Vista: measuring outcomes and impact and planning for success
Because of our work, Vista can measure, understand and prove the impact of its work on clients’ lives.
Vista is one of the oldest and largest local charities in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. It has been working with people with sight loss and their families for more than 150 years.
The charity offers rehabilitation, residential homes, social groups, talking newspapers, and befriending services for people with sight loss. It also provides specialist services for people with learning disabilities, dementia and dual sensory impairment.
Vista’s people are there to help there from the point of diagnosis; supporting children and adults in eye clinics with information, advice, guidance and care when it's most needed.
Expert staff teach people with sight loss new skills and provide them with specialist equipment and tools to help build their confidence and independence.
Vista tackles social isolation by offering real human contact, befriending services and social groups to people who would otherwise be isolated and unable to leave their homes.
In March 2015, Vista started working with Hall Aitken to
- collect and analyse data that could make Vista’s services better and more efficient.
- maximise and demonstrate the social impact that the charity makes.
- support Vista’s effective business planning.
- develop the skills, capacity, and systems to improve its performance.
Stage one: understanding Vista. By listening to Vista, we were able to identify five key ways in which it supported its clients:
- emotional wellbeing
- social inclusion
- independence
- financial wellbeing
- health
We also understood that Vista has an impact on its clients’ lives from the very start of its work with them; often right at the very time and place that a person is diagnosed with sight loss.
It was important that Vista recognised, measured and could demonstrate the incremental and cumulative benefits of its services for each client and not only at the final point of delivery.
Stage two: market assessment. Our research scoped the scale and nature of local services for Vista’s client group. We were then able to assess the importance of Vista’s role in supporting people with sight loss.
Stage three: planning for success. Applying our Theory of Change, we were able to help Vista to set goals and develop a business plan to achieve them.
Stage four: measuring success. We gave Vista its bespoke outcomes-measurement tool to help assess the impact of its work, improve its services, prove its effectiveness and support future funding bids.
"Hall Aitken made us realise what a positive impact we were making on our clients’ lives. They also showed how our services saved money from the public purse. The new understanding that Hall Aitken brought to Vista meant that we were able to become more efficient, offer better services to our communities and gain funding for growth."