2. “In our time, the curse is monetary illiteracy,
just as inability to read plain print was the
curse of earlier centuries.” Ezra Pound
3. What we will cover
1. About Creative Councils
2. Why a business case?
3. Tools for making the case
4. Existing evidence
5. Practical steps
6. Using results
7. Q&A
4.
5. Creative Councils:
• NESTA/LGA Challenge Prize supporting 17 Councils
• Focus on radical innovations to solve problems
• Tackling issues such as ageing society, sustainable
growth and increasing demand on services
• 2 year programme
• Tools and lessons will be shared with other councils
6. Community Engagement Webinars
• Part of Creative Councils support
• Online webinars focussing on different
aspects of local community engagement
• Every two weeks on a Friday Lunchtime
• Runs February to April
• Free and open to anyone to attend
• Recordings of past webinars will be posted
online
7. About
• Registered Charity (nr. 1130568)
• Focus: Public and stakeholder engagement
• Works with: Central & local government.
Health organisations, NGOs and International
Organisations
• www.involve.org.uk
8.
9.
10. "I am extremely uncomfortable with the idea
that someone will decide whether or not
'participation' is 'economically viable'. The
question should be whether there is scope for
the participant to change things. Not will their
participation be 'cost effective'"
Respondent to Involve 2005
11. Making the case
• It’s a good thing
• It’s a democratic right
• Improves wellbeing
• Inclusion of marginalised groups
• Empowerment of marginalised groups
12. Why articulate the business case?
• Dealing with cuts agenda
• Accountability for tax payer money
• Clarifying for internal audience
• Clarifying for external audience
• Achieving long term savings
13. “We really have no idea how much we spend
on participation, it tends to be cobbled
together from different budgets at the end of
the financial year".
Local Authority Chief Executive
14. Why do we know so little?
• New field
• Intangible benefits
• Distributed benefits
• Costs hard to unpick
• Unclear what is cost and what is benefit
• Fear/hiding costs
15. Economic Evaluation
• Cost-benefit analysis
• Cost-effectiveness analysis
• Cost-minimisation analysis
• Cost-consequences analysis
• Social Return On Investment
16. Evaluation vs Business case
Evaluation Business case
• Academic • Practical
• Complete • Incomplete
• Time consuming • As much time as you have
• Truth • Good enough
17. Public Goods
• non-rival (one person's use of the good does
not reduce some one else's use of it) and
• non-excludable (it is very difficult to exclude
anyone from gaining benefits from the good).
18. Other concepts
• 'Deadweight' - used to describe what would
have happened anyway.
• 'Additionality' - the economic effects after the
deadweight has been discounted.
• 'Displacement' - productivity benefits that are
offset by reductions elsewhere.
24. Benefits
• Improved governance
• Greater Social Cohesion
• Quality of Services/Projects
• Capacity Building/Learning
25. Specific Benefits
• Innovation and creativity
• Avoiding conflict
• Access to new resources
• Continued development / maintenance
• Better quality outcomes
• Information and expertise
• Increased public awareness and understanding
• Sharing responsibility
• Increased use
• Staff morale
26. Non-monetary benefits
• Active citizenship
• Stronger communities
• New organisations and structures
• Behaviour change
• Trust and social capital
27. Non-monetary benefits
• Revealed preference
• Stated preference
– Willingness to pay
– Willingness to accept
• Benefits transfer
28. Distributional impacts
Total Place:
• 200 to 300 families described as ‘chaotic’ each
cost public services in the Croydon around
£250,000 each year
• £50,000,000
30. Benefits -resilient community
networks
Monetary Measured by Non-monetary value
value
Access to new Database of funding Survey results
funding and accessed before and
volunteering time after engagement.
Time sheets for
volunteers
31. Benefits - Increase trust
Monetary value Measured by Non-monetary value
Reduced spend on Staff work Reported trust
complaints diaries/time sheets, levels, NI4 scores,
complaints listings about people feeling
able to influence
decisions
32. Benefits - Quality of services
Monetary value Measured by Non-monetary value
Better service Staff work Service user
outcomes (health, diaries/time sheets, satisfaction
crime etc), less time neighbourhood level
spent on service statistics,
administration and health and crime
duplicated work , statistics
less complaints
33. Benefits - Take difficult decisions
Monetary value Measured by Non-monetary value
Reduced conflict Legal costs, staff Number of negative
and reduced spend work diaries/time articles in press,
on legal challenges sheets, complaints survey results
listings
34. Benefits –good community
relations
Monetary value Measured by Non-monetary value
Reduced vandalism Crime statistics Survey results
and crime in local
area
35. Replacement costs
New resource Replacement cost
Increased volunteer time The cost of providing the service or
activity using paid staff
New intelligence and information The cost of gathering the same
information using a market research
company
New and improved relationships The cost of building the same links
through a PR and communications
exercise
Increased public awareness of The cost of achieving a similar level
policies and services of awareness through campaigns or
PR
37. Logframe
Goals/ Possible Monetary How to get Important
purpose indicators measures data assumption
What are you How will Can you How can What are
trying to do? you know if estimate a you gather the
you are money this assumption
successful? value on information s in
any of the ? choosing
indicators? this
measure of
success?
38. Logframe
Goals/ Possible Monetary How to get Important
purpose indicators measures data assumption
39. Logframe -example
Goals/ Possible Monetary How to get Important
purpose indicators measures data assumption
We want to If we are The time- Record We are
increase the successful spend of number of assuming
responsivene we should complaints complaints that time
ss of services see a staff has a per month sheets are
to users change in monetary around this accurately
following the number value and service and filled in.
public or type of can be assess the This may
consultation complaints quantified average need to be
events. about the length of a checked.
service. complaint.
.
40. Comparators
• Do nothing
• Status Quo
• Alternative engagement methods
• Alternative means of achieving the benefits
41. Example -English Nature Humber
Estuary Designation
• English Nature engagement to inform legal
protection for wildlife in the Humber Estuary.
• Previous designation plans met with hostility
and were withdrawn.
• Previous conflict led to legal fees of £75,000.
42. Cost of conflict
Conflict can be extremely expensive:
DEFRA and the Environment Agency (2005)
estimate that around 5% of all permit
application took in excess of 500 hours work
to process and 1% took over 1,000 hours.
43. Humber: Costs and benefits
Costs of engagement Benefits of engagement
Staff cost: £50,000 Legal Costs saved: £75,000
Displays and PR: £8,000
Admin: £5,000
Postage: £2,000
Travel: £1,170
Press briefings: £1,000
Total: £67,170 Total: £75,000
Value of engagement: £7,830
44. “The only man who behaves sensibly is my
tailor; he takes my measurements anew every
time he sees me, while all the rest go on with
their old measurements and expect me to fit
them.”
George Bernard Shaw
46. Heartland Community Voice
(Portsmouth)
• Bin fires in area:
– 154 in 2006
– 135 in 2008.
• Each case of criminal damage estimated at
£856 around 4.29 crimes remain unreported
for every reported case.
• Potential saving of £69,772.56 per year
• Also non monetary benefits: increased
volunteering, levels of satisfaction
47. Involve toolkit:
• Costs that can be given a monetary value
• Benefits that can be given a monetary value
• Costs that cannot be expressed in monetary
terms
• Benefits that cannot be expressed in
monetary terms
48. Stage 1 - Scope the business case
• Decide how you will use the toolkit
• Decide who your audiences are
• Decide if monetary valuation is appropriate
for you
49. Stage 2 –Define focus and purpose
• Decide the focus for the business case
• Clarify the intended purpose and outcomes
• Consider possible comparator areas/ projects
50. Stage 3 -Decide what to measure
• Identify what can be given a money value and
what can't
• Identify who you need help from to obtain the
data
• Identify where proxies might be appropriate
51. Stage 4 Complete checklist & chart
• Understand your data and assumptions
• Gather the data you need
• Fill in the checklist and calculation chart
• Use spreadsheets to track costs and benefits
52. Stage 5 -Analyse results
• Try out different methods of analysis, for
example SROI, Cost benefit, Cost-effectiveness
• Understand the limitations of the data
• Test results with colleagues
53. Stage 6 -Present the business case
• Select appropriate presentation format
• Present the business case
• Adapt to feedback
54. Example -Probability
• The Environment Agency engaged to build
trust in flood defence schemes:
• Flood mitigation benefit £35-40 million
• Engagement £2 million
• To be cost effective in future probability of
success must increase by 5.7% (£2 m/£35m).
• Engagement needs to change the result from
rejection to acceptance in 1 case in 20 to be
worthwhile.
56. Communicating the result
• Use the business case to tell stories
• Tailor your argument to fit your audience
• Seeing is believing
• Anecdotes can be powerful
• Don’t forget the potential costs of non-
engagement
• Theory of Change
57. Doncaster furniture recycling
example
Benefits to council Benefits to clients
• 488 tonnes of waste • 4000+ low-income
diverted from landfill, households received goods
saving approximately –estimated supplying same
£20,000 in landfill tax families with second-hand
payments. goods would have cost
£140,000 with existing
market prices.
