Single Homeless Project runs 50 supported accommodation services in London for vulnerable young people, people with substance misuse problems, high risk offenders and people with mental health issues.
In 2004/5 they decided that they needed to be able to measure the outcomes of their work. Toni Warner, Deputy Director, describes the journey to being an outcomes focussed organisation, its highs and lows, and what the outcome has been four years on.
We decided to start measuring outcomes because we knew that commissioners and central government would soon start asking for this information and we wanted to be ready when they did.
We wanted to be one step ahead and setting the agenda rather than just responding.
We also wanted to get a clearer sense for ourselves of what we were achieving.
We knew our services were making a difference but we couldn’t quantify it.
The first step was a consultation with all of our staff
With the help of Triangle Consulting we held workshops with all the teams to identify what the intended outcomes of their service were and the indicators that showed that progress was being made.
On the basis of this we decided to use the St Mungo’s Star (the Outcomes Star had not been published at that stage).
We piloted it which went very well but also highlighted the need for a version with more client-friendly language.
Once we had made the necessary alterations we were ready to roll it out but wanted to get the technology in place before we did this so that service users could complete the Star on-line and we could analyse results at the touch of a button.
That is where things got stuck.
Outcomes went on a back-burner for quite a while
We explored a number of options and went down a number of blind alleys. There were also other things that took our attention away from this initiative – particularly putting in service bids when a number of our services were put out to competitive tender.
So outcomes went on a back-burner for quite a while.
In early 2007 we starting using the Star in particular high support services
(for example a new Prolific Priority Offenders project) where there was a specific need for outcome information and in our projects in Newham and Waltham Forest where the commissioners had specifically asked for this information but did not pursue it right across the organisation.
Eventually we found the space to focus on the initiative again
We decided not to wait for the technology to be in place but we did re-draft all of our key-work materials to place the Star right at the heart of the work we do with clients.
Then on 2nd January 2008 we went live and started using the Outcomes Star for new clients across all projects in the organisation.
At the same time we are developing LINK, the database that we use to record client information, to included Outcomes Star information and will be piloting the new system in three projects from July.
The whole process has taken much longer than we anticipated but it has definitely been worth it. In East London and the Prolific Priority Offenders (PPO) project the data we have collected has been incredibly useful in evidencing the progress that service users have made during their time in the service.
For example in the PPO project the Star data clearly showed many clients making strong progress.
In addition crime in the areas covered by the project went down by 35%.
When we cross-checked our Star data with the police it was clear that those who had made good progress had stopped (or significantly reduced) offending and those who had not made progress on the Star were still offending.
Using the Star has led to a fundamental change in casework
It means that we look at the client holistically – rather than just talking about the things that are easy to talk about we look at everything.
This was difficult for workers at first because they didn’t feel comfortable asking about the more difficult areas but the result has been very positive.
The services are more client-focussed because the Star makes us think about the client and what is changing for each individual.
Because it helps to pin-point where service users are making progress and where they are not it has helped staff to start thinking creatively about how to get greater improvements as well.
Hard outcomes are needed too
As well as the Star we have also found it important to become systematic about collecting hard outcome information as well.
We have identified 80 hard outcome indicators that we are collecting in different projects.
Some of them are necessary for contracts that we have with Drug Action Teams, some of them are required for SP contracts and some are internal ones which we have identified as being important to collect.
We are starting to look ahead again and think about the Local Area Agreement stretch targets within the boroughs that we are working in.
We know that we will need to demonstrate that we are contributing to the achievement of these targets and so we are giving thought to how we will do this.
We also plan to use the outcome data we are collecting for research and service improvement – we see lots of scope for development here.
It takes time but is well worth it
My advice to anyone who is thinking about doing this would be that it will probably take more time than you think but the investment repays itself.
We certainly had to deal with some resistance from staff which was a headache.
Re-working our key-work materials took time too and it is an extra thing that we need to train key-workers on.
But what we now have is better key-work, more client-focussed services and real evidence which we can use with commissioners and that is worth its weight in gold.
Further information
For further information on SHP and the services it delivers, please
visit their website by clicking here.