BRIEFING FOR MEMBERS

MEASURING SOCIAL VALUE
What do we mean by measuring social value?
Over the last twenty years there has been increasing importance attached to measuring the social value and social impact that various organisations create. The demand for measuring this value comes from all sides: funders who want to direct their money to the most effective projects, policy makers and government officials have to account for their spending decisions, and social organisations need to demonstrate their impact to funders, partners and beneficiaries1. This has led to a growing interest in terms such as „value for money‟, „value added‟ and „outcomes‟ as ways to measure a organisations performance. In many ways the distinction between „output‟ and „outcomes‟ encapsulates what is meant by measuring social value. Outputs: These are the activities done by an organisation, usually listed in an action plan or set of objectives. For example providing homeless people with food and shelter or organising a conference to discuss long term care services for the elderly. Outcomes: These are the long term observed effects of the outputs and are often the „real‟ changes that organisations are trying to make. For example homeless people no longer living on the street and now in employment is an outcome. Likewise a new policy implemented by a government or a new project that improves the quality of long term care for elderly people is an outcome. Unfortunately there is no single authoritative definition of „social value‟ but we can say that it refers to wider non-financial impacts of programmes, organisations and interventions, including the wellbeing of individuals and communities, social capital and the environment. These are typically described as „soft‟ outcomes, mainly because they are difficult to quantify and measure2. Social value assessment is therefore concerned with