A key London East borough identified the need to better evidence the impact their services had through outcome based accountability. Dr Tony Munton, a consultant from the RTK, worked with the Local Authority (LA) to understand the service requirements and identify key outcomes required to evidence the effectiveness of their provision and impact on the young people worked with.
Having identified the key outcomes,the borough required a recording system and reporting mechanism to monitor and evidence the effectiveness of individual services and overall impact on young people. The 15billionebp MI team were asked to develop a solution.
Working with the LA and the Early Help & Transition Team, we reviewed the required outcomes and suggested ways to capture the evidence. Upon agreement, we commissioned our software providers C:Vision to develop a ‘User Voice’ assessment, linked directly to the young person. This enabled the capturing, measuring and reporting of their views. Providing a tailored solution to the borough’s team, we worked closely to align operational practice and recording requirements, adapting the database and providing both face to face and training materials to support users. We built reports to reflect the outcomes and technical documents to understand what the data meant. As with all custom solutions, we continue to work with the LA to embed, support and improve the process.
Although linked to national statistics, this project was based upon local needs and was developed to better understand the views, progress and service impact on young people within the LA. Outcomes from this process will provide a better understanding of young people’s views, inform change where required and evidence service impact.
Gaining an insight into the LAs objectives was valuable in the development of future programs and may support other boroughs who are interested in measuring the views of young people, alongside outcome based accountability of services.