstice runs two main business activities. It undertakes estate maintenance services on contract to Grampian Housing Association in Aberdeen, with whom it is in partnership. In 2003/04, Solstice initiated a five year business plan to set up a horticultural nursery, aiming to become self-financing through its trading activity. Solstice is therefore still in the start up phase for this business activity, having secured investment from a range of sources.

The Salva Vita Foundation was established in 1993 with the mission of contributing to the creation of social equality for people with intellectual disabilities and building a diverse and inclusive society. The aim is to assist people with intellectual disabilities in leading independent lives, primarily with the aid of the Supported Employment (SE) services and in the Work Experience programme.

The Work Experience programme, designed and launched by Salva Vita in 1996, is a complex preparatory programme for the employment of young people with intellectual disabilities attending special secondary schools. In the framework of the programme, students work at various regular workplaces once a week as part of the curriculum, besides schoolwork.

The Supported Employment service is a special employment service that promotes the employment of people with disabilities and provides long-term assistance to both the clients with disabilities and the employer for successful employment. More detailed information on the SE programme is provided in later sections.

Perth YMCA is part of the international YMCA movement, and develops youth work services in Perth and the surrounding area.

It runs a number of youth work services for excluded and disadvantaged young people in Perth, including Get Ready for Work and Project Scotland programmes, which are the subject of this study.

The company is based in Gateshead, Tyne & Wear and originally grew out of a Community Arts initiative. The project was founded in 1986 & in 2001 became an independent Charitable Company. For many years now the project has devised and led hundreds of workshops and has toured the country staging performances that have raised issues relating to the learning disabled community and very specifically aimed at learning disabled audiences. The aim of this activity has been to support people with LD and empower participants to effect social change.

In its lifetime the project has produced a series of media that tell its story and push forward the debate on government & community policy in regard to people with disability. This has included managing residencies, providing summer schools and a range of social activities for the target group including nightclubs for people with LD. In the year under study for this SROI analysis the project provided services to 153 different organisations.

“Impact Arts is a national community arts organisation. It has pioneered “the Fab Pad concept”, which Impact Arts is now delivering across Scotland. The main aim of Impact Arts is to use the arts as a catalyst for positive lasting change in people’s lives.

The Fab Pad concept was developed to work with vulnerable people at a vital stage in their progression out of a chaotic lifestyle – when they took on a tenancy. Fab Pad offers arts, design and practical skills training to people, to help them turn their house into a home. It then supports them to take up
other opportunities in education, training and employment.”

Kerbside (Calderdale) recycle people and materials, provide a kerbside recycling business for 25,000 household whilst at the same time providing progression to employment opportunities.