Meeting Notes March 6 2019, The Batch, Warmley
This meeting was an opportunity to discuss how Better Care Stronger Communities could use a common evaluation and outcomes framework for (future) funding, which include the best ways of measuring the impact of the activity provided by VCSE organisations. The event aimed to enable groups attending to:
- Understand the proposed process for developing and commissioning Better Care Stronger Communities services
- Begin to scope and inform possible shared outcomes for future Better Care Stronger Communities funding
- Begin to scope and inform the development of a shared impact measurement tool for evaluating impact
Sue Jaques, Commissioning Manager, South Glos Council introduced the event. She explained the South Gloucestershire Council wanted to improve the way it measures the impact of the services the voluntary sector provides to ensure it effectively demonstrates the benefits to the health and care sector and the individual. The previous round of Better Care Stronger Communities funding looked at fur priority areas: keeping people outside of the health and social care system; carers have recognition and support; focus on what people want from life and support; families and community groups to self-help. Organisations that were funded gave details of 3 outcomes per priority they would achieve and were required to address at least 2 priorities.
This was difficult to monitor as it was like comparing apples and pears. The council received a lot of narrative about activities and case studies but this in itself does not provide a compelling case to demonstrate the impact of the funding. No one would doubt or argue the fantastic work that is being undertaken in the voluntary sector locally but the council needed to be able to demonstrate the impact of that activity.
Through this session the council wanted to work together to develop thinking on would/could/should be measured with the idea of developing a ‘pick and mix’ basket of outcomes and to start the thinking around how the impact of those can be measured. Groups were invited to discuss issues and areas that were seen as important, achievable and not so achievable with the aim of working towards an evaluation framework with a shared narrative for organisations that receive funding to contribute their part.
The presentation from the day is available here: Powerpoint presentation
Groups were divided into four tables for each of the two workshop sessions. Feedback from each table and session has been grouped below to enable comparison between the range of feedback from each table.
The meeting was attended by 24 people.
To read the full meeting notes including workshop information, see below.