Reports Database

In 2014 City of Edinburgh Council undertook a project intended to calculate an estimate of the value of services delivered in Edinburgh Council-run parks. The study provided a forecast of the social return from the investment by the Council in 4 sample Edinburgh Parks, and also the Pentland Hills Regional Park. The benefits that are measured are those that are made possible by the investment the authority makes in maintaining and managing the park and have been identified following consultation with those who were most directly affected. The analysis of the 4 sample parks was undertaken during 2014 by Carrick Associates. The analysis of Pentland Hills Regional Park was undertaken by Greenspace Scotland in 2012. The results of the 5 studies were then combined with population data obtained from 5000 face-to-face interviews to give an estimate of the value of services delivered in all 142 of Edinburgh’s parks.

This document is the Technical Report which provides details of how the 4 sample park studies were undertaken, and the results that were found. It is 90 pages long. There is also a shorter separate summary report available, which gives an overview of the process and the findings, and gives the scaled-up figures for the city park system. It should be read alongside this one. This document draws together the 4 individual parks SROI studies which together were used as a basis for scaling up an estimate of the value of all of Edinburgh’s parks. Each park study was conducted as a separate exercise, so please note that there is an element of repetition in the descriptions of the processes that were applied in each case. The Pentland Hills Study was created as a stand-alone report and can be downloaded separately.

The overall finding was that for every £1 invested in Edinburgh’s parks, approximately £12 of benefits are delivered. The cost benefit ratio varies from 1:7 for a natural park, to 1:17 for a large city-centre park.

The brief for this work was to describe the expected impact of the proposed investment, from private sources and for public benefit, into the rejuvenation of a unique and special place, the West Princes Street Gardens, and its principal public building, the Ross Bandstand, situated right in the centre of the City of Edinburgh.

The Ross Development Trust is proposing to raise £25m to fund an ambitious programme of renovation for the Gardens. This investment will transform the Gardens as a destination within Edinburgh, while securing the tranquillity of its green landscape and its intricate heritage and preserving them as a “common good”, accessible to all.

This investment will create economic and social benefits in a number of ways. This report estimates that the investment could generate around £13m Gross Value Added during construction for Scotland and £9m for Edinburgh’s City Region (“ECR”), together with 131 Scottish and 93 ECR jobs. During operation, the plans for the Gardens could create around £5m GVA for Scotland and £4.3m for ECR, and up to 65 direct and indirect jobs.

But these figures are just the economic by-product of a Project that is fundamentally civic in nature. The Gardens are part of the city’s identity, of its brand. Nor is it just a preservation project, important as it is that the Gardens and its structures, bequeathed by previous generations, are preserved for those yet to come. This is about what significance – what “value” they have for the city, taking “value” in its broadest sense. We have estimated, for illustrative purposes, that the impact of investment on the City’s brand could be around £7m in GVA terms.

This is a good time to be thinking about the future of the Gardens. They occupy a very visible space in Edinburgh’s global “shop window”. Key elements of the Gardens are in serious need of investment. Edinburgh, meanwhile, is trying to shape its future through a City Region deal and at the same time asking its citizens what kind of a city they want in 2050.

No doubt much will change in the coming decades, but it is impossible to visualise the city centre without the West Princes Street Gardens.

The question that follows is how is these Gardens can best be enjoyed to the full by Edinburgh’s citizens and its visitors. The Gardens started life as the exclusive preserve of a few, until a far-sighted local authority assumed responsibility and turned them into a public park – a “common good”. Today they remain freely accessible and enjoyed by many, but they are below par in a number of ways, as financial pressures force difficult choices for the Council.

We need to ask what the Gardens say about Edinburgh to the outside world. Edinburgh is a city in the international spotlight, which gives it access to opportunity on a scale that is disproportionate to its size – and with that opportunity come corresponding responsibilities to continue to excel in what it can offer tourists and business visitors.

Some of the answers lie with the project that is the subject of this work. The Ross Development Trust has been formed as a new charity, with its sole purpose to rejuvenate the West Princes Street Gardens by levering in major new capital investment, to secure the legacy and build on it for generations to come.

Trying to put a value on the West Princes Street Gardens and its assets is far from easy. Equally, it is undeniable that there is a value, but described in many different ways. It might be helpful to think about it in terms of the relationship between value and meaning; if there is meaning, there is value and vice versa.

It is not the purpose of this report to assess the feasibility of the proposals. An early feasibility study was commissioned from Jura Consultants by the Trust in November 2015 and the financial and operational feasibility of the Project is subject to ongoing development as the proposals evolve.

This report describes why the Project is important, how it can make a difference and ways in which we can assess this.

This report addresses the question of whether health service use and health service costs fall as a consequence of supported entry to public housing for formerly homeless people and those at risk of homelessness. It also examines the health and social outcomes of formerly homeless and at-risk of homelessness tenants.

An important benefit of the present study compared with previous Australian studies is the use of linked housing and health administrative data. The large sample size increases confidence in the findings presented because a larger number of clients and experiences are able to be investigated and the rigour of statistical analysis is improved.

The study links Western Australian person-level health service system records with person-level public housing tenancy records and tracks the health service use patterns of 983 NPAH and 2,400 priority housing (homelessness) tenants before entry into housing and following entry into housing. On the basis of the linked health and housing data in Western Australia, our study finds that the provision of public housing for NPAH program participants as well as those entering public housing through priority housing (homelessness) was associated with reduced health service use (both in the proportion using services as well as frequency/duration of use) in the year following entry into public housing as compared with the year prior to entry.

In particular, significant reductions were evident, pre- and post-entry into public housing, in the proportion of NPAH program and priority housing (homelessness) tenants accessing an Emergency Department (ED), an Intensive Care Unit (ICU), or psychiatric service or mental health provider, staying overnight in a hospital, or having a prescription for opioid dependence. There was no significant change for hospital in the home (HITH) services. Reductions in the frequency of visits to an ED or ICU, the duration of time spent in hospital, in psychiatric care or with a mental health service provider and the mean number of prescriptions for opioid dependence were also observed, with only an increase, post-entry into public housing in average days per person/per year utilising HITH services.

This study also provides an estimate of the potential economic impact of the change in health service use associated with provision of public housing and NPAH program support for homeless people and those at risk of homelessness. The overall decrease in frequency and duration of health service use, comparing the year prior to and the year following entry into a public housing tenancy, results in a combined potential health system cost saving in Western Australia of $16.4 million per year or $4,846 per person per year. If priority homeless clients are excluded; the change per person with NPAH support is nearly triple this at $13,273 per person per year. The large cost offset is primarily related to reduced health service use among clients of the NPAH Mental Health program, where potential health savings amount to $84,135 per person per year. Across all NPAH programs, the change in stays in hospital ($3,114 per person per year) and in psychiatric care ($1,558 per person per year) account for the vast majority of potential health cost savings.

The average cost of providing support under the NPAH programs examined is estimated as $6,462 per person per year (2009–12). This is less than half the potential health cost offsets associated with the NPAH programs ($13,273 per person per year (2012–13)). In particular, the large estimated health cost offset associated with the NPAH Mental Health program ($84,135 per person per year) suggests a large potential positive impact on government budgets is associated with this program. Cost savings of the kind identified in the present study are presently not identified in government budgets. The estimated cost savings simply accrue to the health service system and result in more needs being met in the health care system than would otherwise be the case. In short, more resources are freed up in the health system to meet health needs because of a successful housing and homelessness program.

The aim of the 50 Lives 50 Homes project (hereafter referred to as 50 Lives) is to house and provide support to 50 of Perth’s most vulnerable homeless people.

This research report constitutes the first of three reports for the evaluation of the 50 Lives. 50 Lives is a cross-sectoral collaborative project between a range of Perth-based agencies, including Ruah Community Services (which provides backbone support to the project) and, 27 other partner organisations to date, including, homelessness support services, community mental health services and government housing and health services.

The aims of this evaluation are to determine: 1) how effective and efficient the 50 Lives approach is in providing sustainable housing and wellbeing outcomes for the most vulnerable rough sleepers; 2) the impact of the 50 Lives project on client health, mental health, wellbeing, housing and justice outcomes; 3) the economic and social impact of the 50 Lives project; 4) the extent to which the 50 Lives collaboration enables improved service efficiencies and new innovative ways of working to improve client outcomes and addressing homelessness, and; 5) the main challenges and barriers to the 50 Lives project in efficiently and effectively providing sustainable housing outcomes for the most vulnerable rough sleepers.

The primary focus of this first evaluation report is to provide baseline data pertaining to objects 1 and 4. The evaluation of the 50 Lives project is being conducted by The Centre for Social Impact University of Western Australia (CSI UWA) with collaborators from Royal Perth Hospital (RPH), Homeless Healthcare (HHC) and the UWA School of Population and Global Health.

This evaluation has been designed as a longitudinal study and has utilised various sources and collection methods to measure the impact of the 50 Lives project. This includes data from the Vulnerability Index – Service Prioritisation Decision Assistance Tool (VI-SPDAT); client satisfaction surveys; de-identified administrative data from RPH and HHC; data from the Ruah After Hours Support Service (AHSS); in-depth interviews with 50 Lives clients and case studies on the working groups. The VI-SPDAT will be re-administered with the 50 Lives clients in early 2018, enabling comparative analysis and measuring changes in outcomes over time.

Overall the evaluation takes a realistic evaluation approach and recognises that there are a range of factors that influence the extent to which positive outcomes are attained for a client and this will be monitored over the course of the evaluation.

“United Way of Calgary and Area partners with agencies, donors, workplaces, government, academic community, and volunteers to work towards the visionof a city that is great for all – one where people have access to opportunities, kids complete school and are successful adults, and communities are connected and actively creating solutions to problems like domestic violence.”

“SASC was founded in 2012. Our mission is to help social sector organisations deliver scalable and sustainable solutions to social issues across the UK. Since 2012 we have raised two funds: the £20 million Community Investment Fund and the £30 million Third Sector Loan Fund. We have made twelve investments with a total value of £8 million. This funding has gone into inspiring, high-potential charities and social enterprises. It will help them go on growing and achieving greater impact. SASC is a social enterprise itself, with 51 per cent of our profits going to the Social Investment Business Foundation; we are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.”

“Raleigh International’s (‘Raleigh’) mission is to create lasting change through youth. The organisational vision is of a world where the global community works together to build a sustainable future. The Expedition programme, which has been running for 30 years, is one of two major volunteering programmes run by Raleigh designed to create lasting positive change in rural communities through the structured activities and actions of youth volunteers and their influence on local communities. The work brings together a diverse group of volunteers aged 17 to 25 from various cultural and socio-economic backgrounds around the world. They work together as a team for 10 weeks delivering projects in developing countries, focusing on environmental, community and leadership themes.

During the last decade, there has been an increased level of attention paid to evidence of the positive effects of volunteering on development work. Researchers have found that volunteering provides a platform for exchanging knowledge, technical skills and cross-cultural experience in developing communities. This pilot study collects together evidence of the benefits of volunteering by evaluating Raleigh International’s Expeditions programme through both a quantitative and a social Cost-Benefit (SCBA) analysis.”

“The Outward Bound Trust provides courses for young people to develop their social and emotional skills at every stage of their education from the end of primary school through to university, and during the early stages of employment. The skills that they develop are those that will play a pivotal role in how successfully they navigate the challenges of adolescence and early adulthood: helping them to flourish and thrive in many different ways throughout their lives.”

“LibertyBus is a social enterprise – an organisation whose defining mission is to make a positive difference to our community. It is a part of a wider
organisation that shares its mission – HCT Group, arguably the world’s leading transport social enterprise.

To measure our social impact, LibertyBus conducted a large scale survey of bus users in Jersey, asking what had changed in their lives as a result of using the bus service. The questions focussed on the seven areas where we try to make a difference.

The response was very high, with 1556 bus users responding. This means we can be highly confident that the results are a good representation of theviews of our customers – even when looking at subcategories of bus users.

‘Bus users’ as a group covers a broad range of people – with different ages, circumstances and aspirations. It’s only when we look at different groups of
people within the data that the real story emerges and we start to see the social impact of the bus service.

As a consequence, the rest of this report looks at the bus service through the eyes of four different groups of people:

• older people
• disabled people
• younger people
• people who have just switched to using the bus.”

“Green Gym is a nationwide scheme run by TCV, The Conservation Volunteers, that combines physical activity with local environmental projects. It was launched in 1998 and there are now more than 100 Green Gyms in the UK. Green Gyms are run in two ways – directly by TCV, and by community groups under licence from TCV.

TCV plans to significantly increase the number of Green Gyms to support the health and wellbeing agendas of the four countries of the UK.

Research has shown that participating as a volunteer in a Green Gym improves and maintains physical and mental health by increasing physical activity levels and reducing social isolation, by creating opportunities for people to work together in worthwhile outdoor activities. Volunteers say they value making improvements to their environment and also developing employability skills by working in teams and solving problems. Studies carried out so far on Green Gyms around the country indicate that they increase resilience – through helping to improve people’s health, and fostering communities that are better able to make sustainable changes to the environment.”

“The national Economic and Social Impact Survey (ESIS) 2017 is the sixth consecutive report by The Salvation Army exploring the challenges, barriers, and levels of disadvantage experienced by those who access our Emergency Relief (ER) services. It again confirms unacceptably persistent disadvantage and exclusion experienced by individuals and their families.

The Salvation Army operates an expansive network of Emergency Relief centres, social programs and employment services, and corps (churches) that respond to individuals and communities who experience hardship and disadvantage. As one of the largest providers of Emergency Relief services in Australia, The Salvation Army supports many Australians who struggle to maintain a basic standard of living for themselves and their families.

The Salvation Army raises more than $20 million each year to support Emergency Relief centres that deliver practical assistance to individuals and families facing hardships. In 2016, The Salvation Army supported more than 144,000 clients across Australia and delivered approximately 470,000 sessions of ER and case work support. This means that, on average, Emergency Relief services assist nearly 600 people and delivers more than 1,950 support sessions every day.

Data for this report was captured by an eight-part questionnaire that was distributed nationally to service users through 272 Salvation Army Emergency Relief and community support centres, and to randomly selected individuals who had received mail-out assistance in 2016. A total of 1,380 respondents completed the questionnaire during early February 2017.”

“The Reader Organisation’s mission is to create environments where personal responses to books are freely shared in reading communities in every area of life. Beginning life as a small outreach unit at the University of Liverpool in 1997, TRO was established as a national charity in 2008 and has pioneered the weekly ‘read aloud’ model at the heart of its Get into Reading Project (GiR), now known as Shared Reading. The GiR model is based on small groups (2–12 people), formed to read aloud together short stories, novels and poetry. The Reader currently has 70 full-time employees and delivers over 360 groups, in a range of health and social care settings (community centres, libraries, homeless shelters, schools, hospitals, offices, doctors’ surgeries, prisons, drug rehab units and care homes) across the UK, with an annual turnover of £2.1 million, 70% of which is generated by commissions from health authorities etc.”

“The vision of the WAWCAS Program is to empower women who live in poverty in Nepal to become independent and able to achieve a better life and a better future for their children. This vision is also expressed in the name of the program – WAWCAS – which is an acronym for “Women at Work – Children at School”.

WAWCAS has created a training program that helps underprivileged women to learn how to establish, operate, and grow a business. Through this process, they become entrepreneurs with an income and they develop personally as individuals and socially in groups. Furthermore, as a requirement for participating in the program, their children must go to school.”

“Advice services have been identified as being used most frequently by the poorest individuals in communities. At a time when local authority budgets are reducing and demand for services is rising, new methods of providing and sustaining critical services that reduce inequalities need to be considered. Co-locating advice workers in medical practices and allowing advisors consensual access to the medical records of individuals is an example of such an approach. The multiple benefits of delivering advice services in this way are identified, measured and valued in this analysis.

The Scottish Government, NHS and Local Government are committed to reducing health inequalities and improving health. NHS Health Scotland state that health inequalities are unfair and avoidable differences in health across social groups and between different population groups. The health inequalities that exist between affluent and deprived areas because of poverty and deprivation have a major impact on health and life expectancy. Personal factors between groups of people based on gender, disability and ethnicity also contribute to health inequalities. Evidence suggests that the UK Government’s Welfare Reform programme is likely to have a negative impact on some working age people, including those with disabilities, individuals with long term health conditions (including mental health) and also lone parents and women. Many of the individuals likely to be affected are already members of those groups that are most likely to experience health inequalities.

One measure to tackle health inequalities and mitigate the impact of welfare reform is the co-location of advisors in GP practices. Across Scotland, there has been a gradual increase in the number of advisors being co-located in GP practices in response to the impact of socio-economic issues on people’s health, with particular developments in Edinburgh and Dundee. This approach is included in the Scottish Government’s NHS Outcome Focussed Plan to mitigate the impact of welfare reform on health and health services and to reduce health inequalities.”

“Refuge is the UK’s largest single provider of specialist support for survivors of violence against women and girls (VAWG), supporting over 3,800 women, children and men on any given day.

Refuge’s network of services operates nationally across 53 local authority boroughs and district and county councils, and includes more than 40 refuges. Refuge also runs independent domestic violence advocacy services; culturally-specific services – including programmes for Vietnamese women and Eastern European women ; community outreach programmes; and single-point-of-access services – which act as the first point of contact for anybody experiencing gender-based violence across the whole of a local authority area. The National Domestic Violence Helpline is run by Refuge in partnership with Women’s Aid and receives more than 200 calls every day. In addition, Refuge runs award winning pro bono prevention and awareness raising campaigns.”

“The Poppy Factory is an independent charity and was established in 1922 by Major George Howson, who with a sum of £2,000 and the support of The Royal British Legion, wanted to create meaningful civilian employment for injured service men returning from the First World War. For more than 90 years The Poppy Factory has employed disabled veterans to make poppies, crosses and wreaths for The Royal British Legion and wreaths for the Royal Family at their factory in Richmond.

Getting You Back to Work is The Poppy Factory’s employability programme and was set up in 2010 to help more ex-Service men and women with physical disabilities and mental health conditions into sustained employment and make the transition into civilian life a smoother one.

A team of skilled and dedicated Employability Consultants and Volunteer Mentors located across England and Wales offer a comprehensive career management support package to accommodate the professional aspirations of the wounded, injured and sick ex-Service personnel. They provide an invaluable lifeline to those veterans who are the furthest removed from the employment market.”

“‘Housing First’ is a tried and tested approach to providing permanent housing for homeless people who are dependent on alcohol and drugs or who have mental health issues, with the support, social care and health services they need provided to them in their own homes or locally in their community. The intention is that housing should be available even if a homeless person refuses treatment for their substance misuse or mental health issues. A ‘harm reduction’ approach is adopted rather than a requirement of abstinence as a condition of tenancy, which is common in many accommodation-based services for homeless people. This approach is seen as respecting the individual’s right to a home of their own and to a personal and private life. It is the dominant homelessness policy in the USA at Federal, State and City levels; and it is also the preferred policy in a number of EU countries notably the France and the Republic of Ireland. It has also been adopted with variations in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

Many of the Housing First projects referred to in the literature have been subjected to monitoring and research. The research shows that services had high levels of success and made positive gains for a majority of service users in terms of improved:

• health, mental and physical well-being;
• social and community participation,
• lower levels of crime and antisocial behaviour;
• reduced substance misuse; and
• high levels of tenancy sustainment (up to 88% of service users were still housed after 5 years in the original Pathways Housing First Project -New York; and the rate at which service users retained their housing was more than 90% in Amsterdam and Copenhagen, and just below 80% in Lisbon).”

“Gloucestershire County Council’s (GCC) Active Together (AT) programme aimed to help encourage more participation in sport and physical activity across the county and was open to a range of community groups, from sports clubs to scout groups and parish and town councils, and schools.

In September 2014 the University of Gloucestershire was commissioned Public Health Gloucestershire to evaluate the AT programme as a means of establishing evidence of whether the programme is a good way of using funds to encourage greater participation in health enhancing activities.”