When it comes to tackling poverty, we need to show we mean business

“Katherine did the [Quids in!] Future-Proof Finance Quiz with me – one at the start and we repeated it when we finished working together. I got more points on the last one, which gave me a bit of a buzz!”

Those are the words of Debbie, who came to Clean Slate (home to Quids in! Pro) for support after work and health problems left her so short of money that her power was cut off. She and her husband were surviving on cold soup and dry cereal.

But at this point, Debbie’s crisis was close to being over. Her own doggedness, combined with support from Clean Slate worker Katherine, got her out of the hole and into a situation where she was able to choose between job offers.

The Future-Proof Finance Quiz was just one part of the process for Debbie. But what it offers both participants and support workers is a simple and clear way of measuring the impact of our work. 

We encourage all participants to take the quiz twice – in that way, everyone can see the distance travelled. Because the quiz is about learning or reinforcing good money habits, when a participant’s score increases on the second quiz it’s a sign that they have permanently improved their financial resilience.

Impact – back to basics

Slick branding and a shiny website are brilliant for any organisation, but they’re ultimately meaningless if the core business doesn’t have a measurable impact on society. After all, any workforce in a socially driven organisation will want to know that they’re making a difference.

The Housing Associations’ Charitable Trust (HACT) has been a leader in measuring social impact through the development of its UK Social Value Bank.

The bank feeds back on outcomes, which include values for wellbeing, health top-up and what’s known as an Exchequer value (in other words, savings to the state).

HACT recognised the rising demand for social value data for things like responding to the ESC needs of lenders or the tender requirements of funders.

But social value is more than just a figure on a page, HACT chief executive Andrew van Doorn tells Quids in! Pro.

“It’s a commitment to create impact in everything you do and delivering on your social purpose. It isn’t just something that happens by chance – it needs to be planned for, invested in and delivered.

“By using the wellbeing approach, like that in the UK Social Value Bank, to measure the social value of your organisation’s activities, you can demonstrate the social impact of your work and understand the difference you make, down to an individual.

“Social value needs to be located in the real experiences of people and communities. When thinking about social value, we can visualise the golden thread from the change people and communities need and want to see for themselves; through what organisations can do about it, what change or impact is made and, finally, what value does this drive.”

​More bang for our buck

Demonstrating social impact is crucial for securing the funding that makes the good work possible, and if the data is good then the hope is that the service can grow. 

Not only that, but when the numbers are going in the right direction it can make it easier to share effective and innovative ideas with others in our sector. On the flip side, when resources are finite we need to know which parts of our organisations are not delivering impact so that we can improve them or direct skills elsewhere.

In terms of data, we may know what we want to know, but capturing those figures can be complex. Every organisation has its own needs and focus, so it’s never going to be the case that ‘there’s an app for that’.

Of course, the impact of crises prevented is notoriously difficult to measure

For example, in terms of poverty prevention and financial resilience, service users can tell us if their situation has improved and the ways in which we’ve helped. We might even be able to put a financial value on our work in terms of the extra cash in their pocket.

But it can be tricky to know how much of this impact to attribute to our services. When part of our mission is to empower, the hope is that in addition to direct support like access to benefits and grants, we can provide knowledge and tools that can be transformative. We don’t want to sell ourselves short, but neither should we claim credit when a service-user has seized opportunities for themselves.

And of course the impact of crises prevented is notoriously difficult to measure. We know that preventing an eviction spares a tenant trauma and saves landlords tens of thousands of pounds – but how can we know which and how many people would have ended up down this route without support?

And how about, for example, helping a family to source a bed for their child? We can put a price on the bed, but not on the myriad benefits for the child’s wellbeing, education, even their future. And what’s the ultimate value of helping a kid feel a bit less different to their peers?

Show us the money

So those are the fuzzy bits. Fortunately, much of our impact is not so nebulous. Thanks to recent data gathered from 285 tenants Clean Slate worked with on a money guidance programme, there were some solid stats to present to their landlord, Stonewater Housing.

In percentage terms, the data shows a 211 per cent rise in tenants who feel they’d be able to keep food on the table if their income was interrupted for a few weeks. We also recorded a 175 per cent boost in the number who are sure their cash will last until they’re next paid.

But in business terms, it shows the landlord that there’s a real return on their investment. Boosting financial resilience among tenants means fewer arrears and evictions, freeing up the money, time and resources the provider would otherwise be forced to divert to these situations.

When it’s social impact that we want to capture, there’s one metric that’s always going to be up there with pounds and pence in terms of power – the stories of the people whose lives have been improved.

I can move on. I can try and put a full stop on the last couple of years and make preparations in case anything like that ever happens again

Debbie, Clean Slate service user

Not only did our client Debbie feel the thrill of improving her financial resilience, other support she received to access benefits allowed her some time and space to decompress. 

With the power reconnected in her home she was able to move from crisis to comfort – eating properly and feeling secure. Those basics covered, she set out on a job-hunting offensive (sending out 42 applications in one night!). Soon she was in full-time employment, and remains so today.

“I can move on,” she tells us. “I can try and put a full stop on the last couple of years and make preparations in case anything like that ever happens again.”

Now that she’s in employment, and enjoying increased money skills and the benefit of her experience, Debbie’s ‘distance travelled’ and pounds-and-pence impact would make for a really persuasive graph. But her story, fleshed out in her own words, has an impact all of its own.