We are planning to measure the impact of the sector’s great work responding to the crisis

There was so much work going on, in fact, that many heads of community investment we spoke to questioned what information they could and should be capturing, as well as how they would demonstrate and evidence their impact in the months ahead.

The centre has responded to these questions by creating a set of impact measures to help housing associations understand and monitor how they have been responding to the challenges that COVID-19 has posed. Creating these impact measures has been an extension of the work the centre has already done around collective impact.

The ability to keep track of the work that’s happening across your organisation, as well as building up a picture of the wider sector’s response, is vital.

From an organisational level, these impact measures can be used to collect information on how much your team and your wider organisation have done. As well as showcasing the role your team has played in responding, they will give you the tools to internally influence the thinking around the importance of community investment in this ongoing crisis. Using these impact measures should be easy and allow you to quickly pull together information to share with your board.

“Month to month, this data will enable us to show just how many thousands of calls are being made to vulnerable residents, just how many food parcels are being delivered, how much has been invested in vital community and voluntary services, and just how monumental the effort has been from staff to help their residents and communities”

We’re already beginning to see new pots of funding becoming available to the sector, as well as new offers for partnership from other organisations. By enabling you to collect information and quantify the value of your work over the medium and long term, these impact measures are designed to help your organisation with future funding applications.

The centre’s ask is that you share this information with us so that we can understand what the sector is doing cumulatively, and how it is responding over time. Month to month, this data will enable us to show just how many thousands of calls are being made to vulnerable residents, just how many food parcels are being delivered, how much has been invested in vital community and voluntary services, and just how monumental the effort has been from staff to help their residents and communities.

We’ll ask you to report back on these measures every month – starting with combined totals for March and April. We’ll then share month-on-month totals with you as we collate these.

The information that emerges from these impact measures will help us to tell the story of how this crisis is evolving. The findings will support current and future research projects that highlight the valuable contribution social housing organisations have made in the crisis, support our influencing work with a range of stakeholders, and support plans for collaborative funding bids – something we’ll be sharing more on soon.

Data gathered from these measures will bolster conversations that we’re already having with regional and national bodies inside and outside of housing, and feed into work of multi-sector partnerships we’re part of, such as the Community Action Response partnership – highlighting the crucial role of community investment in supporting and sustaining local neighbourhoods.

And it should give us data to share with them on why housing, community investment in particular, needs to be part of a co-ordinated and long-term response to the crisis and in addressing the long-standing issues of poverty and inequality that the past six weeks have accentuated.

“While these impact measures will tell one part of the story of how housing associations have responded, we also acknowledge that other parts of the story are more easily captured through personal reflections and observations. After all, facts and figures can only tell part of the story”

We are keen that these measures be shared as widely as possible across the sector and ask that you share them with colleagues who may not be so engaged with the work of the centre.

We will be producing a short summary report on the findings from the impact measures, which we will later share with all those organisations that submitted information to us.

While these impact measures will tell one part of the story of how housing associations have responded, we also acknowledge that other parts of the story are more easily captured through personal reflections and observations. After all, facts and figures can only tell part of the story.

As well as the measures we will shortly be sharing a framework to guide reflection in your teams and organisations, encouraging some contemplation on the things you’ve learnt and gained over the past six weeks, changes you’ve made you might like to keep, and to identify areas where improvements can be made. First and foremost these are offered as an internal tool, but we’d love for you to share some of these reflections with us.

Rob Sugden, head of communities, HACT