Making the light even brighter in Sunderland

We’re delighted to have commenced a new impact project with the Foundation of Light, the official charitable foundation of Sunderland Football Club.

The Foundation has its home in the world-class ‘Beacon of Light’ community sports facility that stands prominently alongside the Stadium of Light in Sunderland. A wide range of programmes are offered at the Beacon opening up access to football alongside a vast array of other activities designed to support healthy development in all aspects of life. However, impressive as it is, there’s far more to the Foundation that just the work that happens at the Beacon site. Teams of foundation staff are also out and about around the area seven days a week, delivering programmes in schools and in the community.

Goodlabs is supporting the Foundation with a strategic piece of work to make an even bigger impact in the years ahead. We’re working with staff from senior leaders through to frontline delivery in order to align and embed the impact ambitions of the Foundation’s new strategic plan. Backed by an array of funders and stakeholders including key partners such as the Premier League Charitable Fund there is huge opportunity. The challenge is to empower every single member of the team to evidence the difference they’re making clearly and consistently. It’s about making impact everyone’s business. It’s a vital task that we’re so pleased to be able to support with.

Researching The Impact of Hearing Loss

Goodlabs have been supporting the development of Tyneside-based charity Deaflink for the last year or so as part of a package of Lottery-funded support. The first phase of our work involved looking at how Deaflink could support local hospitals to better serve the needs of users of British Sign Language. In this next phase we shift focus to the issue of Hearing Loss.

The prevalence of Hearing Loss is reasonably well-known, affecting some 87,000 people in the Newcastle-Gateshead CCG region*. What is less well-known is how those experiencing Hearing Loss feel about it, especially here in the North East. This is where we hope to be able to shed some new light, bringing to the fore a range of authentic accounts of the challenges experienced, as well as the things that help.

*18-70 age group, hearing loss range of 25 - 64 dBHL

Let's make an impact together in 2021

Make 2021 your year of Impact

About Your organisation:

• You will be a charity, charitable foundation or social enterprise with an annual turnover of £1—5 million

• Your annual report presents impressive numbers showing how busy you are, but the story of your effectiveness hinges on a few carefully selected case studies

• You have a complex network of funders and find that it can be very challenging to manage your reporting obligations to them

• It is not uncommon for an upcoming reporting deadline to send a ripple of panic through your teams

• You have never developed an overarching impact framework that consolidates your various outcomes into a single cohesive model

• You collect lots of data but struggle to interpret it in ways that support the communication of your impact story

What I will bring:

• 20 years’ experience of strategic leadership in the social sector

• 4 years’ experience of in Impact Management consultancy, supporting 40 organisations to develop their reach, impact and resilience.

• Learning from past and present clients including Lloyds Bank Foundation, Greggs Foundation, Northumberland Council, Gateshead Council, YMCA, Age UK, Mind, Save the Children and many more.

What will change as a result:

• Your organisation will become optimised for greater impact at every level

• A common philosophy of impact will become embedded from the frontline to the boardroom

• You will learn what aspects of your work are reliably making an impact, and where improvement is required

• You will provide a more transformative service to your beneficiaries

• You will give existing funders with greater assurance that you are able to deliver what you promise

• You will present a more compelling case for support to potential funders

• Your systems for measuring, monitoring and managing outcomes will be enhanced, using labour-saving digital technologies

To book a zoom call to talk about your requirements in more detail email: impact@goodlabs.uk

The Win, Win, Win

This month Goodlabs facilitated a virtual event with forward-thinking businesses to discuss the way that Covid-19 has transformed Employee Volunteering. The event was the culmination of a piece of research work that Goodlabs has been undertaking for VODA. Special guests from EE, Newcastle Building Society, Greggs and many others joined the conversation which was kindly chaired by Karen Goldfinch of North Tyneside Business Forum.

Regional VCS infrastructure organisation VODA had responded rapidly to the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic by working alongside the local council to launch a support hub for vulnerable residents. The support offered was human-centred and practical in nature, simply known as: Good Neighbours. With volunteering at its heart the hub introduced VODA to hundreds of new volunteers, many adjusting to working from home rather than in shared offices. As the first lockdown relaxed VODA asked Goodlabs to lead a learning project to highlight the key ways in which impact had been made.

Thousands of vulnerable and isolated people received absolutely essential support through the work of the hub. Food parcels and vital medicines were delivered to those who could not leave their homes. However, one of the most interesting findings related to the volunteers themselves, especially to those volunteers adjusting to remote rather than office working. We found that:

1. Remote workers universally appreciated the opportunity to break up their working day by undertaking a volunteer assignment.

2. They benefitted from the social contact, which goes some way to replacing the social contact previously enjoyed at the office.

3. They have experienced ‘emotional payback’. Helping other gives an uplift in wellbeing that adds buoyancy to their working week.

We also found that these effects combined to mitigate known factors associated with working from home that are limiters on productivity. This in turn makes the experience of remote working more sustainable over the longer term. Our conclusion was therefore that a regular volunteer opportunity is therefore:

• good for the employee, WIN ✓

• good for those they support, WIN ✓

• good for the employer too. WIN ✓

A challenge was laid down to businesses to embracing a new model of employee volunteering:

• Out with the proverbial ‘teams painting sheds’. Prior models of CSR centred around large teams of staff engaging in full-day mass volunteering is called into question.

• Breaking days into hours.More flexible approaches to ‘volunteering allowances’ within HR policies appear to be the new trend and need to be adopted more widely.

Gateshead System Transformation

Gateshead Multiple & Complex Needs Initiative

Goodlabs is working with Oasis Community Housing, Collective Impact Agency and Helme Park on this important piece of work that is supported by Fulfilling Lives Newcastle & Gateshead and reporting into the Gateshead Health & Care Systems Board.

The aims of this Gateshead MCN Transformation Initiative are:

•To yield new insights into the ways in which the Gateshead system is dealing with people experiencing MCN

•To reveal where over-complexity within the system is working against the achieving of outcomes

•To highlight where innovation has enabled better outcomes for those with MCN

•To make recommendations for the rationalising of the multiple professional contexts concerned with MCN issues

•To leverage improvement within the system that will benefit both service-users and professionals

We are pleased to release our interim report which summarises our work so far giving our initial findings. It is not intended as a set of recommendations for the Gateshead system rather to stimulate discussion to inform and direct the next phase of the work. We do intend to make recommendations in our final report, due in February of 2021.

>> The interim report can be downloaded here

FEB 2021 UPDATE:

The project is now complete and the final report has been published (link below). Entitled “People at the Heart” the report is rooted in interviews, focus groups and meetings with over 100 people from across the Gateshead health and care system. This included professionals working in the public sector and the voluntary sector, as well as groups of ‘experts by experience’. The report sets out 4 priorities and links these to a set of 12 principles, linked to 12 corresponding practices. The diagram below shows the 4 priorities at the centre, surrounded by the 12 principles.

>> The final report can be downloaded here

#ThousandTrees

UPDATE: In December 2021 we hit our target of 1000 trees planted. We’ve decided to continue as we began and look forward to our hitting our next milestone of 2000!

As a business specialising in impact management it’s only right that we lead by example. As an expression of our concern about the climate emergency, and as a commitment to do our best to tread lightly on this beautiful planet, we are delighted to become an official partner of the global reforestation charity One Tree Planted.

Find out the full story below…

#ThousandTrees is our pledge to plant a forest of 1000 trees over the next 2 years. Over the course of their lifetime our trees will sequester an estimated 500 metric tonnes of CO2. We have chosen to plant our forest in Haiti, the poorest nation in the western hemisphere and a place that, due to its extreme poverty, has seen rapid deforestation in recent decades. Reforesting the hills of Haiti has a double bonus, as the trees not only sequester carbon from the atmosphere, but also protect against deadly flooding and landslips during hurricane season. Another benefit is to halt erosion, which combined with over-farming and poor agricultural methods, has destroyed the region’s soil, making it very difficult to grow food. The Goodlabs forest will help restore nutrients to the soil. Parallel programmes alongside the planting will teach local farmers how to use the land responsibly and profitably. Due to the tropical climate trees planted grow faster than here in Britain so the benefits of the scheme are realised more quickly too.

To find out more about One Tree Planted and how your business can partner to grow your own forest click here.

Intro to Impact Management

Is impact a good thing?

Impact isn’t generally used in a positive sense - as anyone who has had a prang in their car knows. Indeed, the dictionary defines it as “Forcible contact or collision”.

Impact generally leaves a noticeable impression. It often produces a change in shape. So why do we use the word impact in the context of the lives of the people that we work with? 

It is helpful to think of impact in the artistic sense of the word, for example a sculptor chipping away to bring out something special and valuable.

Speaking the lingo (definitions)

Impact sits within a wider cluster of ideas that relate to the effectiveness of the services that we deliver, including:  

• Outputs, which tell us how busy we have been:
  They typically count of the number of times we did something,
  e.g. provided 17 coffee mornings attended by a total of 28 older people.

• Outcomes, which tell us how effective we have been:
  They summarise what changed as a result of the activity/service being delivered, e.g. 75% of participants reported being less socially isolated.

• Indicators, which are the building blocks of evidence:
  They are the specific things we track in order to show an outcome is being achieved, e.g. reducing sugar intake and walking more are both indicators of physical health.

• Impact, which describes the overall effect of our work:
  Patterns in outcomes data over time are used to tell the bigger story of how a service is making a difference within a population, e.g. We saw a moderate improvement in the health of 65-75 year old men last year.

Sector Trends

When Impact first came on the scene the preoccupation was with measurement. There was a sense that collecting lots of data reassured organisations of their professionalism. Over time organisations realised that they were accumulating lots of data but lacked the ability to interpret and understand the story that the data was telling them.  

Impact Management is a more recent development that places the emphasis on being very clear on what data is being collected and why. Within Impact Management the aim of reporting on Outputs and Outcomes is in order to understand what aspects of a service are being effective and to identify where it is proving more challenging to achieve positive change. Data is used to aid reflection and learning, with a view to continuous and intelligent service improvement.

Social Impact

Within the world of Impact the phrase Social Impact is often discussed. This represents a desire to make claims about the ‘knock-on effect’ of organisational impact through the wider social system, e.g. reductions in A&E admissions or reduced demand on Social Care services. ‘Social Return on Investment’ sits at the most difficult end of impact reporting involving complex mathematics and economics based on principles such as ‘Attribution’ e.g. how can you be sure that the improvement you saw in the wellbeing of a client was due to your intervention and not some other factor?

Expert economists have produced a variety of databases containing a wide range of ‘Financial proxies’ which seek to apply £ values to the outcomes achieved, e.g. frequent moderate exercise has a wellbeing effect of £4179. It is fair to say that within the sector are both enthusiasts for, and sceptics of, the £ values proposed in these economic models.   

Where next?

If you’d like to have a chat with us about how impact management can be used to drive improvement within your charity, social enterprise or business just drop a line to: impact@goodlabs.uk

Covid-19 Local Data Maps

At Goodlabs we believe that accurate and transparent data is absolutely critical to good decision-making.

People have been telling us that the vital data required to compare Covid-19 impact around the country is buried deep in Government websites and not easy to find.

To make life a bit easier for you two of the key data maps illustrating deaths occurring due to the disease are shown below. They are fully interactive and provided by the Office for National Statistics.

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New CRM system for Rape Crisis

Rape Crisis Tyneside & Northumberland belongs to the national network of Rape Crisis centres, providing vital services for women who have experienced sexual abuse, exploitation and violence. Our connection came via our delivery relationship with Lloyds Bank Foundation, one of RCTN’s funders, along with the Ministry of Justice and others.

Like many charities in receipt of funding from major public and corporate sector sources RCTN has to navigate a vast array of statistics about the work that it is delivering. Historically this had been done via a Microsoft Access database but this technology was fast becoming obsolete and its limitations myriad.

Goodlabs supported RCTN through a multi-phased project that involved reflecting critically on systems and processes for client/case management, along with development of a Theory of Change and Outcomes Framework. This was followed by the production of a detailed specification outlining the essential functionality of the new CRM, and then taking this to the market via a proportionate tendering process. Systems were demoed, providers shortlisted and interviewed and eventually a decision made.

Finally Goodlabs provided arms-length project management through the build and implementation phase, support with export and import of historic data, plus the coaching and training of key staff to ensure rapid adoption of the new platform (a custom iteration of the Salesforce based ‘In-Form’ supplied by Homeless Link).

Growing Greggs' work in Schools

Greggs CEO Roger Whiteside opening the Greggs Foundation’s 500th Breakfast Club.

It’s fantastic to be working again with our friends at the Greggs Foundation on what is certainly one of the most exciting projects that Goodlabs has undertaken to date. Goodlabs is all about helping organisations to make a bigger social impact and that’s exactly what this project is about.

We were presented with the challenge “How can we grow our network of Breakfast Clubs from 500 to 1000 in the next 5 years?” To put that into context it took 20 years to get to the first 500. Succeeding will mean that around 30,000 more children a day are supported to get to school on time, and readied for a day of learning by being provided with a nutritious breakfast within a positive and caring environment.

To fulfil the brief we’re drawing on MD Matt Wilson’s two decades of experience in ‘social franchising’, along with best practice published by others active in the field of scaling up social innovation in recent years. In-depth analysis of the existing Breakfast Model will be conducted in order to eliminate any drag factors holding back growth. The wider landscape of partnership will be considered too, with companies belonging to the Greggs supply chain presenting an interesting opportunity.

You can find out more about the Greggs Breakfast Clubs network, and how you can get involved in it, by clicking here.

Supporting Housing Decarbonisation

The Northern Housing Consortium represents and acts as the collective ‘voice’ of around 70 social housing providers across the north of England, with hundreds of thousands of properties under management. Seeking to respond to the growing sense of urgency around the Climate Crisis NHC approached Goodlabs to support a strategic new project focused on the decarbonisation of social housing across the north.

NHC are rightly concerned that housing is a major contributor to CO2 emitted into the atmosphere. Inefficient boilers powering antiquated heating systems in poorly insulated homes makes for a poor carbon footprint. It also means that social housing tenants, often living on the poverty line, pay considerably more in fuel bills than they would do in a more efficient home. In order to provide clarity, generate ideas and get purchase on this vital agenda NHC contracted Goodlabs to lead them through a Theory of Change process.  

A Theory of Change is a visual model generally rendered as a diagram or illustration accompanied by explanatory text. It seeks to clarify the steps by which change happens, that is, the way that a project or programme of work brings about an impact upon individuals and group toward which the work is directed. Theory of Change achieves this by explaining the relationships between the problem being addressed, the resources deployed, the actions taken and the outcomes achieved. Organisations of all kinds use Theory of Change to demonstrate to internal and external stakeholders that their work has clear method, logic and cohesion, and therefore that impact can be reliably delivered, rather than being left to chance.

Brian Robson, NHC’s Executive Director for Policy and Public Affairs reflects:  

“We worked with Goodlabs on our organisation’s first Theory of Change. Matt took the time to understand our needs and developed a Lab format that enabled staff from all levels of the organisation to contribute. We then worked with Matt to turn the outputs from the Lab into a coherent Theory of Change model that was endorsed by our Board. I enjoyed working with Matt - he was supportive, constructive and collaborative - and hope the opportunity arises to do so again.”

Service Redesign for VODA

Everyone knows the incredible work undertaken by Britain’s charities - also known as the ‘Voluntary Sector’. Less well known is the equally vital work of the infrastructure organisations working behind the scenes to ensure that the voluntary sector continues to thrive. In the borough of North Tyneside the body providing this support is VODA.

Goodlabs was approached back in 2019 to lead on a project involving taking a fresh look at VODA’s flagship ‘Sector Connector’ programme. For several years now the programme has acted as a ‘broker’ between the many businesses in the borough and the local charities that they seek to support, mainly through employee volunteering schemes.

Recognising a desire amongst corporates to make a greater contribution to the wider community VODA commissioned Goodlabs to design and lead a process through which Sector Connector could be made even more effective as a mechanism for connecting corporate volunteers with local charities.

The process being followed involves engaging with all stakeholders to establish the opportunities on offer and also the challenges to be overcome. Labs and focus groups are being utilised in order to surface the areas in which development is required, and where relevant also being informed by wider research available in the field of employer-supported volunteering (ESV).

The aim is to be ready to pilot a ‘Sector Connector 2.0’ sometime in the autumn of 2020. Firms wishing to be involved can email: SC2.0@goodlabs.uk for more info.