SFHA (Scottish Federation of Housing Associations) and HACT have created a social value toolkit that aims to provide housing associations and co-operatives with the resources they need to measure, demonstrate, and increase the social value impact of their work with communities.
Launched today, the toolkit brings together practical resources designed specifically for the social housing sector in Scotland, in order to help it demonstrate its social value.
“The sector already generates significant economic and social benefits for Scotland and its people, including reducing poverty and homelessness, improving health, and creating jobs,” said HACT chief executive Andrew van Doorn.
“This toolkit will enable Scottish housing associations to better evidence that impact.
“In conjunction with the SFHA Impact Manifesto, the aim is for the toolkit to be part of the process for the sector to continue to develop good practice and disseminate shared learnings and outcomes.”
The toolkit was produced by HACT and the SFHA Impact Project Team, as part of the Innovation and Future Thinking Programme.
Commenting on the launch of the toolkit, HACT’s Social Insight lead in Scotland, Michael McLaughlin, said: “Working alongside partners in the Scottish government, HACT, and member organisations, we are delighted to produce a toolkit to enable social housing providers to measure and increase the level of impact they have right across the country.
“Building on some great work since launching the Impact Manifesto, we have looked at the core indicators of impact, and provided the building blocks to enable these to be measured and developed by our members.
“The toolkit is an easy to use, straightforward introduction to social value for staff members across SFHA member organisations, which is based on wellbeing approaches to measuring impact.
“It will help to deliver real benefits and opportunities to communities, give practical methods of measuring and demonstrating social value created within social housing providers, generate more social value for tenants, and plan and evaluate the community benefits and social value generated through the supply chain and procurement process.”
Aligning with government framework
The launch of the social value toolkit follows the publication of The Impact of Social Housing: Economic, Social, Health and Wellbeing, a report written by HACT and the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE) for the SFHA, Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), Public Health Scotland, and the Rural and Islands Housing Associations Forum (RIHAF).
The report demonstrated how Scottish housing associations and co-operatives can measure the social and economic value of their work and how this aligns with the Scottish Government’s National Performance Framework.
The report itself found that the work social housing organisations do with their residents and communities has significant social value impact at both a micro and macro level.
HACT will be hosting a webinar titled Demonstrating and Measuring Your Impact: Overview of SFHA’s Social Value Toolkit on 21 October.
Earlier this month, HACT called in all UK social housing providers to adopt an updated set of impact measures.
HACT says that by recording and sharing these measures, organisations will aid it in collating the support the social housing sector is providing to residents during what continues to be an uncertain time.
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