Devon Social Value Conversation

Are you a VCSE organisation wanting to understand and demonstrate the difference your work makes in a way that’s meaningful to you but also to funders? Are you a public sector commissioner or funder needing to measure the value of the work you resource?

Social value is a ‘hot topic’ currently, as are methods such as Social Return on Investment (SROI) as a means of measuring or evaluating it. Is SROI the magic bullet some hope for? What are the alternatives? Who should decide how we measure and understand the socially valuable work we do or commission?

If you are interested in these questions, join us for a FREE day of talks, panel discussions and practical workshops with plenty of time to network and discuss informally.

The Devon Social Value Conversation aims to bring together VCSE and public sector people to debate and critique prevailing narratives around these issues. We’ll examine the practical realities of commissioning and service delivery in the current climate, and the constraints this represents. But we’ll also dig into the implications of deciding what is valuable for power dynamics and ask whether a narrow understanding of social value might risk some aspects of practice being underecognised.

Alongside this there are increasingly urgent, critical questions that challenge the robustness of some measures and some are concerned about the narrowing of perspective they can entail. We aim to open up a wider conversation about the full range of ways in which we can understand, measure and evaluate the social value derived from services and interventions, whether they are delivered by VCSE organisations or statutory bodies. We’ll aim to understand the principles behind SROI, and consider alternative techniques and approaches, and there will be opportunities for exploring practical skills and techniques.

The Conversation is coordinated by the Torbay, Plymouth and Devon VCSE Assembly’s Research Community of Practice, supported by NHS England through the Research Engagement Network. Anyone working in the public, voluntary, community, charity, academic or social enterprise sector, large or small, is welcome to attend.

Venue: River End Rooms at Tuckers Maltings, Teign Road,

Newton Abbot. TQ12 4AA.

https://themaltingstaphouse.co.uk/

Parking: Osborne Street

https://www.teignbridge.gov.uk/parking/car-parks/newton-abbot/osborne-street/

Why not get the train? The venue is very close to Newton Abbot Railway Station

Booking: only via book on Eventbrite - please feel free to circulate this invitation to colleagues

Questions? email Ian: [email protected]

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Host or Publisher Devon Community Foundation