Transcript Slide 1

Building the economic case for community
capacity-building
Presented at the ‘People with disabilities participating fully and safely in
the community’ conference, held by the National Disability Authority in
Dublin 13th October 2011
Annette Bauer
[email protected]
Personal Social Services Research Unit (PSSRU)
London School of Economics and Political Science
About PSSRU
Our mission: To conduct high quality research on
social and health care to inform and influence
policy, practice and theory.
Established in 1974 at the University of Kent; two
new branches opened in 1996 at the LSE and the
University of Manchester.
LSE Health & Social Care led by Professor Martin
Knapp.
Linked with the Institute of Psychiatry, London and
the National Institute for Health Research.
Building the economic case for
community capacity-building
The work summarised here was partly funded by the
Department of Health.
Carried out under the lead of Martin Knapp and with
colleagues Margaret Perkins and Tom Snell.
A fuller description of the work in our paper: Martin
Knapp, Annette Bauer, Margaret Perkins, Tom
Snell (2011) Building community capacity:
making an economic case; Think Local Act
Personal.
We continue to work in this field (more on this later).
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Building the economic case for
community capacity-building
What is community capacity-building?
Why evaluate CCB economically?
How to measure the economic value of CCB?
Examples: Time banks & Debt advise and
signposting by community navigators
Where from here?
What is Community capacity-building
Definition
- Asset-based, developmental approach.
- Understands obstacles that prevent people
(and organisations) from achieving their goals.
- Empowerment of local people and
neighbourhoods to initiate action themselves.
- Leads to measurable and sustainable results
at an individual, community, societal level.
- Generates social capital (!)
What is Community capacity-building?
A lot of reasons why it is worthwhile:
Trust
Confidence
Knowledge &
Social networks &
skills
support
Fun
Empowerment
Self-esteem
Participation
Independence
Self worth &
Happiness
Identification
Quality of life
Safety
Activity
What is Community capacity-building?
“[…] social capital refers to the networks of
social relations that provide access to
needed resources and supports …
Any study of social capital should encompass
the investments that people make […] and the
returns to those investments in the form of
economic, social and health outcomes for
individuals, communities and societies.”
Policy Research Initiative (2003), Social capital: Building on
a Network Based Approach, Canada, October 2003
Why measuring the economic value
of community capacity-building?
In a world of scarce resources we also need to
know: Is CCB good value for money?
Can it stop needs before they arise, does it
meet them when they do and is there active
participation? – Project level
Does greater community capacity and
governance reduce the demand on the
welfare system? – System level
How to measure the economic value
of Community capacity-building?
Befriending Interventions to Older People
= Continuous social and emotional support
Mead et al., 2010
Mental wellbeing 
Beekman, 1997
McCusher, 2007
Reduced Isolation/
Loneliness
Cacioppo et al., 2006
Wilson et al., 2007
 Access to services (£)
 Quality of life  (£)
 Crises, home services, hospital  (£)
How to measure the economic value
of community capacity-building?
Barriers
Lots of qualitative but less of quantitative
evidence
Process evaluation more common than
outcomes evaluation
Organic nature of community development
(co-production)
Cumulative impact over time to a range of
beneficiaries
How to measure the economic value
of community capacity-building?
Beneficiaries relationships
Direct beneficiaries/
direct involvement
Participants e.g. improved
health
No involvement/ Direct
beneficiaries
Cares and family
members e.g. extra
leisure time
Direct involvement/
Indirect beneficiaries
Volunteers e.g. selfesteem
No involvement/ Indirect
beneficiaries
Population impact e.g.
reduced crime rates
How to measure the economic value
of community capacity-building?
Our modelling approach:
- Ex-ante model.
- Cost-benefit approach.
- One year time horizon.
- Hypothesis building required.
- Comparison group derived from the literature.
- Evidence from (grey-)literature, expert opinions
- Outcome dimensions: Public service utilisation,
productivity, quality of life.
- Costs of intervention: from national sources.
Example: Time banks
Community currency = Hours of time.
Exchange of skills, practical support, resources
(e.g. recreational activities, IT, languages, child
minding, transportation).
Low administration costs compared to
volunteering schemes: Time bank coordinator
and overhead costs, IT support for database.
Range of qualitative and some quantitative
evidence from evaluation reports e.g. Rushey
Green Practice.
Example: Time banks
Calculating the net benefit
Resource Input
- £450
Economic value service hours
+ £506
Productivity gains
+ £580
Reduced benefit claims
+ £240
Average net benefit per person
£876
QoL Improvement
+ £645
Average net benefit per person
£1,545
Example: Community navigators
Act the interface between the community and public
services: Social, emotional and practical support
and signposting to public services.
A focus on debt and housing related issues in
deprived areas; here: Debt
Evidence on consequences of debt came mainly
from two national surveys: the English and Wales
Civil and Social Justice Survey 2004, the Advice
Agency Client Study 2007
Effectiveness of intervention from Williams and
Sansom 2007, Pleasence et al 2007
Example: Community navigators
Calculating the net benefit
Resource Input
- £340
Debt advice agency
- £180
Productivity gains
+ £990
Reduced benefit claims
+ £140
Average net benefit per person
£610
QoL Improvement
+ £840
Average net benefit per person
£1,450
Examples
Limitations
Hypothetical, based on assumptions from the
literature
Lack of comparison groups (we don’t know for
sure what would have happened without…)
Works with averages and ‘typical’ values
(service delivery aspects not considered)
Standardised, methodological approach is still
missing
Where from here?
Policy & research recommendations
Data collection/ self evaluation for CCB projects,
with a focus on costs and outcomes;
Development of agreed set of principles and
methods for economic evaluation in this area;
New innovative research methods – action
research based;
Developing service models (organisational form,
ownership, delivery aspects).
Where from here?
PSSRU Projects
England CCB (planned start Nov. 2011): wide
range of CCB projects; participatory approach;
collection of costs and outcomes data over 12
months period via standardised (but locally
adjusted) self-evaluation tools
European CCB with focus on older people
(envisaged): role and impact of CCB in 5
countries and identification of best practice;
innovation models tested against their
economic pay-offs; development and scaling
up of innovative service models