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In an increasingly outcomes-focused
world we are
all being asked to measure our impact and our
effectiveness, which can be a particular challenge
for family support services that have traditionally
focused on ‘softer’ outcomes. Nonetheless it is
important to recognise the environment we now
operate in and measure the change that our
intervention can make.
One of the challenges of commissioning
family support is the lack of clarity on what are
the outcomes that a good service can effect and
how these can add social value to the local
system and community. Family support services have enjoyed a certain
freedom over reporting historically and many have developed their own tools
and systems to capture the information they wish to measure. This obviously
can provide a really rich source of information very specific to the needs of
local clients but it can be difficult to draw any national conclusions over the
effectiveness of ‘family support’ as a sector.
Whilewewant to encourage local providers to continue to use their own tools
that work for the families they support in their local areas, Adfam is also
interested in understanding what the common outcomes are which support
families, providers and commissioners to improve family support. So this month
we are hosting consultations with different audiences to understand their
thoughts on common outcomes for families and seeking to get some idea of
what a good outcome model should include.
One of the other focuses is to show that a service saves money or that it
creates a greater amount of value than the investment, which is why many
organisations are interested in Social Return on Investment Evaluations (SROI).
It is a type of cost-benefit analysis that uses outcome measurement tools and
helps organisations communicate the social value they create. Adfam
commissioned our SROI research to provide an independent evaluation of
family support services, using an established and proven assessment model to
help commissioners and funders make more informed decisions. The research
also looked at the SROI that Adfam’s guidance and infrastructure support
provides to family support sector.
Key findings include:
• Overall the value created by the family support service is more than
£240,000. The total investment in the service is £52,000 which gives an SROI
ratio of 4.7:1. This suggests that for every pound invested in the service,
£4.70 of social value is generated.
• The highest outcome values were generated through health and wellbeing
benefits for the family member (£54,974) and reduced impact on the
criminal justice system (£50,984).
• The structured family support service provided the following outcomes to family
members: improved health and wellbeing; improved household finances;
increased knowledge and understanding; increased confidence; improved
coping skills; and enhanced ability to set and keep boundaries in the family.
• Adfam’s own services achieved a SROI ration of 2:1 – saving the state £2 for
every £1 of funding it receives.
We believe these results show the effectiveness of family support and the
value it can create in a local system. Now we just need to convince the local
decision makers.
Joss Smith is director of policy and regional development at Adfam,
www.adfam.org.uk
February 2013 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| 13
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
International |
Learning
FAMILY MATTERS
FAMILY VALUE
Latest research shows the value of investing
in family support, says
Joss Smith
out frontiers
greater awareness, knowledge and understanding of what treatment and
recovery entails but giving individuals a mutual sense of support via shared
experiences, unity strength and empowerment.
Some of the main objectives of FLAMES are to provide a sense of
understanding around treatment and recovery – where sometimes ignorance
has caused conflict and dysfunctional relationships – and to support families,
loved ones and residents by offering a sense belonging in an environment that
aspires to achieve long-term change. It also aims to have a direct impact on
achieving a greater level of social capital for each of our residents thus
impacting on community dynamics, peer relationships, family relationships and
commitment to their own recovery.
To mark the achievements of the 15 trainees who travelled to Europe,
Phoenix Futures held an ECEtt event in Sheffield last month, during which we
were also lucky enough to hear from representatives from Spain and Belgium.
‘ECEtt Networks are a wonderful opportunity for workers in social occupations
to train and to learn so much from their peers,’ said assistant director at the
Trempoline service in Belgium, Fabienne Vanbersy. ‘The event was a real
success – the trainees from Phoenix Futures were brilliant in their presentation
of their traineeships. The sum of knowledge they had learned and shared
during their journey was impressive as well as the implementations at their
workplace after their return.’
‘The Phoenix Futures ECEtt event proved very worthwhile in the respect that
we were able to share our experiences and discuss areas of good practice,’ said
drug worker at HMP Wymott, Mick Fowler. ‘There was much in the way of
positive feedback which emphasised the success behind the ECEtt experience.’
So what has Phoenix Futures gained from the experience? This project has
enabled workers and staff teams working in the field of addictions to deal with
professional challenges – staff could meet experienced peers facing similar
challenges in their own working environment and see how they managed to
achieve their professional targets. The act of travelling to meet other workers
enriches both parties, leads to the development of one’s own competences and
gives a broader understanding of alternative practices that have proved to be
successful in improving people’s lives and situations.
Phoenix Futures strives to continually deepen and strengthen its specialist
skills and abilities by sharing and developing practices that are recognised and
validated across Europe, by ECEtt partners who share a common goal of
improving and developing staff by training through travel. This ultimately
benefits service users, their families and the communities beyond.
Staff implement at least one best practice initiative gained from their trip in
their own services on their return – some initiatives have been rolled out locally,
some nationally. The dissemination of practices filters through services, teams,
managers and service users and is widely advertised throughout the
organisation to maximise practice sharing and uniformity.
Good practice from all European trainees is stored on the ECEtt database
after validation, for ongoing reference, networking and sharing, and the training
and follow-up support is ongoing for trainees via the online platform, where
they have access to validated examples of best practice and new initiatives.
‘As a chief executive I have the privilege of visiting services and it is
fantastic to give staff from so many different services the opportunity to do
the same,’ said Phoenix Futures chief executive Karen Biggs. ‘The feedback
from them demonstrates how effective this is as a learning tool. It has
developed them as individuals and they have used that learning to develop
their services and their approach.’
This article was written by the organisational team – Vicky Holdsworth, Fran
Gray, Bob Campbell; and the ECEtt trainees – Nicola Owens, Helen Cleugh, Lucy
Morris, Jennifer Robertson and Mick Fowler, at Phoenix Futures