Help For Heroes – A New Vision, And More Confidence In Its Impact

THE CHALLENGE

Help for Heroes’ support for its beneficiaries ranges from mental health to welfare, injury rehabilitation and medical care, personal finance, lobbying for policy change and much more.

When Trust Impact first came on board, all these different departments were working largely in silos and measuring their impact in different ways (there were more than 10 different databases). Very often, one individual beneficiary could be supported by multiple departments, but the data between each was incompatible, so an accurate overall picture of overall impact on each beneficiary wasn’t being recorded. A cultural shift to a more unified, person-centred approach was needed.

“I was electrified by not only their personal sacrifice but the charity’s long-lasting impacts on their health, wellbeing and family lives.” said Sherine Wheeler, who led Trust Impact’s early work with Help for Heroes which included extensive research with the Armed Forces community. “I was also moved by the difference the charity was making – they just needed to be able to package it up to tell the story in a more compelling way. It was a spaghetti bowl of services.”

SOLUTION

Theory of Change

Trust Impact began by working with key stakeholders to agree upon a statement that encapsulated the organisation’s vision. This vision was: to champion the Armed Forces community and help them live well after service.

This ‘live well’ principle struck a chord across all departments and formed the basis of the Theory of Change, a framework which was formulated after in-depth internal and external research and workshops.

Help for Heroes CEO James Needham explained the benefits of this process: “We had previously tried to do this ourselves by coming up with a formula that wrapped eight different metrics into one ‘super metric,’ but it was far too complicated. The Theory of Change allowed us to step back and really define, ‘What is the change we want to make in the world?’ We then focused our evaluation against that change, rather than trying to tie up all the existing data that we’d already got.

“We’ve refined and streamlined the Theory of Change. It has become part of our core language and DNA as a charity. It’s brought everyone together behind what we want to achieve and how we’re going to do it.”

Measure What Matters

‘Measure What Matters’ was the next stage; developing and implementing an impact framework which would sharpen and focus data collection and offer far greater insight into the charity’s real-life impact on Armed Forces personnel.

Collecting less data to get more insight might seem counter-intuitive, but when that data is in a coherent, joined-up impact framework, it gives the charity more confidence in the positive difference they’re making, informs better decision making and helps make a more compelling case to funders.

Creating a live impact dashboard

The pilot is currently in the process of being rolled out into other departments, but it started in just one – case management – which is essentially around wellbeing.

As the new impact framework centred around the core vision of helping people to ‘live well’ after service, a natural starting point to the data collection pilot was to essentially ask each beneficiary: ‘How are you feeling?’ using the four wellbeing questions asked by the Office for National Statistics (ONS4).

These questions give a holistic assessment of their life satisfaction – living circumstances, family, finances, general health and sleep, taken at the point when they first ask for help.

The initial responses to the questions are known as ‘T0’ and form the baseline for all subsequent impact measurements (T1, T2 etc). They also enable comparisons with the so-called ONS4 average (a population average wellbeing measure from the Office for National Statistics). This data is fed into and displayed on a live impact dashboard, developed by Trust Impact.

For Help for Heroes, concluding an individual case takes an average of six to nine months (with a lot of extremes either side) in which time an individual might use services in several different departments (e.g. counselling, medical support, occupational therapy or grants). The timing of the T1 intervention would therefore be different for each individual to accurately assess the impact of all departments collectively. It’s a shift to a person-centred approach, not a department-specific one.

RESULTS

The volume of data collected in the pilot phase is now getting up towards levels which offer significant insight into the impact case management is having.

“It’s starting to give us real confidence about the intervention we’ve delivered,” says James. “It has simplified everything by giving us a shared ‘live well’ vision. It underlines that this is a team effort and what matters is the outcomes we’re delivering for people, not seven different departments each trying to justify its role.”

This is a marked shift from what James calls the ‘deficit model’ of previous years. “We were coming at it from an angle of, ‘how are we going to fix you,” he explains. “But now the only measure that matters is, ‘How are you doing?’ The ONS4 tells us the general population’s answer is 7/10, so if people at T0 are answering 5/10 and at the end of the service intervention we get them to 7/10, we have succeeded. That’s something all departments can work together to achieve.”

James says the shift in mindset is starting to ripple through the organisation. It’s inspiring new conversations and better decisions which are focused solely on helping its beneficiaries live well.

For example, Help for Heroes has teamed up with Boccia England to start a six-week trial linking up ex-Services personnel with their nearest clubs. “This is a great example of a conceptual shift in our way of thinking,” James explains.

“Previously, we’d have set up a Help for Heroes boccia club with veterans coming once a quarter outside their own neighbourhoods. We’ve now realised it’s not all about how much activity we’ve delivered and how many people participated – it’s about providing them with the tools to live well in their own community and the durability of that intervention. Working with Trust Impact has forced us to think about impacting in a more three-dimensional way.”

James adds: “As a CEO, it gives me more confidence with funders as well. Because we’re more robust in how we’re talking about our impact and our way of doing things, confidence flows into the person who’s listening to your bid. It’s brought simplicity and allowed us to engage so much better with both internal colleagues and external partners – because we really understand the real-world impact we’re having on people.”