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Social Return on Investment (SROI) and demonstrating Value for Money
I’ve just returned from my SROI Practitioner training. What is this new tool? It depends on who you ask:
Who cares?
HM Treasury believes it is broadly the same as Cost Benefits Analysis, which is a part of the Benefits Realisation Plans that I do regularly
Some Government departments and Arms-Length Bodies believe it is far richer, since as well as assigning a monetary value to each outcome (such as increased self-esteem) and demonstrating the Return on Investment, it also includes a narrative explaining what this means in ways that people can relate to.
How is SROI different?
We were told on the training that an SROI has six principles, of which three distinguish it from other analysis:
- Stakeholder engagement – all stakeholders who are materially affected need to be involved: that is, their input, their review of the report before it is final, their engagement with the analysis and assignment of values (not just a postcard informing them of a listening session)
- Materiality – recognise any other contributions from other projects, initiatives and services; recognise what is NOT a result of my service even though it is a change; avoid double-counting benefits
- Assigning monetary value – this provides a lowest common denominator which allows me to present an SROI ratio – how much you get back per £1 (or $1 or €1 invested). Obviously lots of assumptions have to be used, but these are transparent (and checked with stakeholders) and can be discussed
A standard, credible approach
Because it is a Standard Approach many funding organisations (charities and philanthropists as well as government) expect a proper report and will favour care and improvement providers who submit one as part of their request for funding.
In other words, as time goes on, organisations seeking funding will either present their benefits reports prepared using SROI principles, or they will find their requests get a lower priority in the eyes of funders. Funding bodies can make sure nothing important is missed, and their assessments using these principles are easily defensible.
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Check out what it consists of at http://www.sroi-uk.org/, and why it matters to you. It is most relevant to statutory services (eg commissioners and providers of health and social care that are funded by government) but it’s likely to be relevant to health and social care service providers and those funding these too. And when a commercial organisation wants to emphasise its Green credentials, what better way than to use a standard and endorsed approach?
I’m not accredited yet – I’ve only been on the training. I now need to demonstrate that I can apply it and I expect this will take up to 6 months. In the meantime, I’m using the support of the SROI network to ensure my reports are top quality.
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The Social Return Company is an association of like-minded specialists with a great track record of engaging stakeholders, instituting common-sense measures, and reporting to invigorate. Our mission is that people enjoy what they do, and we achieve this by supporting them to measure and report, and recognise what they achieve. Some organisations have found this very valuable for PR/marketing, or contract negotiation.see http://minney.org/about-us-media-kit