Case for Investment - Innovation in Social Care

Skills for Care sets out to help organisations which provide social care and support for people with mental health issues.

They recognised that a key challenge is getting funding - it can be easy when starting out, because you can apply for grants, but once you've used up your grant, you need to demonstrate evidence of your effectiveness.  This means that you need an EVALUATION (or perhaps, ongoing measurements, reported in a way that means something).

In 2005, Minney.org Ltd ran a programme which we called "From Grants to Sustainable Funding" (TM in progress).  Five organisations brought projects to discuss, and 4 organisations lasted all four months of the programme.

The programme started out highlighting the problem.  All organisations met for a workshop where we shared some of the responses organisations gave.  Grant-awarding organisations such as the National Lottery, BBC Children in Need and FutureBuilders were saying "we gave you money to get started - What have you done with it? We give grants to get you started - when you want to provide services you have to find alternative sources of funding".

Meanwhile the statutory bodies (Local Authority Social Care departments, some NHS organisations) are saying "we will pay you per person you look after.  But you have to demonstrate value for money".

So how do you demonstrate Value for Money?

That's where Evaluation comes in - and more information is listed on the relevant pages.

This programme then went to London as Meet the Dragons.

Minney.org Ltd, now trading as The Social Return Company (TSRC), provides evaluations to the highest internationally recognised standard, which means you can get the funding you need.  Read on . . .