EC3
Resources invested for an intervention
Economy
Resources invested for an intervention
What do we mean by “Resources invested for an intervention”?
Resources invested for an intervention refers to the total inputs committed by an organisation to deliver a specific activity, programme, or service intended to create social, economic, or environmental value. These inputs represent the true cost of doing, capturing not just financial spend, but the full range of contributions that make an intervention possible.
Resources typically fall into three categories:
- Financial investment (£ value): direct monetary spend such as programme budgets, grants, subcontractor fees, equipment purchases, or overhead costs attributable to the intervention
- Materials: physical goods, supplies, or assets contributed to or consumed by the intervention, such as food parcels, equipment, uniforms, or technology devices; these should be assigned a monetary value where possible
- Staff time (hours): paid staff hours dedicated to delivering, managing, or supporting the intervention, valued at the appropriate hourly cost (including on-costs such as employer National Insurance and pension contributions)
Together, these inputs form the investment baseline against which social value or return on investment can be assessed. Capturing all three categories ensures a complete and honest picture of what an organisation has committed avoiding the underreporting that occurs when only direct financial costs are recorded.
Key Value
An economic value of ££1 for £1 (or in kind)
Monetised economic value of what an organisation puts in – money, materials, and people’s time – to make an activity happen.
Where does this headline value come from?
Resources invested for an intervention means everything an organisation puts in – money, materials, and people’s time – to make an activity happen.
- Financial Investment (£ Value)
This is the most straightforward input to capture the direct monetary spend attributed to the intervention.
What to include:
- Programme or project budget directly allocated to the activity
- Staff costs (salaries, employer National Insurance, pension contributions) where not recorded separately under staff time
- Subcontractor or partner fees paid to deliver the intervention
- Venue, equipment, or technology costs
- Overhead costs reasonably attributable to the intervention (e.g. a proportional share of management or admin costs)
- Materials
Materials are the physical goods, supplies, or assets consumed or contributed during the intervention — whether purchased, donated, or repurposed.
What to include:
- Consumable supplies (e.g. food parcels, stationery, hygiene kits, activity resources)
- Equipment provided to beneficiaries (e.g. laptops, tools, uniforms)
- Assets used during delivery (e.g. vehicles, machinery, facilities)
- In-kind donations of goods from third parties
- Staff Time (Hours)
Staff time is often the largest but most frequently underreported input. Capturing it accurately ensures the full cost of delivery is visible and prevents overclaiming on return on investment.
What to include:
- Paid hours of directly employed staff spent planning, delivering, managing, or evaluating the intervention
- Volunteer or pro bono hours where staff are contributed by a partner organisation
- Management and supervision time reasonably attributed to the intervention
Median hourly earnings (excluding overtime) for full-time employees were £19.67 an hour in April 2025. This value is rounded to £20.
Low pay is defined as the value that is two-thirds of median hourly earning and high pay is defined as the value that is 1.5 times median hourly earnings. Therefore:
Low pay hourly earning is £13.11 which is rounded to £13.
High pay hourly earning is £29.5 which is rounded to £30.
Local Needs Analysis Data Source
Before using this MeasureUp value, we encourage you to assess the local need in relation to the activity or outcome.
Here is the most useful initial data source for assessing local need in relation to this value.
For assessing local needs related to the value EC3 “Resources invested for an intervention”, you can use the English Indices of Deprivation (IoD25) measure relative levels of deprivation in 33,755 small areas or neighbourhoods, called Lower-layer Super Output Areas (LSOAs), in England.
How to measure Resources invested for an intervention
If you’re just starting out, start with Bronze first. The result of a Bronze measurement is just an estimate, but requires the least effort; whereas Silver and Gold give more accurate results but require more effort.
Each level has an effort to accuracy indicator, choose the one that’s right for you.
Bronze
Effort
Accuracy
Monetised value:
Monetised value: At bronze, use your total budgeted spend for the intervention as a reasonable estimate.
Example in use:
Assume that a Manchester-based charity is delivering an after-school homework support programme for young people aged 11–16, a 10-week homework club running twice a week at a local community centre, supporting 25 young people with literacy and numeracy skills.
At bronze level, they use their total budgeted spend for the programme as a reasonable estimate of financial investment. They pull this directly from the project budget agreed at the start of the funding period: a total of £3,100 in delivering the 10-week homework support programme, based on the approved project budget.
Silver
Effort
Accuracy
Monetised value:
At silver, record the direct monetary spend attributed to the intervention, distinguish between new purchases and donated/second-hand items, applying an appropriate valuation for each (e.g. second-hand market value for donated goods), use actual recorded hours (e.g. from timesheets or rota records) and apply the relevant hourly rate per role.
Median hourly earnings (excluding overtime) for full-time employees were £19.67 an hour in April 2025. This value is rounded to £20.
Low pay hourly earning is £13.11 which is rounded to £13.
High pay hourly earning is £29.5 which is rounded to £30.
Example in use:
Assume that a Leeds-based social enterprise delivering a digital skills training programme for unemployed adults aged 25–50. An 8-week digital literacy course running once a week (3 hours/session), supporting 15 participants with basic computer, internet, and job application skills.
| Input Type | Item | Type/Role | Hours / Units | Rate / Unit Value | Total |
| Financial (£) | Venue hire | Direct spend | 8 sessions | £50/session | £400 |
| Financial (£) | Printed workbooks & stationery | Direct spend | — | — | £120 |
| Financial (£) | Catering & refreshments | Direct spend | 15 × 8 sessions | £1.50/head | £180 |
| Financial (£) | Transport reimbursement | Direct spend | — | — | £96 |
| Materials | Laptops (purchased new) | New purchase | 5 units | £300/unit | £1,500 |
| Materials | Laptops (donated) | Donated — second-hand market value | 10 units | £80/unit | £800 |
| Materials | USB mice & keyboards (donated) | Donated — second-hand market value | 15 units | £5/unit | £75 |
| Staff Time | Programme Coordinator | Median pay | 32 hrs | £20/hr | £640 |
| Staff Time | Digital Trainer | High pay | 24 hrs | £30/hr | £720 |
| Staff Time | Admin Support | Low pay | 8 hrs | £13/hr | £104 |
| Total Resources Invested | £4,635 |
They invested a total of £4,635 in delivering the 8-week digital skills programme, comprising £796 in direct financial spend, £2,375 in materials (including donated laptops valued at second-hand market rates), and £1,464 in staff time across 64 recorded hours, using ONS median, low, and high pay benchmarks appropriate to each role.
Gold
Effort
Accuracy
Monetised value:
At Gold level, you are building your evidence of actual spend or investment in the social or environmental interventions you are delivering.
At Gold,
- use actual audited expenditure from your finance system, broken down by cost category.
- record actual quantities distributed and apply verified unit costs, supported by receipts or supplier invoices
- use verified timesheets broken down by staff grade and role, with fully loaded hourly rates confirmed by your finance or HR team
Support in developing your Gold approach is available through the Measure Up partners, so please do reach out to Impact, State of Life or PRD.
| Value Type: | Input |
What's this?
This is the type of action undertaken that leads to this value. An input value refers to the value of resources put in to activities that could lead to social and environmental value creation. |
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| UN SDG Categories: |
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What's this?
The UN Sustainable Development Goals are global goals adopted in 2015 for all signed up nations to achieve for us to have a sustainable global future by 2030. There are 17 Goals that address the global challenges we face, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice. The Goals are all interconnected, and in order to leave no one behind, it is important that we achieve them all by 2030. |
| 2020 Social Value Models: |
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What's this?
PPN 06/20 Taking account of social value in the award of central government contracts introduced the Central Government Social Value Model in 2020 which all Central Government contracting authorities must use in their in scope procurements. It consists of 5 themes, 8 policy outcomes, and 24 Model Award Criteria which outline key priority areas to achieve more social value. |
| 2025 Social Value Models: |
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What's this?
PPN 06/20 was superseded by PPN 002 Taking account of social value in the award of contracts, published in February 2025 in line with the Royal assent of the Procurement Act 2023. This PPN outlined the requirement to use the new 2025 Central Government Social Value Model. The Model applies to all Central Government procurements commencing on or after 1 October 2025 under the Procurement Act 2023. Out of scope procurements can choose to apply the model but are not required to do so. The updated model is structured around 5 government missions and 8 outcomes, with 17 Model Award Criteria, and a mandatory minimum 10% weighting of the total evaluation score assigned to social value. |
Evidence
Measure Up focuses on empowering you to numerically measure the impact you’re having. We recommend that numeric reports are backed up with stories and other types of evidence to help illustrate, in human terms, the impact that’s being made on individuals.
We recommend seeing consent from one or more participants in your intervention to collect and tell their story. This should include a little background on the participant, a summing up of life before the intervention, the human impact of the intervention, and the longer term (if known) impact on the person’s life outside of, and after, the intervention.
Providing photographs, audio recordings, video interviews or even artefacts from the intervention (for example, writing, paintings, music, etc from creative interventions) can add more colour, and convey the emotional impact of interventions more directly.
In some cases it’s appropriate to anonymise or abbreviate the personal information of case study participants. No story should be published or shared without the recorded consent of the individual(s) it concerns. Individuals continue to own the rights to their stories and if they request you stop sharing the story or making it available online you should do so promptly and without need for justification.
Feedback
Measure Up is an open, collaborative and transparent. If you have any suggestions or feedback on our pragmatic, recommended approach to measuring Life Satisfaction please get in touch so we can share and discuss this at our next Advisory Group meeting.
More help
We want to empower anyone to perform and improve their impact measurement – without needing a degree in economics.
If you need any more help, or just someone to do the legwork for you we can help signpost you to software, training and consultancy to help you get to grips with the impact you’re having.
