Measuring Community Benefits ‘ What we measure is literally a sign of what we value as a society’ (Audit Commission, 2001) Emma Kyng/ Will Swan

Find out what is going on Look to identify measures Work towards a benchmarking exercise? What do people hope to get out of this session

Why do we need to measure? Why do you need to measure these issues?

What We Think Measurement Process Evidence – For funding, understand impact Communication – communicate issues Management – analyse and take action How to Select Involve stakeholders in indicator selection Give equal weight to both service providers and users in the selection of indicators and evaluation Indicator Types: Social, Environmental, Economic Process Indicators Outcome Indicators

Indicator milestones 1992 Rio Summit - Agenda 21 calls for indicators to measure progress towards sustainable development 1994 Index of Sustainable and Economic Welfare (ISEW) developed 1995 Green League of Nations, a league table of OECD countries and their environmental impacts, published by New Economics Foundation Accounting for Change, a review of the art of indicators post Rio, published by New Economics Foundation 1996 First set of national sustainability indicators published by Department of Environment UK 1997 Revised UK Index of Sustainable and Economic Welfare (ISEW) published (The ISEW meshes together the measurement of two entities, social welfare and sustainability) 1999 Revised set of national quality of life indicators published by DETR/ODPM 1999 Best Value Indicators are measures of performance set by the departments in central government 1999 DTI launched Construction ‘head line’ Key Performance Indicators 2000 A set of local quality of life indicators published by DETR/ODPM Regional sustainable development frameworks & indicators launched in the UK European Common Indicators launched at ‘Sustainable Cities’ conference (Hannover) Audit Commission piloted a set of quality of life indicators with over 90 local authorities and local strategic partnerships 2005 Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs (2005). Securing the Future: The Government Sustainable Development Strategy. London, DEFRA – sustainability indicators

What are you measuring? What Community Benefit issues are currently being measured?

Process Project Measures Community Consultation: beginning and during; numbers consulted and views acted upon Training Places – targeting a range of age groups Use of Local Labour/ Supply Chain/ Services inc Social Enterprise Groups SME Up-Skilling SME payment satisfaction – 2 week schedule Design for Community Benefit: Green/ recreational/ Safe Spaces School/Youth Mentoring Affordable Housing – local community priority Considerate Constructors: noise, dust….. Safety and Security of people and property – reduced vandalism, accidents Respect for People

Outcome Project Measures Training to full time employment Community/ end user satisfaction Local employment Local SMEs House prices Crime/Vandalism

Some Measurement Issues Measuring processes Data and process impact Benchmarking and comparison Understanding and analysis Taking action

Measurement Process 1. Involving stakeholders 2. Developing indicators 3. Collecting data 4. Communicating findings 5. Possible actions: - Change of strategy and policy - Divert resources - Facilitate the modernising government agenda - Improve relationships with the community - Developing understanding about quality of life - Alter perceptions, values and behaviour

Measuring Processes Does the data reflect the process? What are we trying to measure? Relationship between process and outcomes Process Base Performance Changed Performance

Scale and Data Relationships Is it the only process acting on the data – short term is easier than long-term Many factors may impact a single long-term measure i.e. house prices Process Base Performance Changed Performance

Getting Data The most difficult part of the process Find out if you/other department are already collect it Does the cost and effort of collecting it outweigh the benefit it gives us?

Comparing or Benchmarking Construction KPIs have a lot of comparator data There is not a lot of data for community benefits – some London Benchmarking Group – for CSR Could we start to address this ourselves

Understanding What is the data actually telling us May not be the process – constraints and mechanisms Local labour – easier in a city than in rural areas Must understand what issues impact performance of targets

Taking Action Only by understanding what the data is telling us can we take appropriate action Need to understand how much impact a process has Need to understand what the constraints and mechanisms are Helpful to have some baselines or benchmarks

Benchmarking Club Pilot – set measures and shared methodology Compare and contrast a number of different measures for projects Report to answer some of the questions we have asked to day

Benchmarking Club What should we measure? What types of projects will we measure? What actions do we need to take?

Getting Started Measures Methodology and Guidance Notes Data collection Analysis Report and discussion Determine next steps