Our methodology

Organisations are increasingly interested in measuring and valuing their social and environmental efforts. Such activities and their associated values can help influence how we manage our negative and positive impacts on people and the planet. Without understanding the relative importance of different actions and outcomes choosing what we do/don’t do comes down to financial budgets, ultimately perpetuating inequality and environmental harm. 

The MeasureUp values relate to a set of activities and outcomes that have been developed from primary research on the most common ‘things’ that organisations are trying to measure and value about their social and environmental impact. We are aiming to move towards measuring and valuing social value. 

Our approach

MeasureUp’s methodology is built on a transparent, evidence-based approach that uses economic, social, fiscal, and environmental proxies to assess social value and wellbeing.

Our methodology for MeasureUp is informed first and foremost by the UK Government Treasury Greenbook which is the best Government guidance for undertaking monitoring and evaluation before, during, and after the implementation of policies, programmes, and projects.   

We specifically use the Supplementary Guidance on Wellbeing to inform our approach to wellbeing valuation using the WELLBY. The methodology is also guided by best practices in social value and impact management particularly with the emerging discipline of social and environmental valuation. A key piece from this space that guides us is the Social Value Principles as defined and overseen by Social Value International.   

Let’s take a look at the methodology and the practice that informs it below.  

MeasureUp principles

The MeasureUp partners have defined a set of principles that inform the continuing development of the valuation framework and overall approach. These have been reviewed and agreed with our Advisory Group.

• Value accuracy, not just the size of the numbers.   
• Be openly available to all. Not hidden behind paywalls.   
• Source values from what already exists, with a wide range of contributors, in line with best present standards.  
• Be honest and transparent about where the numbers come from, any limitations, and any updates.   
• Be accessible, aim to make valuation easier to understand.   
• Show the way to better quality measurement, but don’t be dogmatic.   
• Procurement is important, but it isn’t everything.   
• We recognise social value as wellbeing in line with the UK Treasury Green Book, as well as economic gains.  
• Help everyone move from simply estimating social value towards actual evidence of the impact on the wellbeing of the population   

Wellbeing

We are representing social value in line with the Government Greenbook definition of social value and, its impact on the wellbeing of the population. 

What is wellbeing?

The What Works Centre for Wellbeing define wellbeing as: ‘how we’re doing as individuals, communities and as a nation, and how sustainable that is for the future.’ 

They include the subjective experiences we have throughout our lives, how we function in society, and the environmental factors that affect us.  What this means at the 3 levels of individual, community and nation are outlined as: 

• Individual wellbeing – are we feeling good and functioning well? 
• Community wellbeing – being well together 
• National wellbeing – how are we doing as individuals, communities and as a nation and how sustainable that is for the future. 

The Office of National Statistics has been gathering national wellbeing data for the last 12 years.  Through their national dataset, 10 broad dimensions of wellbeing have been identified and are regularly tracked for the UK population through the Measures of National Well-being Dashboard: Quality of Life in the UK. The 10 dimensions are: 

Measuring wellbeing

To start to measure wellbeing directly from the people affected, there is one set of questions it is important to consider – the ONS4.  These questions are the national measures for subjective wellbeing in the UK.  The set asks the following four questions on a scale of 0 to 10 (an 11-point scale), where 0 is ‘not at all’ and 10 is ‘completely’:  

The questions are: 

• “Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays?” 
• “Overall, to what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile?” 
• “Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday?” 
• “Overall, how anxious did you feel yesterday?”

For more information, you can look at the ONS Measures of National Wellbeing Dashboard. 

Valuation practice

The MeasureUp values are a combination of economic, fiscal, social/wellbeing, and environmental values.  Each value outlines what is included, and how to use and adjust each aspect of the valuation. 

Wherever possible, we include a wellbeing valuation, using the WELLBY as outlined in the Greenbook Supplementary Guidance on Wellbeing. 

What is WELLBY? 

The WELLBY (Wellbeing Year) is a unit of measurement for wellbeing impact as advanced by Frijters and Krekel. The number of WELLBYs can be calculated based on the single survey question noted above: “All things considered, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays? – 0 (not at all satisfied) to 10 (completely satisfied).”  

1 WELLBY is equal to one person moving 1 point on this 10-point scale for one year as a result of the policy/programme.

The analysis must use a control group and/or techniques such as multivariate regression to ensure that the measured difference in personal wellbeing is causal and not due to self-selection/other reasons. 

The Green Book guidance settles at £13,000 as a central, primary value of 1 WELLBY in 2019 prices.  This allows us to express the social benefit of the programme in £ and perform a cost-benefit analysis of the programme to assess a) whether the programme was worth the money invested in it and/or b) which programme out of several alternatives delivers the best value for money.  

Dealing with inflation in MeasureUp

In MeasureUp, all values have been adjusted to 2023 price year. It is recommended if you would like to update the values to your accounting period to use the same inflation adjustments.[KH1] 

Economic and fiscal values are uplifted to 2023 prices using the Government GDP deflators. Wellbeing value (using WELLBY or QALY calculations) are uplifted to 2023 prices using the GDP deflators, as well as real GDP per capita growth in conjunction with the marginal utility of income elasticity parameter of 1.3 as recommended by the Green Book Wellbeing guidance.

The original value in its original price year is also shown based on information from the original source.

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The Social Value Principles

The Social Value Principles are basic social accounting principles that guide good practice. They can be thought of as the basic underpinning building blocks to abide by when doing social value accounting.

 The 8 principles are:

• Principle 1: Involve Stakeholders – Inform what gets measured and how this is measured and valued in an account of social value by involving stakeholders.  
• Principle 2: Understand What Changes – Articulate how change is created and evaluate this through evidence gathered, recognising positive and negative changes as well as those that are intended and unintended.  
• Principle 3: Value What Matters – Making decisions about allocating resources between different options needs to recognise the values of stakeholders. Value refers to the relative importance of different outcomes. It is informed by stakeholders’ preferences. 
• Principle 4: Only Include What is Material – Determine what information and evidence must be included in the accounts to give a true and fair picture, such that stakeholders can draw reasonable conclusions about impact.  
• Principle 5: Do Not Overclaim – Only claim the value that activities are responsible for creating. 
• Principle 6: Be Transparent – Demonstrate the basis on which the analysis may be considered accurate and honest, and show that it will be reported to and discussed with stakeholders.  
• Principle 7: Verify the Result – Ensure appropriate verification of results in line with the decisions being supported. In cases where results are being reported to external audiences and/or are supporting significant decisions, independent assurance is required. 
• Principle 8: Be Responsive – Optimise the impacts on wellbeing of all materially affected stakeholders through decision-making that is timely and supported by appropriate accounting and reporting. 

For MeasureUp, these principles act as a guiding checklist to inform the ongoing development of the framework as well as the supporting guidance helping users to use MeasureUp as a part of their overall social value and impact management practice.

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Frequently asked questions

Why the interest in measuring and valuing social and environmental activities?

Organisations are increasingly interested in measuring and valuing their social and environmental efforts. Such activities and their associated values can help influence how we manage our negative and positive impacts on people and the planet. Without understanding the relative importance of different actions and outcomes choosing what we do/don’t do comes down to financial budgets, ultimately perpetuating inequality and environmental harm.

How does MeasureUp help navigate the overwhelming variety of social and environmental activities?

With so many ways to make a positive difference, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. MeasureUp addresses this by curating a selection of the most practical, common, and useful things to report on. Based on a comprehensive analysis of over 1,000 activities across sectors, we aim to provide guidance that gets you about 75% there. We want to make it easier for beginners to dive in and make an impact, but if you need further support, the team behind MeasureUp is available to assist.

Where do the values and methods used in MeasureUp come from?

The MeasureUp values have been developed using openly available data sources, generally aiming for national data where possible topic-specific data where not, or a combination of both of these.  All sources are listed on each value page. 

For the wellbeing values in MeasureUp, we follow the guidelines outlined in the HM Treasury Green Book’s wellbeing guidance from 2021. This approach provides a solid framework for integrating well-being considerations into decision-making processes, offering a simple, open valuation method known as WELLBY.

The “Wellbeing-adjusted Life Year” (WELLBY) is defined as a one-point change in life satisfaction on a Likert scale between 0 to 10, for an individual for one year.

The values can also include fiscal, economic and environmental valuation.  These use the best openly available sources and methods.  

Our advisory board comprises experienced practitioners in delivering, managing, and measuring social and environmental value, some of whom even contributed to the HM Treasury Green Book in the UK.
In addition, the values can align with the UK Central Government Social Value Model (PPN 6/20) and the Sustainable Development Goals (https://sdgs.un.org/goals).

What type of value is being represented?

Overall we are representing social value in line with the Government Greenbook definition of social value and, its impact on the wellbeing of the population. Wherever possible, we include a wellbeing valuation, using the WELLBY as outlined in the Greenbook Supplementary Guidance on Wellbeing.  However, we recognise that other aspects of value are available to be counted and useful to understand and represent.  Therefore, the MeasureUp values are a combination of economic, fiscal, social/wellbeing, and environmental values.  Each value outlines what is included, and how to use and adjust each aspect of the valuation.

How are the outcomes and activities defined?

The MeasureUp values relate to a set of activities and outcomes that have been developed from primary research on the most common ‘things’ that organisations are trying to measure and value about their social and environmental impact.  Overall, we are aiming to move towards measuring and valuing social value in line with the Government Greenbook definition of social value as ‘wellbeing’.  The activities are therefore categorised in alignment with the ONS national wellbeing dimensions.  

We will continue to develop the MeasureUp values practically based on what is most important from organisations’ perspectives and in line with openly available, national, and topic-specific data that highlights what is most important in impacting our wellbeing.

Who can use MeasureUp?

Anyone! MeasureUp is open to all across any public, private or third sectors – completely for free.

How do I attribute MeasureUp?

Please be sure to attribute your work by copying and pasting this:

MeasureUp by Impact Reporting, State of Life and PRD is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International

More details:

CC BY-NC 4.0

Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International

This license requires that reusers give credit to the creator. It allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, for noncommercial purposes only.

• BY: Credit must be given to you, the creator.
• NC: Only noncommercial use of your work is permitted. Noncommercial means not primarily intended for or directed towards commercial advantage or monetary compensation.

See the License Deed

What price year are the values in?

All values have been adjusted to 2023 price year based on the GDP deflator – the government’s preferred way to measure overall price changes in the economy.

For wellbeing values (using WELLBY or QALY calculations) the inflation adjustments take into account the changing marginal utility of income following the formula included in the Government Greenbook Supplementary Guidance on Wellbeing.

The original value in its original price year is also shown based on information from the original source.

It is recommended if you would like to update the values to your own accounting period to use the same inflation adjustments.

How does MeasureUp support users not to overclaim their value?

There are numerous factors that should be taken into consideration when claiming the amount of value that is actually caused by a project, intervention, or organisation.

In MeasureUp this is dealt with most fully at the Gold+ level, where there is guidance on undertaking an assessment of ‘what would have happened anyway’ and assessing your impact against a counterfactual and apply a deadweight discount.

At the other levels, Bronze, Silver, and Gold, it is recommended for users of MeasureUp to consider the deadweight in relation to the application of the value in their use case. A very simple application is to estimate your level of confidence that the change that has taken place is all down to your activity, or if some would have happened anyway or is down to someone else, and apply a ‘low: 25%’, ‘medium: 50%’, or ‘high: 75%’ level of deadweight based on your estimation.

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Categories

Activities and outcomes in MeasureUp are organised into commonly used categories for social and environmental impact reporting:

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Glossary

Activities

Activities are the actions undertaken to achieve specific outcomes for stakeholders. It’s crucial to verify each value to avoid double-counting impact.

Attribution

Considers how much an outcome is down to you, and how much is down to other interventions, sources, organisations, people, or circumstances. For instance, if you have a support service for homeless people, they may also be receiving support from other agencies or their families. Any improvements in their outcomes may be in part due to these others and not just your intervention.

Counterfactual

The difference between what happened and what would have happened otherwise (the deadweight) is your intervention’s impact. Since it is inherently impossible to know both things, the main challenge for any evaluation is identifying what you can use as a fair counterfactual. If you have a control group, you can use this. If not you may use secondary research as a proxy for the counterfactual.

Deadweight

The amount of the intervention that would have happened anyway. This is normally expressed as a percentage of the total effect. For instance, if your intervention aims to help people into work, you might take the proportion of unemployed people who move into work within a certain timeframe. If on average 70% of unemployed people find a job within six months, then your deadweight might be 70% (unless you are targeting an especially vulnerable group).

Displacement

Considers whether creating change for a person, group, or the environment, has prevented a positive outcome somewhere else, or for someone else.  

Duration

Considers how long the outcome lasts, which may be longer than the period of intervention.  An organisation will also need to consider how long they are accountable for the outcome.

Drop off

The change in depth of the outcome over time, which shows how outcomes reduce over time.

Financial Proxy

A monetary representation of the value of an outcome.

Intervention

A general term for any project, programme, or action that you take with the intent of affecting someone else.

Impact

The amount of change that is down to you. The difference between the amount of change in outcomes for your stakeholder group, taking into account what would have happened anyway, the contribution of others and the length of time the outcomes last.

Outcomes

The changes resulting from an activity. The main types of change from the perspective of stakeholders are unintended (unexpected) and intended (expected), positive and negative change.

Outputs

The products or services that result from your activities.

Proxy

An approximation providing representation of the value of an outcome. Financial proxies are one example.

Social Value

MeasureUp aligns with the Greenbook definition of social value as ‘‘impact on the wellbeing of the population’​. The full Greenbook definition is:​ “Social value […] is based on the principles and ideas of welfare economics, and […] therefore includes all significant costs and benefits that affect the welfare and wellbeing of the population, not just market effects”

Wellbeing valuation

Approach to valuation that uses statistical analysis of large and existing questionnaire datasets to value the effect on wellbeing from changes in life circumstances and life satisfaction. This is done by calculating the increase in income that would be necessary for an equivalent increase in wellbeing.

WELLBY

The WELLBY is short for “Wellbeing-adjusted Life Year.” It is defined as a one-point change in life satisfaction on a Likert scale between 0 to 10, for an individual for one year. The WELLBY endorses and supports the widely held view that overall life satisfaction is the best way to measure personal well-being (almost always alongside associated drivers of life satisfaction, e.g. employment, physical activity, volunteering, mental health, community wellbeing, education and skills development and socio-economic status).