The Money Guiders Programme supports public service, public benefit and not-for-profit organisations across the UK to hold conversations about money. The cost-of-living crisis and recent welfare reforms has led to more people seeking information and guidance, with conversations about money becoming increasingly common. Training covers a range of topics such as debt, pensions, and budgeting, supporting anyone who interacts with members of the public to hold open, helpful and honest conversations about money. Content is split across three tiers, with higher tiers consisting of more complex material.

Kada Research were commissioned by the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) to assess how best the Money Guiders Programme can be tailored and localised to meet the needs of clients and partners to ensure long-term embeddedness within an organisation. This included assessing the adaptability of content and the whether the context was relevant to a specific region.

To assess the applicability, suitability and adaptability of the Money Guiders Programme, Kada analysed data provided by MaPS. Budgeting and cashflow support were the most frequently engaged with, followed by households and planning for later life. There was a wide geographical spread of partners involved, with Wales seeing the highest levels of participation and the East Midlands seeing the lowest.

Kada also engaged in conversations with system-level and non-system-level partners, such as Councils, credit unions and regional careers services to understand how their organisations have utilised training, their motivations for engaging and how they monitor progress.

The offer was viewed incredibly positively by all, with the professionalism and supportiveness of the MaPS team highlighted as a key strength of the training. As well as this, the training could effectively be adapted to suit the needs of a variety of organisations, including those working with young people who have never worked, those working with single parents who are managing debt, and those looking to understand their pension and retirement options. Additional support to monitor engagement and understand the impact of the training would be appreciated.

If you are thinking about commissioning an evaluation study or if you would like to talk through an idea or hear about this work, you can contact us at info@kadaresearch.co.uk.

Kada Research were commissioned by the Sheffield-based refugee and asylum charity ASSIST to evaluate their housing pilot, which housed individuals who have been granted asylum in the UK. Kada were asked to evaluate stakeholder, landlord and tenant perceptions of the housing pilot and consider potential growth scenarios for the housing programme.

Kada interviewed stakeholders from the charity, such as the accommodation team, management, and the maintenance team, to discuss their strategic goals, delivery of the project and how they would like to see the pilot progress. Kada then interviewed landlords who had supported ASSIST through donating houses to the project. They were asked about their motivations, communication with ASSIST and their future with the charity. Finally, Kada interviewed the families who live in the houses provided for ASSIST. The families were asked to discuss their experiences in the house, their relationship with ASSIST and any support they have received or would like to receive.

Alongside this, Kada used income and outgoings data provided by ASSIST to calculate a number of potential directions that the housing project could take. These calculations looked at the potential of taking on more family houses, opening houses for single refugees and taking on more core staff.

The housing pilot was found to be a profitable venture for the charity, helping them to support their core client base of those who are seeking asylum in the UK. There are advantages to increasing the scale of activity and diversifying further should the charity chose to. Further to this, feedback from tenants of the properties was overwhelmingly positive, with many stating that the housing had helped them to feel settled in Sheffield. Stakeholders and landlords were also largely positive about the pilot and its potential.

If you are thinking about commissioning and evaluation or if you would like to talk through an idea or hear about this work you can contact us at info@kadaresearch.co.uk.

Kada undertook a pro bono business case for the £1.5m rebuild of the Archer Project, the most significant capital investment in infrastructure in a generation to addresse homelessness in Sheffield. The Project’s current building is not fit for purpose and in May 2020 suffered fire damage through an arson attack.

This ambitious plan will significantly help transform homelessness services in Sheffield and beyond by offering a ‘hub’ designed specifically for those suffering from trauma. It will allow the people the project works with to make faster progress away from street life and homelessness and towards stable and fulfilling lives.

Kada undertook a social value analysis which was independently verified by a registered social value practitioner. We show that every £1.00 of investment raised or offered by partners will return social value benefits worth £3.20. The investment in the new centre will create a total net social value of £68m over 15 years.

“Our work is an important part of demonstrating the value of the rebuild project to potential funders. It will become a place where people can make important changes to the way they live and move away from homelessness.” Karl Dalgleish, Study Director and Archer Project Trustee

Get in touch if you are thinking about commissioning a social return on investment study. Contact us at karl.dalgleish@kadaresearch.co.uk or sam@kadaresearch.co.uk if you would like to talk through an idea or hear about this work.

The School of Hard Knocks is a UK-based charity using sports to tackle unemployment, poor health and crime. They ran a project in Welsh Valley schools which combined the School of Hard Knocks rugby school programme with FinCap (Financial Capability) training. The primary research question Kada was commissioned to answer was whether prior improvement in non-cognitive skills make Financial Capability education more effective for vulnerable children and young people involved in this sports project. With cohorts that included those at risk of exclusion, the research methods needed to be both robust and engaging.

The client wanted Kada to undertake an impact and process evaluation and ensure we took on board the first-hand views of young people. To achieve this, we held workshops with young people aged 13-14 in schools, their coaches and their teachers before, during and after the project. We were looking for improved financial capability, improved self-esteem, self-control and self-efficacy, and an improved ability to build social bonds. As the client suspected, we found some clear improvements in students who had taken part in both projects. We were able to provide the School of Hard Knocks and the Money Advice Service with comments from parents, teachers and coaches about the positive impact of the training on their students. We also provided practical suggestions on how to increase the impact of the programme, drawing on student and teacher feedback. Overall, the programme was a success and has since been mainstreamed in Wales.  This was a complex evaluation that used statistical comparative techniques and a control group to meet client requirements.

CLIENT QUOTE:

SOHK commissioned Kada to evaluate a new programme we were running, funded by the Money Advice Service, to see if financial capability education could be delivered as part of a wider intervention using sport to improve mental health and behaviour in school. It was relatively complex, as they needed to assess the strength of each part of the programme individually, as well as working across multiple school contexts with challenging young people. We felt Kada did an excellent job, always communicating well, delivering every milestone on time and to a high standard. We were also able to use the evaluation to improve aspects of our programme delivery going forward

Jack Lewars (former CEO, SOHK)

Thinking of evaluating a charity project or programme? Get in touch for a free initial two hour consultation (karl.dalgleish@kadaresearch.co.uk).

After severe floods damaged the Mytholmroyd Community Centre in 2015, the MCA took the opportunity to consider a better future use of the space and facilities and explore the feasibility of a long-held desire for a new swimming pool.

Kada Research was asked to assess community priorities and preferences for new facilities (including a pool), identify the potential future facilities options and assess their feasibility, and provide a practical plan for a dynamic building at the heart of Mytholmroyd. The client wanted us to consider differing community priorities, stakeholder interests, resources, and funding, as well as future flood safety measures.

Kada Research led consultations with interested parties and stakeholders to assess their expectations and funding possibilities, taking advantage of a local Christmas Market and cycle race to speak to 90 local residents. Using the consultation responses and evidence of similar facilities, we drew up different options based on community preferences and assessed them for viability. We provided the most feasible options along with their costs and benefits for the Community Association Chair and Board to take into consideration. We developed a practical five-year cost analysis and plan of action to help the MCA realise its ambitions.

“This study required tact and diplomacy and building a strong relationship with trustees. Ensuring we captured a diverse community voice was absolutely essential, as well as considering credible options for the future of the centre. It was well received by the council, trustees and chair of the MCA.

Karl Dalgleish (Study Director).

Get in touch: If you are thinking about the feasibility of a scheme and want to assess credible options e-mail karl.dalgleish@kadaresearch.co.uk and we will respond within 24 hours and offer a free initial two hour consultation.

This report considers the Big Lottery project’s performance, delivery and key lessons. It takes into account the views of the project team, external stakeholders and, most importantly, the people worked with.

The main aims of the project at the time were to engage people over a period of time, to help them realise development opportunities, reduce homelessness and develop a sense of personal achievement.

There were several factors that informed the development of the project, notably increasing numbers of people who were presenting with multiple and complex needs including mental illness, drug dependency, alcohol abuse and criminal behaviour.

The research found that activities have had a more profound effect on people’s lives and their recovery than was anticipated. Perhaps the single biggest lesson has been acceptance of how people behave and react. The Step Forward project has quite simply changed many people’s lives and participants have progressed to positive outcomes and experienced improvements in their physical and mental health.

“The report looks absolutely great. We all really like the time lines and think the stand out quotations lift it and are well chosen. It makes us proud of what we’ve done. I also like the colours and the section starter pages. We heard yesterday afternoon that our follow-on bid has been successful. Thank you for all your support and contributions.”

~ Tim Renshaw, CEO CAP, November 2017

We wrote a short confidential report for a national training provider to understand current and future European Social Fund (ESF) opportunities. The early tasks for the assignment involved a brief review of the EU policy context including a summary of relevant parts of the UK Draft Partnership Agreement and Welsh, Scottish and English ESF programmes 2013-2014 setting out funding and priorities. The scope and scale of planned activity across the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) network and in Scotland and Wales and the distribution of funding by Thematic Objective was also outlined (These are now referred to as Priority Axis and Investment Priorities). We offered a resume of Youth Employment Initiative expenditure – a special measure directly from Brussels to tackle this major EU concern. We then painstakingly assembled a matrix of activity priorities by LEP area and opt-ins to national programmes. The final part of the work provided summary headlines of principal ESF priorities to 2020 including an accompanying excel summary sheet for reference.

After reading the report the client sent us a note saying “I’m super pleased with the report! It makes sense, is logical and structured. Thank you so much. It will become invaluable I’m sure and has already massively helped my thinking”.

“UK ESF will account for a minimum of €4.9 billion (£3.9bn) in 2014-2020.”

~ Kada ESF Scoping Study, 2014