WWL4.1
Increased Community Integration
Where we live
Neighbourhood
Increased Community Integration
According to the Office of National Statistics (ONS), trust and cooperative norms are one of the indicators of social capital. This aspect of social capital refers to the trust and cooperative norms or shared values that are beneficial for society as a whole and which shape the way people behave towards each other and as members of society.
Key Value
A monetised social value of £4,200
This is the average value for 1 person answering ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’ as opposed to ‘neutral’, ‘disagree’ or ‘strongly disagree’ to the following statements on increasing trust and belonging within their neighbourhood:
- “Most people in this neighbourhood can be trusted”
- “I feel like I belong to this neighbourhood”
Where does this headline value come from?
The values are guided by government policy (The Green Book) and sophisticated research into the relationship between trust and wellbeing (measured by life satisfaction.) The Green Book recommends that life satisfaction is expressed as £ monetised wellbeing, using the value of £13,000 for 1 WELLBY, over one year (see section on life satisfaction.) Research using national datasets can estimate the isolated impact of a change in community integration on life satisfaction, after accounting for important controls such as age, health, socio-economics and other demographics. Community integration is measured by trust and belonging to your neighbourhood in the Understanding Society data.
This research has been done by State of Life (The WELLBY Value Guide), which found that even after accounting for all these other factors, a person answering ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’ as opposed to ‘neutral’, ‘disagree’ or ‘strongly disagree’ to the statement “Most people in this neighbourhood can be trusted” by 0.192 and to the statement “I feel like I belong to this neighbourhood“ by 0.356 (Table 3 in the above link). Therefore, this change in community integration which is the average of two coefficients is worth (0.192+0.356)/2=0.274 WELLBYs, or 0.274*£13,000 = £3,562 (rounded to £3,500).
The value is calculated using 2019 prices as per the supplementary guidance published figure.
Adjusted for inflation from £3,500, 2019 price year, the value is presented in 2023 prices, at £4,181. Our approach to inflation adjustments is explained on our Methodology page HERE
An overall rounded value of £4,200.
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, Gold 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 social value: Multiply the number of your participants you expect to increase community integration by £4,200.
Adjust for inflation to the year you are accounting for.
Consider the number of participants you expect to gain trust and a sense of belonging in their neighbourhood because of engaging in your activity. Multiply this by £4,200 to obtain a value per person.
Adjust for inflation to the year you are accounting for.
Here’s an example
You plan a programme which will transform a disused building site into a community centre. 1000 local residents in the neighborhood. Anticipating 300 people to take part in activities at the community center. Of the 300 participants, you expect that 10% of people (30 people) increase community integration in their neighbourhood. Total monetised social value: £4,200*30= £126,000
Silver
Effort
Accuracy
Monetised value:
Monetised social value: Consider whether the social value is created by trust or belonging to neighbourhood, and adjust the value based on this.
Consider adjusting the wellbeing value estimate based on whether there is an increase in trust or a sense of belonging to their neighborhood. If the outcome is an increase in trust, the coefficient is 0.192 and the value is £2,934 rounded to £2,900 in 2023 prices. If the outcome is an increase in the sense of belonging to their neighborhood, the coefficient is 0.356 and the value is £5,281 rounded to £5,300 in 2023 prices.
Here’s an example
You plan a program to revitalize a neglected park in the neighborhood, transforming it into a vibrant community space with gardens, playgrounds, and recreational facilities. The neighborhood has 1,000 locals. You anticipate that 400 people will participate in various activities at the revitalized park.
Of the 400 participants, you expect that 15% of people (60 people) will experience an increase in trust within their community due to working together on the park project. In addition, you expect that 20% of the 400 participants (80 people) will feel an increased sense of belonging to their neighborhood because of participating in the park revitalization.
£174,000 (£2,900 *60) +£424,000 (£5,300*80) =£598,000
Additionally, there can be some differentiations based on the demographic differences of the neighbourhood.
Consider adjusting the wellbeing value estimate based on whether your participants you expect to gain trust are in urban or rural. According to the community life survey, 60% of people would say that most people in their neighborhood can be trusted in urban areas whereas this value is around 70.5% in rural areas.
On the other hand, younger age groups (16-24 and 25-34) were less likely to strongly feel a sense of belonging to their immediate neighborhood (56%) compared to the 65-74 and 75+ age groups (72-75%). Meanwhile, the 35-49 and 50-64 age groups (65-67%) were more likely to strongly feel they belonged to their neighborhood than the younger age groups, but still less likely than the older age groups.
So, the impact of your intervention on community integration may change based on the place and the age of the participants that you do the intervention.
Gold
Effort
Accuracy
Monetised value:
Monetised value: Measure actual amounts of difference that community improvement makes to people’s lives
At Gold level you are looking to build on your silver estimations by engaging with the person or people affected.
Therefore, at the Gold level, you should survey users about their actual levels of wellbeing rather than using the proxy value.
There are many options for surveying people on their wellbeing.
A good starting point for questions to ask directly through primary research with your stakeholders is the Maximise Your Impact Guide. This guide covers 10 overall impact questions. For Gold level practice you would be looking to understand the question ‘what changes do people experience?’ and ‘how much of each change happened’. Questions you might want to include in your survey to uncover the outcomes they experience could include:
- What changed for you (or happened to you) as a result of our activity or programme?
- Were there any other changes?
- Did these changes lead on to anything else?
- Were the changes all positive?
- Were any of them unexpected?
- What did you want to happen?
- How did your situation/ circumstances affect your experience?
A starting point for questions related to wellbeing is to look at the What Works Centre for Wellbeing website: https://whatworkswellbeing.org/about-wellbeing/how-to-measure-wellbeing/ .
As you start to measure wellbeing directly from the people affected, one set of questions it is important to consider is the ONS4 – the national measures for subjective wellbeing in the UK which asks the following 4 questions on a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is ‘not at all’ and 10 is ‘completely’:
- Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays?
- Overall, to what extent do you feel that the things that you do in your life are worthwhile?
- Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday?
- On a scale where 0 is ‘not at all anxious’ and 10 is ‘completely anxious’, how anxious did you feel yesterday overall?
You could also consider other data gathering activities, including direct observation, or focus groups.
How to measure Community Integration?
For measuring the change related to increased community integration directly with your stakeholders at Gold level, you will need to ask the validated question regarding trust and belonging to neighbourhood as used in the Understanding Society survey. To apply these WELLBY values you should use the same question and ask it in the same way. The question should be asked in exactly this way:
Do you agree or disagree with the following statement:
“Most people in this neighbourhood can be trusted ” [‘agree’, ‘strongly agree’, ‘neutral’, ‘disagree’ or ‘strongly disagree’]
“I feel like I belong to this neighbourhood ” [‘agree’, ‘strongly agree’, ‘neutral’, ‘disagree’ or ‘strongly disagree’]
Support in developing your Gold survey approach is available through the Measure Up partners, so please do reach out to Impact, State of Life or PRD.
Gold+
Effort
Accuracy
Monetised value:
At the Gold+ level, you are building on your Gold value calculation by assessing the value against the counterfactual, or ‘what would have happened anyway’.
To do this you should identify a control group suitable to assess in line with your intervention, in order to more accurately attribute any changes to your intervention.
You could also consider any other discount or causality elements linked to your job creation activity.
Support in developing your Gold+ counterfactual, causality and discount approach is available through the Measure Up partners, so please do reach out to Impact, State of Life or PRD.
| Value Type: | Outcome |
What's this?
This is the type of value. Some values are outcomes, which means many different interventions might lead to them, others are specific interventions that have a set value due to a mix of outcomes of varying amounts they may create. |
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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. |
| PN06/20 Categories: |
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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. |
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 seeking 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 and valuing social value, including wellbeing, economic, and fiscal impact, and effects on our environment, 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.
