The Value for Money Assessment Toolkit

VfM Case Study Template:

A Southampton Partnership VfM Case Study:

Draft Report by: xxxxx

With supporting documentation provided by: xxxxx

Ref CS: xx/2010/sxp

Date: xx /xx/201x

  1. Overview of Case Study Project
  1. Activity/Project Description:
  1. Headline VfM Results:
  1. Activity/Project Aims & Objectives:
  1. Key Partners:
  1. Baseline Efficiency, Economy & Effectiveness measurements
  1. (Also, describe how this Activity/Project directly or indirectly shouldhelpdeliverour City Priorities & Challenges and LAA PIs for 2010/11 that this Activity/Project directly or indirectly helped to deliver.(see appendices 1 and 2 )
  1. VfM summary of Activity/Project Achievements
  1. (Also, describe how this Activity/Project actually diddirectly or indirectly help deliverour City Priorities & Challenges and LAA PIs for 2010/11 that this Activity/Project directly or indirectly helped to deliver.(see appendices 1 and 2 )

  1. Programme Management Analysis: This table gives a Programme analysis of the Impact that the project has made against the Southampton Partnership’s VfM Measurement Criteria (as listed in annex 1).

Table 2. Programme Management analysis against the Southampton Partnership’s VfM Measurement Criteria:
1.Service improvementoutcomes from the project / activity / 2.Efficiency and use of resources / 3.Focus of Delivering LAA Outcomes / 4. Trust and relationships
1.1 / 2. 1 / 3. 1 / See App 1 / 4. 1
1. 2 / 2. 2 / 3. 2 / See App 2 / 4. 2
1. 3 / 2. 3 / 3. 3 / 4. 3
1 .4 / 2. 4 / 3.4 / 4. 4
1.5 / 2. 5 / 3.5 / 4.5
1.6 / 2. 6 / (Insert 1- 5 ’sor one)
  1. Further VfM Improvement Opportunities identified
  1. .
  2. .
  3. Risk Issue.
  1. Conclusions

END

Appendices: supporting data/links.

  1. Those Southampton Partnership Priorities – Our City Priorities & Challengesthat this Activity/Project directly helped to deliver.
  • Px
  • Px

Those Priority LAA PIs for 2010/11 that this Activity/Project directly helps to deliver

  • NI
  • NI
  1. Those Southampton Partnership Priorities – Our City Priorities & Challengesthat this Activity/Project indirectly helped to deliver.
  • Px
  • Px

Those Priority LAA PIs for 2010/11 that this Activity/Project indirectly helped to deliver

  • NI
  • NI

Annex 1. Detailed VfM Framework Criteria to reference in the case study

Needed to measure Effectiveness

  1. Service improvementoutcomes from the project/activity.
  1. Increased understanding of the barriers to service improvement and how to overcome them through collaborative action
  2. Identifying opportunities to align/join up the activities of local agencies
  3. Ensuring that services better meet the needs of users and the community
  4. Achieving behavioural change
  5. Narrowing the gap in outcomes between the most and least deprived areas
  6. Improving local environmental quality

Needed to measure Efficiency & Economy

  1. Efficiency and use of resources - how resources were allocated and managed, and the costs of theproject/activity.
  2. Setting joint strategic and operational objectives - to ensure effective joint planning of projects / activities that will deliver the improvement outcomes needed to address the priority identified for the city by the Southampton Partnership
  3. Better targeting of mainstream spending to meet local needs - helping to direct funding within the area to meet our priorities
  4. Levering in additional resource – through successful bidding for discretionary “external” funding
  5. Investing in services that can reduce long-term costs to the public sector overall – through making the best VfM commissioning / procurement decisions (over and above the direct purchase of goods and services)
  6. Sharing capacity and resources – from across the partners in the Southampton Partnership
  7. Partnership Rationalisation –making the operation of the Partnership Boards more economic, efficient & effective
  1. Further information to measure the Focus of Delivering LAA Outcomes – and Developing for Total Place / Place Based budgeting:
  1. Those Priority LAA PIs for 2010/11 that this Activity/Project directly helps to deliver (see attached PI list below).
  2. Those Priority LAA PIs for 2010/11 that this Activity/Project indirectly helps to deliver (see attached PI listbelow)).
  3. Effectiveness of any Area Based Grant deployment in support of this project
  4. Describe Progress on pooling budgets around/as a result of this project
  5. Describe progress of the ability to Identify savings
  1. Trust and relationships - between the partners.

Describeany progress helped by project delivery around:

  1. Sharing data and information with local partners
  2. Establishing a collective local vision and coordinated strategy
  3. Ensuring performance management frameworks are more joined-up and less silo-based
  4. Changing the culture of partners to be more collaborative
  5. Achieving partner agreement on common geographical targets for action

Annex 2: Case StudyToolkit:

Actions for the case study –
  1. Retain Annex 1.(above)as a reference in the final report
  2. Do not include these notes (below) in the final case study report

A) Supporting Prep notes to help carry out the case study: List of prompts to assist the assessor

  1. Preplanning –

Identify/collect VfM Measurements of Baseline & Improvement performance & Financial Data, PI’s & Targets relating to the Activity/Project

  • Southampton Partnership Priorities – Our City Priorities & Challenges, and LAA PIs for 2010/11 that this Activity/Project should directly or indirectly help to deliver.) (See Annex 1 above for criteria examples)
  • Theme/Sector Priorities
  • Plus - Useful service-based business metrics
  1. VfM Criteria to Measure

Develop & agree the specific Efficiency, Economy & Effectiveness criteria to measure the project/activity against (link to ref: number in annex 1):

  1. Efficiency
  1. Economy
  1. Effectiveness
  1. Social Return on Investment

Ways to calculate efficiency:

  • ‘Difference in difference’ is a commonly used empirical estimation technique in economics. This can be employed by commissioners to measure the cost-saving implications of any given intervention that has likely cross-sectoral effects. It allows an exploration of the effect of an intervention on the target group before the intervention and after the intervention. To prove how far any changes were the direct result of an intervention, changes are measured against a control group where the intervention had not taken place.

Social return on investment - What is social value?

“Social Value is the collective gain to the community from commissioning/procurement over and above the direct purchase of goods and services”.

“Social Value is about how well scarce resources are allocated and used; and how their collective use delivers measurable and improved outcomes. It reflects a balanced approach in assessing outcomes, taking into account the wider benefits to the patient, the wider community and the general public.” – Definitions from a currentCross-Regional SHA Social Value Project.

B): Those Southampton Partnership Priorities – Our City Priorities & Challenges, and LAA PIs for 2010/11 linked to this Activity/Project

Actions for the case study -
  1. Insert any of the City Priorities & Challenges;and LAA PIs in this list that the Project / activity either directly or indirectly supports into appendices 1 & 2 of the case study report
  2. then delete this list

City Priorities & Challenges

The main priorities are tobenefit all local people and businesses in the city by:

P1- achieving sustained economic growth and

P2 - achieving low cost, efficient, customer centred services

The four key city challenges are:

KCC 1. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT:

•Stimulating higher levels of business start up

•Increasing rates of job growth, particularly in the private sector

•Stimulating additional inward investment

•Encouraging higher levels of employment and economic activity

•Tackling deprivation in specific areas of the city, including completing a successful Estate Regeneration programme.

KCC 2. EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT AND SKILLS:

•Supporting local schoolsand colleges to improve and be excellent

•Increasing educational attainment andskills

•Increasing the proportion of young people who are in education,employment or training

•Improving life chances for children in care and care leavers.

KCC 3. WELL BEING:

•Safeguarding children and families

•Supporting vulnerable people and promoting long term independence

•Improving health and reducing health inequalities

•Reducing crime and Anti Social Behaviour rates and improving public perception of crime

•Encouraging active citizenship, volunteering and personal responsibility.

KCC 4. A SUSTAINABLE, GREEN AND ATTRACTIVE ENVIRONMENT:

•Meeting the housing growth needs to support the economy

•Securing transport and infrastructure needs to support the economy

•Developing a high quality street scene

•Meeting our Carbon Reduction Commitments.

Note: the followingtargets must not be used from 1 April 2011 because the LAA is being scrapped on 31 March 2011. New Local PI Targets will be created to reflect our new City Priorities & Challenges
A revised list will be produced for use here.

LAA Designated targets 2010/11

NI 63 Stability of placements of looked after children: length of placement

NI 111 First time entrants to the Youth Justice System aged 10 – 17

NI 60 Core assessments for children’s social care that were carried out within 35 working days of their commencement

NI 110 Young people’s participation in positive activities

NI 115 Substance misuse by young people

NI 141 Number of vulnerable people achieving independent living

NI 130 Social Care clients receiving Self Directed Support (Direct Payments and Individual Budgets)

NI 30 Re-offending rate of prolific and priority offenders

NI 19 Rate of proven re-offending by young offenders

NI 56 Obesity among primary school age children in Year 6

NI 112 Under 18 conception rate percentage change

NI 123 16+ current smoking rate prevalence

NI 125 Achieving independence for older people through rehabilitation / intermediate care

NI 134 The number of emergency bed days per head of weighted pop.

NI 135 Carers receiving needs assessment or review and a specific carer’s service, or advice and information

NI 39 Alcohol-harm related hospital admission rates

NI 40 Drug users in effective treatment

NI 32 Repeat incidents of domestic violence

NI 38 Drug-related (Class A) offending rate

NI 152 Working age people on out of work benefits

NI 8 Adult participation in sport

NI 21 Dealing with local concerns about anti-social behaviour and crime by the local council and police

NI 79 Achievement of a Level 2 qualification by the age of 19

NI 164 Working age population qualified to at least Level 3 or higher

NI 165 Working age population qualified to at least Level 4 or higher

NI 151 Overall employment rate

NI 155 Number of affordable homes delivered (gross)

NI 20 Assault with injury crime rate

NI 175 Access to services and facilities by public transport, walking and cycling:

a) % of the City's Population within a 40 minute bus journey of the GeneralHospital and the RoyalSouthHampshireHospital)

NI 175 Access to services and facilities by public transport, walking and cycling:

b) % of the City's Population within a 10 minute walk of a GP Surgery)

NI 186 Per capita CO2 emissions in the LA area

NI 191 Residual household waste per head

Children & Young People’s Trust 2010/11 Local Area Agreement statutory targets:

NI 100: Children Looked After achieving level 4 Maths KS2

NI 72: Achievement of 78 points or more at Foundation Stage, with at least 6 in Personal, Social and Emotional Development and Communication, Language and Literacy

NI 73: Achievement at level 4+ in English and Maths at Key Stage 2

NI 75: Achievement of 5 GCSEs at A*-C, including English and Maths

NI 87: Secondary school persistent absence rate

NI 92: Narrowing the gap between the lowest achieving 20% at Foundation Stage and the rest

NI 93: Progression by two levels in English between Key Stage 1 and 2

NI 94: Progression by two levels in Maths between Key Stage 1 and 2.

NI 99: Children Looked After achieving level 4 English KS2

NI 101: Children Looked After achieving 5 GCSEs at A*-C, including English and Maths

2010/11 LAA Locals

LAA 3a iv Participation of children looked after in

their reviews (LAA Local Indicator)

LAA 2a iii Reduction in the percentage of half days missed due to absences in primary (BV46) schools maintained by the LEA (LAA Local Indicator)

PAF A2 - LAA 2b iv Increase in the percentage of young people leaving care aged 16 or over with at least one GCSE at grade A – G or a GNVQ (LAA Local Indicator)

Stretch Target 3 LAA 2b ii Reduction in the difference between the percentage of Southampton pupils achieving 5+ GCSEs at A* to C (including English and Maths) compared with the national average

Stretch Target 2 LAA 2b vii Increase in the percentage of pupils achieving level 4+ in Maths at Key Stage 2 in named primary schools which are below the national floor target of 55% (Stretch Target)

Stretch Target 2 LAA 2b vi Increase in the percentage of pupils achieving level 4+ in English at Key Stage 2 in named primary schools which are below the national floor target of 55% With Stretch

LAA 4a i Reduce the theft of vehicle offences (LAA Local Indicator)

LAA 4a ii Reduce thefts from vehicles offences (LAA Local Indicator)

LAA 4a xiv Reduction in the percentage of Hospital Emergency Department presentations for victims of assault between 18.00 and 09.00 hours. Without Stretch (LAA Local Indicator)

LAA 5a ii Reduce recorded criminal damage offences (excluding arson). (2003/4 baseline 8,710 offences) Without Stretch (LAA Local Indicator)

LAA 5a vi Decrease in the number of deliberate primary vehicle fires. Without Stretch (LAA Local Indicator)

LAA 5a viii Decrease in the number of deliberate secondary fires. Without Stretch (LAA Local Indicator)

Stretch Target 5 LAA 4a xv Reduction in the percentage of Hospital Emergency Department presentations for victims of assault between 18.00 and 09.00 hours

LAA 5a iv Decrease in the number of deliberate primary fires (excluding vehicles). Without Stretch (LAA Local Indicator)

Reduce assault with injury

Increase % of local people who are confident with the police

Reduce the All Crime rate

Reducing the number of reports of rowdy and nuisance behaviour

LAA 1c ii The percentage of schools with travel plans completed (Until the modal share of travel to school data is available nationally i.e. decrease in the proportion of car journeys to school in favour of walking and cycling options (LAA Local Indicator)

LAA 7d iii Reduction in annual tonnage of CO2 emissions that can be reliably said to be prevented through the sum of energy efficiency and on-site renewable energy efficiency measures taken in SCC operational buildings during the LAA period. Without Stretch (LAA Local Indicator)

LAA 7d viii Increase in the number of district scale sustainable energy schemes installed in the city. (Amended)

Increase in the number of Green Flags (With Stretch LAA 12)

Stretch Target 12 LAA 7b iv Increase in the number of Pennants

LAA 2c i) Decrease in the percentage of 16-18 year olds not in education, employment or training (without stretch) – Equals NI 117

LAA 12a i Increase in the number of residents aged 19+ achieving a Level 2 qualification. Without Stretch (LAA Local Indicator)

LAA Stretch Target 8 LAA 12a ii Increase in the number of residents aged 19+ achieving a Level 2 qualification. (Note: Cumulative Reward Target based on 1,750 residents achieving NVQ2 by Summer 2010 i.e. an increase of 100 residents on the 3 year target without stretch of 1,650 residents)

LAA 12a vi Increase in the rate of completion for apprenticeships in Southampton (LAA Local Indicator)

LAA 8a iii Increase in the number of 4 week smoking quitters in priority neighbourhoods Without Stretch (LAA Local Indicator)

Stretch Target 4 LAA 1c vi Increase in the percentage of schools achieving and maintaining National Healthy School Status

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I:\PARTNERSHIPS & COMMERCIAL ACTIVITIES\Southampton Partnership\LAA\Corporate Management of LAAs\Stephen's LAA Projects\VfM of the SP\VFM 2010\VfM Case Studies for y 2010&11\The Value for Money Assessment Toolkit.doc