SOCIAL STRATEGY
Edinburgh Leisure now builds in long-term measurement mechanics, to assess SROI, in all new projects “You can measure people’s enjoyment
judgement on something, but fi nding a way to describe it and put a value on it.” Another area to consider is how to
measure results in the longer term – something the fi tness and leisure industry as a whole tends not to do consistently, or consistently well. As Comiskey says:
“With our report, there was a lot of scepticism about the fact that we may be able to show results for a 12-week programme, but how can we effectively measure what comes after that?” As a result, Edinburgh Leisure is
doing a follow-up study to its original 2012 report that will be published this autumn. Even more signifi cantly, all new projects started after July 2012 are given built-in, longer-term measurement mechanisms from the outset, so Edinburgh Leisure can now measure SROI without external assistance.
Managing resources The reality for any leisure organisation is that collecting and monitoring this type of data can be costly and time- consuming, and simply nowhere near as straightforward as measuring ROI. Victoria Chapman is a youth
outreach development manager for leisure management company Leisure Connection, which delivers projects such as the POD play bus to engage youngsters in North Kesteven. According to Chapman:
“Some projects make a real difference to people’s lives in many ways, from employment, health, wellbeing and mental health to general happiness.
44
and whether they’ve learned anything from the experience. However, it would be diffi cult for one individual to measure the impact on the NHS, for example
– if it’s made people more active in the short, medium or long term – or whether you’ve saved the police money by providing a diversionary activity that might have deterred someone from anti-social behaviour or crime. For this reason, you need links with the police and their statistics department, local GP surgeries and health referral programmes, so intelligence can be shared – thereby saving money.” According to Karen Burrell, sales and
marketing director at Freedom Leisure – a not-for-profi t leisure trust active in Surrey, Sussex and Kent – the industry must quickly learn to adapt to the new environment and fi nd smarter ways to produce the information it needs. “Local authority partners are increasing their requirement for the trusts managing their facilities to measure SROI, but tracking is often done manually,” she says. “That’s resource-intensive and can be diffi cult to report. Technology is becoming more important in supporting the measurement of social impact.” To meet this need, Freedom Leisure is
investing in a new software package to manage its health referral programmes.
“This isn’t being done to deliver a direct fi nancial return, but it will provide tools to ensure the right people are being referred, given the support they need to get through the programme, and offered
Read Health Club Management online at
healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital
pathways to continue with activity after the programme has fi nished,” explains Burrell. While participants should benefi t from the increased effi ciency, Freedom Leisure will be also able to reduce its administration time and costs and use the outcome data to help support future funding bids.
Make yourself heard The question to ask is: in an increasingly competitive funding landscape, can leisure operators really afford not to be paying attention to SROI? Woodcock says there’s still cynicism
among some operators that it’s just going to add to their workload. However, he holds a very different view: “The reason we are where we are is because people didn’t pick up the funding challenge early enough. We reached the stage where funding had got to a critical point and started being reduced, and now it’s almost a reaction mechanism. “If the industry had acted on
this 10 years ago and were able to demonstrate the benefi ts of X, Y or Z, we may not now be in the position where funding is being removed.” As the funding challenge gets ever
more tricky, the operators who have picked up the SROI baton and are running with it should be ready to shout about their results loud and clear. As Burrell says: “Operators and contractors need to make sure their voices are heard
– they can only grab a slice of the funding pot if they are visible and active.” ●
May 2013 © Cybertrek 2013
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