Data: to collect or not to collect?

In the current political climate of increased localism, with its associated promises of more local decision making and less bureaucracy, services may find a reduction in the mandatory data requested from them. For example, some local authorities are no longer requiring services to complete Supporting People Client Record Returns. This gives services a real opportunity to consider why they are collecting data and what they want to collect in the future.

When considering this issue, the ultimate question to bear in mind is how to achieve a balance between the time and resources required to collect and use the information, and the benefits gained by doing so. Services who decide to collect no information will suffer from the loss of benefits associated; those who spend all their time collecting information may suffer because the resource needed will mean they have less time and ability to deliver work with clients. Therefore services should aim to have systems and processes that enable them to collect the most important and good quality information possible, while keeping the impact on staff in terms of time as low as possible. 
 
This requires understanding four things: what the benefits are for you of collecting information, what information is most useful, how can you ensure it is of a good quality, and how can you minimise the impact on staff. 
 

Benefits of collecting information

  • It enables you to access funding: while mandatory reporting is reducing nationally particularly from statutory sources, funding bodies will still require some information on the services they fund.
  • It is the only way to demonstrate the impact you are making: at a time of reducing provision and less funding, services will need to be able to be increasingly competitive and demonstrate to funders that they are effective in the work they do.
  • It ensures you are always improving: the most effective services are those that are able to reflect on their achievements and identify areas that need improving. This is vital for services to remain competitive and demonstrate their effectiveness.

What information to collect?

Through our consultation with funders it is apparent that there is no one method used to collect the information they require. The amount and type of information varies, and most use a variety of sources in order to get as complete a picture of need and effectiveness of services as possible. At this time of increasing localism, where it will be up to individual local authorities (and other funders) to decide what they need, this is likely to become even less consistent.  
 
So where to start? To narrow down your starting point, we have produced a brief outline of a selection of funding streams for homelessness services and an indication of the processes for applying for, and reporting on funding below. This table is taken from our literature review.
  

FUNDING SOURCE

APPLICATION PROCESS

REPORTING / MONITORING

PROCESS

Supporting People

A variety of tendering or negotiation processes managed at the local authority level, dependent on size of contract and status (new or renewing)

Client Records returns,

Supporting People Monitoring and Review Framework, including the Quality Assessment Framework

Homelessness Change Programme

Submit initial ‘offer’ followed by more detailed ‘dialogue’ with funder

New programme, processes to be announced

CORE

Regulatory requirement – no application

Regulatory requirement, upload directly to CORE

PCT

Project dependent

Project dependent

Big Lottery

Specified format for written application, data needs defined by the applicant to evidence need and expected outcomes of the project

Written reports at key milestones and end of grant, reports against agreed outcomes

City Bridge Trust

Specified format for written application, data needs defined by the applicant to evidence need and expected outcomes of the project

Annual reporting and then at the end of the grant period report against objectives and outcomes

Tudor Trust

Specified format for written application, data needs defined by the applicant to evidence need and expected outcomes of the project

Annual reporting and then at the end of the grant period report against objectives and outcomes

Henry Smith Charity

Specified format for written application, data needs defined by the applicant to evidence need and expected outcomes of the project

Reports against agreed objectives and outcomes, using Charities Evaluation Services guidance on ‘degree of its effectiveness’

Rents and Service Charges

Requirement of use of service

None formal to payer

 
At the time of writing, Supporting People was the main funding for accommodation services, but this is likely to change significantly in the future due to major changes to this funding stream leading to increased diversification in funding sources. The funding picture has always been complicated for day centres for homeless people. There is no specific funding stream for day services for homeless people, so most are reliant on short term charitable grants. We have produced a dedicated source of support and information on funding for day centres here. 
 
As the table above shows, many funding opportunities are dependent on the applicant being able to identify and evidence client need, therefore data collection needs to be an ongoing process that is established prior to applying for funding. To determine the kind of information you should be collecting you need to focus on two things:
 
1.            Getting to know your local funders.
As funders will vary, it is vital to invest time in researching or developing relationships with your local funders. This will give you a greater understanding of the kinds of information that they are interested in, and how they like it to be presented.
 
2.            Developing a bank of information rather than focussing solely on one type.
Having a variety of data sources to hand will not only enable you to back up what you are saying with different information, but will also mean you will have greater options in terms of funding as you can more easily adapt to different funder requirements. You should aim to have as many sources as possible, including:
  • Robust quantitative data on such areas as demographics of clients, numbers in your service, and outcomes for those clients
  • Qualitative data on such areas as client satisfaction and individual stories
  • Distance-travelled data that can demonstrate the progress clients are making when this is harder to measure by traditional means such as entering employment.

How can you ensure it is good quality?

We have produced a good practice resource that gives you tips on how to improve the quality of your data collection – see this here.
 
 

How can you minimise the burden of data collection?

It is important that care is taken to minimise the burden of data collection as far as possible. One way to do this is to determine what information you already collect (or need to collect) in order to support your clients. Often, the same information can be used for both purposes. Streamlining the two things means not only taking less time by staff, but also means staff are better able to understand the need for the information as it forms part of their support.
 

Another way of minimising the burden is to develop, implement, or improve client recording systems that are designed in order to be user-friendly and produce reports and resources with little effort. Our research has found that 22% of projects responding to a recent survey said that their primary method of data storage was paper based systems[1]which indicates the resource requirements for extrapolating client data will have significant impact on staff time and potential implications for accessing funding. Systems can range from large databases with IT support (such as In-Form), to simple Excel spread sheets or Access databases. Through this project we have produced a template basic spread sheet that can be used for this purpose.

 

[1] Homeless Link Client data collection survey August 2010