Impact Measures 2023

Measuring and demonstrating the impact of the social housing sector during the cost of living crisis

As the charity of the housing sector, we are uniquely placed to have the opportunity to champion the work that housing associations are doing to support residents.

 

In collaboration with community investment colleagues, we have developed a suite of impact measures to understand and evidence the impact made, and continue to make, across the sector so organisation can use the outputs to support successful bids, benchmark their own organisation and, importantly, show our impact to help influence conversations with government and local authorities.

 

 

Want to get involved?

Get in touch and find out how you can be part of the project

“The community investment impact measures are a really useful way to provide at-a-glance information on the impact we are having and how it compares year-on-year. We really encourage others to take part”.

Alistair Smyth

Director of External Affairs and Social Investment, The Guinness Partnership

Timeline for collecting sector wide impact measures

March 2023

HACT are sharing the specific figures we will be asking for, housing associations can familiarise yourselves with the figures required. This is also an opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback on the project.

April 2023

HACT will be collecting the data from housing associations. This will be done via a quick online survey and we want as many housing associations to get involved to provide the best picture possible.

May 2023

HACT will be sharing the impact measures. This will be your chance to access the impact measures from across the sector to benchmark your own organisation and use these for further opportunities.

What will we be measuring?

Here is a list of the measures we will be requesting in April to be submitted from the social housing sector.

Rent

1. Total number of residents identified in arrears
2. Total number of residents identified on Universal Credit

Financial support

1. Amount distributed through direct financial support to residents in the past year
2. Numbers of individuals/households accessing direct financial support
3. Amount gained for individuals/households through indirect financial support in the past month (Including benefits claimed)

Advice, guidance & support

1. Number of welfare calls to residents in the past year
2. Number of people supported with advice, guidance and support in the past year with:
>Money and debt
>Welfare and benefits advice
>Digital
>Employment, education and training
>Mental wellbeing

Employment, Education & Training

Number of people supported into:
1. Full time employment, in the past year
2. Part time employment, in the past year
3. Employment training (employer or non-employer), in the past year
4. Apprenticeships, in the past year
5. Volunteering, in the past year

Community groups

1. Number of community and voluntary groups supported financially over the past year
2. Amount distributed to community and voluntary groups over the past year

Other initiatives

1. Number of food interventions made in the past year
2. Number of young people supported

“The measures were an effective way of demonstrating to our senior management team and board how we supported our communities during the pandemic lockdowns. We also shared them with local authorities, where we had reduced the massive pressure on them.”

Tracy James

Involvement Officer, Newydd Housing Association

Guidance on each measure

Here is a little more detail on what each impact measure includes to help collect the right data.

Please tell us the total number of individuals/households you have identified in arrears in the past year. If possible, please tell us the number of individuals/households who have been in arrears at least once during the year. If this is not possible, you can take a snapshot of the number of individuals/households who have been in arrears on one single day.

Please tell us the total number of residents you have identified who are on Universal Credit in the past year.

This refers to the value of direct financial support to residents and can include:

  • Hardship funds
  • Fuel vouchers
  • Supermarket vouchers
  • Rent relief funds
  • Any other funds distributed directly to residents/households

You are also able to record the financial value of goods and services which you have purchased and then distributed directly to residents e.g. white goods, digital tablets

You are able to record support that has come from your own budget, or that you have received external funding for.

This does not refer to the value of welfare and benefits claimed for residents, which is recorded separately.

Note: If you don’t do this activity, please leave this blank. If you do this activity but don’t have anything to record for the year, please record ‘0’.

This refers to the number of individuals/households who access your financial support, not the amount of financial support distributed.

Note: If you don’t do this activity, please leave this blank. If you do this activity but don’t have anything to record for the year, please record ‘0’.

This refers to the financial value of indirect financial support, which is money that comes to your residents which isn’t from your organisation, but which you support them to claim. This could include:

  • Welfare and benefits claimed on behalf of residents
  • Providing support which leads to residents’ debt decreasing, if the debt is owed to any other organisation (e.g. energy debt)
  • Any other support which leads to more money for your residents from another organisation

Note: If you don’t do this activity, please leave this blank. If you do this activity but don’t have anything to record for the year, please record ‘0’.

This is about any call made to residents about their welfare over the past calendar year. This includes check in call, calls to those in sheltered schemes and calls made as part of ongoing befriending services.

Note: If you don’t do this activity, please leave this blank. If you do this activity but don’t have anything to record for the year, please record ‘0’.

This is an overall figure to capture all types of one-to-one or personalised advice, guidance or support. We also record specific types of advice, guidance and support separately.

You can include residents, or any other person you have supported during this time for all advice, support and guidance measures.

NOTE: For all advice, support and guidance measures – We know that some organisations count the number of individuals supported with advice and guidance monthly, so would count the same individual multiple times if they were supported for multiple months. We know others will count a person once regardless of how long they are supported for. If possible, please remove any duplicates, so that you count each person only once.

This refers specifically to advice, guidance and support about money and debt. This could include:

  • Budgeting advice
  • Financial resilience advice
  • Debt management advice
  • any other advice about money and debt

This does not refer to welfare and benefits advice, which is captured separately. If you cannot separate money and debt advice from welfare and benefits advice, you can record the same figure for both.

Note: If you don’t do this activity, please leave this blank. If you do this activity but don’t have anything to record for the year, please record ‘0’.

This refers specifically to advice, guidance and support about welfare and benefits. This could include:

  • Advice about which benefits residents are entitled to and the benefit system
  • Claiming benefits that residents are entitled to on their behalf

This does not refer to wider money management advice, which is captured separately. If you cannot separate money and debt advice from welfare and benefits advice, you can record the same figure for both.

Note: If you don’t do this activity, please leave this blank. If you do this activity but don’t have anything to record for the year, please record ‘0’.

This refers specifically to advice, guidance and support about digital. This could include:

  • Helping residents access low cost/free devices, including by giving them out
  • Helping residents access low cost/free internet and/or data
  • Improving residents digital skills e.g. training residents about how to use their devices, internet or data
  • Any other advice about digital

Note: If you don’t do this activity, please leave this blank. If you do this activity but don’t have anything to record for the year, please record ‘0’.

This refers specifically to advice, guidance and support about employment, education, and training. This could include:

  • CV writing and interview skills
  • Pre-employment readiness
  • Help accessing clothing or other goods and services that help people get jobs
  • Any other advice about education, training, and employment

This does not refer to getting people employment, education or training roles, which is recorded separately. This about advice and guidance which supports people towards employment, education and training.

Note: If you don’t do this activity, please leave this blank. If you do this activity but don’t have anything to record for the year, please record ‘0’.

This refers to advice, guidance and support about mental wellbeing, including loneliness. This would involve more detailed and tailored advice and guidance than the welfare calls measure, and could include:

  • Referral to a commissioned or partner mental wellbeing service, and in-house support
  • Advice or guidance to help combat loneliness
  • Any other advice about mental wellbeing

Note: If you don’t do this activity, please leave this blank. If you do this activity but don’t have anything to record for the year, please record ‘0’.

In order to claim this outcome, the resident must “Move from unemployment to full-time employment”. The evidence needed is a “record of individuals moving from unemployment into full-time employment” (Please do keep this evidence, however we do not need you to send it to us)

Important: If you record a resident here, you CAN’T also record them as ‘supported into part-time employment’ or ‘supported into an apprenticeship’. You CAN also record them as ‘supported into volunteering’ and ‘supported into employment training’, if this is the case.

In order to claim this outcome, the resident must “Move from unemployment to a part-time job”. The evidence needed is a “record of individuals moving from unemployment into part-time employment” (Please do keep this evidence, however we do not need you to send it to us)

Important: If you record a resident here, you CAN’T also record them as ‘supported into full-time employment’ or ‘supported into an apprenticeship’. You CAN also record them as ‘supported into volunteering’ and ‘supported into employment training’, if this is the case.

In order to claim this outcome, the resident must attend “Employment training provided by employer or non-employer”. The evidence needed is a “record of individuals attending training” (Please do keep this evidence, however we do not need you to send it to us)

Important: If you record a resident here, you CAN also record them as ‘supported into full-time employment’, ‘supported into part-time employment’, ‘supported into apprenticeship’ and ‘supported into volunteering’, if this is the case.

In order to claim this outcome, the resident must be “currently enrolled on an apprenticeship”. The evidence needed is a “record of individuals enrolling on an apprenticeship” (Please do keep this evidence, however we do not need you to send it to us)

Important: If you record a resident here, you CAN’T also record them as ‘supported into full-time employment’, or ‘supported into part-time employment’. You CAN also record them as  ‘supported into employment training’ and ‘supported into volunteering’, if this is the case.

In order to claim this outcome, the resident must “volunteer at least once per month over the last 12 months “. The evidence needed is a “record of individuals who regularly volunteer/Employment survey” (Please do keep this evidence, however we do not need you to send it to us)

Important: If you record a resident here, you CAN also record them as ‘supported into full-time employment’, ‘supported into part-time employment’, ‘supported into employment training’ and ‘supported in an apprenticeship’, if this is the case.

This refers to the number of groups who you have support financially, not the amount of financial support distributed.

Community and voluntary groups should ideally have a charity commission number and/or a constitution, in order to be counted.

Note: If you don’t do this activity, please leave this blank. If you do this activity but don’t have anything to record for the year, please record ‘0’.

This refers to the value of financial support for community and voluntary groups that you work with.

Community and voluntary groups should ideally have a charity commission number and/or a constitution, in order to be counted.

Note: If you don’t do this activity, please leave this blank. If you do this activity but don’t have anything to record for the year, please record ‘0’.

This refers to any support with food, and can include:

  • Referrals to food banks or pantries
  • Supermarket vouchers
  • Emergency food parcels or food deliveries
  • Meals for children during school holidays or any other time
  • Food given out to address food poverty at community events
  • Cooking or food growing programmes

Some households will receive support with food more than once in a year. Please tell us the total number of food interventions, not the number of people supported. This figure can include households that are not owned/managed by your organisation.

Note: If you don’t do this activity, please leave this blank. If you do this activity but don’t have anything to record for the year, please record ‘0’.

This refers any support for young people up to the age of 18, which could include:

  • Activity packs
  • Online or in-person programme of activities
  • Employment and training support
  • Mental wellbeing support
  • School holiday activity and/or food programmes
  • Any other support

This figure can include residents, or any other young person you have supported during this time.

Note: If you don’t do this activity, please leave this blank. If you do this activity but don’t have anything to record for the year, please record ‘0’.

Get involved in the project

We will continue to request figures from the social housing sector each month to provide these important measures during the cost of living crisis. HACT have a unique opportunity to champion the work housing associations are doing to support residents.

Why should you get involved?

  • Successful bids: The previous impact measures were key part of of successful bids to distribute £2.5million in fuel vouchers among many other funding applications.
  • Influence: We will use these impact measures to influence on behalf of housing associations, in conversations with the government and local authorities.
  • Benchmark: You will have access to these impact measures to benchmark your own organisation and use to plan for cost of living support in the future

 

To find out more about the measures, and get involved in development get in touch with HACT Network Lead, Adam Chester

Contact Adam

By submitting your details, you agree for your information to be held by HACT and for us to get in contact with you with information you may be interested in from time to time. You can opt out of receiving communications from HACT at anytime.

“The measures have allowed us to see our efforts in the context of the wider sector, gain inspiration from work around the country, and contribute to raising the profile of our sector at a time when investment is so crucial.”

Nick Kassam

Performance & Improvement Officer, Hillcrest Homes

Learn more about our other initiatives during the cost of living crisis

Cost of living event series

Free and online bi-weekly events cover different topics, providing resources and practical support for community investment colleagues.

Join a network

Four thematic networks, and ten geographic networks across the UK are the perfect space for colleagues to collaborate and share ideas on a variety of topics. Find out which network is best for you and register for the next meeting.

Join the Centre's Linkedin group

Stay up to date on the latest news, blogs and events via a closed Linkedin group designed for community investment colleagues.

Get in touch

If you would like to know more about the information we will be asking for in April, or if you would like support making the case to your data and performance colleagues to get involved, contact HACT Network Lead, Adam Chester.

contact Rebecca