St Michael's Hospice: Assessing the Social Value

St Michael's Hospice supports people in Hastings and Rother to live well with dying, death and loss. As well as providing in-patient hospice care, it offers bereavement support, rehabilitation support, spiritual support, wellbeing services and community outreach (amongst other things). In 2024, St Michael's commissioned RealWorth to demonstrate the difference it creates in its community through a social return on investment analysis, RealWorth helped St Michael's quantify the social benefits of the hospice, including the value of helping people feel prepared, connected, and less vulnerable when life gets tough.

Our work revealed that for every £1 invested in St Michael's, it returns £1.50 in value to its local community. This figure helps the charity to demonstrate its impact, providing evidence for funders, partners, and policymakers that investment in hospice care creates significant social return. Our report also helped St Michael's improve its strategy, using insights to strengthen strategic decisions behind service design and delivery. Lastly, our report helped St Michael's communicate its value to the wider public, helping them understand that hospice care isn’t just about end-of-life; it creates economic, social, and wellbeing benefits for the whole community.

To read the full report, see here.

Trinity Theatre: Evaluating the Social Impact

Trinity Theatre, situated in Tunbridge Wells, is a classical theatre, music, films, visual arts and children’s theatre, that is keen to enrich all age groups and enhance cultural togetherness. RealWorth was recently commissioned on how the Theatre generates social value, and therefore reviewed the last two years of operation at the theatre interviewing both management and board.

Throughout this assessment, RealWorth completed on-site reports which included a theory of change. To add value to this report it was important to help the Theatre communicate the many ways in which they change lives for the better.

Outcomes associated with the past two years of Trinity activity range from local heritage and people having improved wellbeing through living in good quality housing. The youth theatre has enabled people to gain employability skills and increased the amount of people who attend shows creating a welcoming community.

This project has assisted Trinity Theatre in starting a journey of demonstrating the social value they create and provided them with key material that they can showcase to corporate, donors and councils. It also assisted the board in re-evaluating its social purpose and strategy when introducing new projects.

Trowers & Hamlins: Creating a Social Value Toolkit

RealWorth was commissioned by the international law firm Trowers & Hamlins to write a pioneering report  that sought to  make the case that financial returns can be enhanced by creating buildings and places in which people and communities thrive. 

The report contained examples of practical tools, advice and sources to help those interested in doing more to understand, maximise, measure and communicate social value. The report was launched at the 2018 MIPIM conference in Cannes, with evidence that real estate projects can deliver greater financial returns by incorporating long-term sustainable social value. 

You can read the full report here, or a condensed version here.

Cathedral Group: Assessing the Social Value of Moulsecoomb Place

Moulsecoomb Place is a Grade II Listed 18th-century house in the Moulsecoomb area of the English coastal city of Brighton and Hove. In 2022, the Mansion and grounds were purchased by TOWN and Cathedral, with the intention to restore Moulsecoomb Place, the tithe barn and the gardens and devise a use for the property that will provide a benefit for the community. Current plans for the site include student accommodation, leisure and retail units, a community hub, the restoration of the historic gardens, improved access to the nearby Moulsecoomb railway station, greater public access to the gardens and historic buildings, and the creation of an “affordable and sustainable” place to get food and drink.

RealWorth was commissioned in December 2022 by Cathedral Group and TOWN. to produce a social value assessment of the scheme at Moulsecoomb place. The team worked closely with the client to analyse the social impact of this scheme and make recommendations for optimisation of social value for this scheme.

The report demonstrated the potential public benefits of the scheme in a concise manner and supported the planning application for the scheme submitted to Brighton & Hove.

Vita Group: Assessing the Social Value of Circle Square

Circle Square is a new neighbourhood developed on the former BBC site in Manchester City Centre. It includes student accommodation, residential flats, commercial and retail space, revitalised public realm and a new central park. The development was a joint venture between Vita Group and Bruntwood.

RealWorth was appointed by Vita Group to assist in identifying and measuring the social value that will be created by the Vita Living and Vita Student Buildings, Symphony Park and the associated public realm improvements. We were also asked to make recommendations on how social impact of this and future schemes could be optimised.

Westminster City Council: North Paddington Programme

The North Paddington Programme is a place-based programme by Westminster City Council. Its aim is to make Westminster a fairer place to work and live. Its ‘place-based’ objectives mean that all work is developed in partnership with local people, community groups and charities in the Harrow Road, Queen’s Park and Westbourne wards of the Borough.

RealWorth carried out a one-year review of the North Paddington Programme and outlined several recommendations to help shape the programme going forward. This project has assisted the Westminster City Council in demonstrating the effect that their activities are having around the areas they operate in, and evidence the benefits the North Paddington Programme can have over a long period of time.

U+I: Measuring and Optimising the Social Value of Mayfield

The developer and regeneration specialist U+I was shortlisted to transform the Mayfield district of Manchester. RealWorth worked with the bid team to develop proposals and thinking to optimise the social value that could be generated by the scheme.

SROI was used in collaboration with the bid team to influence the concept design proposals.

Our work with U+I and its partners which include Manchester City Council has continued since U+I was appointed to the development partnership in 2016.

The Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret: Impact Evaluation

The Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret (OOT) is a museum of surgical history and one of the oldest surviving operating theatres. RealWorth were commissioned to support OOT in accessing new funding sources, by evidencing to potential funders the potential depth of impact their sponsorship or investment could have on visitors, participants or beneficiaries.

To carry out this study, RealWorth conducted a review to assess the social value of the past two years evaluating past programmes. RealWorth assisted staff in understanding which parts of the organisation produce the most social value, and helped the museum talk about what they do in front of corporate employees, particularly highlighting what the museum does for young people.

The work completed by RealWorth is used by OOT to attract further funding, allows the organisation to be accountable to its stakeholders, and informs future decision-making including prioritising one programme above another. It is also an essential source of information for any future social value assessment.

Integrate Space: Creating a Social Impact Framework

Integrate Space is a facilitator between the real estate sector and the third sector. Integrate works with real estate owners to make their vacant or under-used spaces in prime commercial buildings available to charities on a temporary basis.

Integrate asked RealWorth to create a Social Impact Framework for them that will help to guide their approach to the delivery, monitoring, collation, analysis and reporting of social impact. The Framework covers multiple themes, question sets and broader considerations that can be templated and applied to all future charity occupation projects.

The Framework also includes a guidance document for Integrate to hand to each charity it partners with to help them track their impact, as well as a reporting template it can hand to each landlord it works with to help them capture and report on the social impact created.