We are a group of researchers at the Universities of Kent, Surrey, and Brighton and Sussex Medical School who are undertaking a research project which aims to develop and test a set of resources and guidelines – a ‘toolkit’ – that voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations working with older people, can use to collect information and data to demonstrate their activity and impact.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the important contribution of charities, voluntary organisations, local community and faith groups in supporting older people at home. In a previous study we identified a need for VCSE organisations to demonstrate the scope and nature of the work they do; that they provide value for money;  that their services are of a high standard and meet the needs of the people they support; and enable them to provide evidence which would assist in gaining funding. Our previous research showed that many organisations do not routinely collect the data that would enable them to provide such evidence in a consistent or comparable way.

During the CAVEAT project, we have interviewed leaders of VCSE organisations and commissioners to find out what data are collected. We then set-up a workshop which included members of the public, to help us with the development of the toolkit by identifying what should be measured and how. Now we are in the testing phase of the toolkit, where  4 VCSE organisations (case sites) across Kent, Surrey and Sussex will trial run the toolkit and let us know what works, what doesn’t work and what can be improved upon. This will enable us to see how the toolkit works in the ‘real world’.

Finally, we will produce the toolkit – called ‘CAVEAT’- and an accompanying guide on how to use it, and make this available to VCSE organisations, commissioners and others across the region and beyond for maximum impact.