Demonstrating impact – new resources
About the resources
After working with six local Healthwatch we’ve created three resources to help you demonstrate the impact of your organisation. These are:
These resources follow on from the Making a Difference Toolkit.
What do we mean by impact?
The impact of a project or of your organisation, refers to the short, medium and long-term or wider effects and changes that have been achieved.
For Healthwatch, this impact refers to changes for/to:
- service users
- service providers
- policy
- third sector organisations
There is an increasing need for not-for-profit organisations to demonstrate the impact they achieve for public funding they receive. For Healthwatch, we need to show service providers and their users the value of our organisation - placing people that use services, at the heart of decision making.
Demonstrating impact will help secure future funding and ensure Healthwatch is seen as a credible organisation both locally and nationally.
Theory of Change template
The Theory of Change can help you understand change as a result of a project or as an organisation in a series of eight steps.
- Identify your goal
- Set your priorities
- Define your outcomes
- Set your indicators
- Identify your activities and methodology
- Identify your inputs
- Identify your assumptions
- Communicate your effectiveness
Using the model provided from Healthwatch Islington, we’ve included a template that you can use to develop your own Theory of Change in an easy to follow format. Copy and paste additional boxes if needed.
Learn more about the Theory of Change
Take a look at the eight steps to developing your Theory of Change in the Making a Difference toolkit (head to page 11). Here you can understand what’s needed in each step, and use the template to layout your own Theory of Change.
Impact Tracker
This Tracker has been designed to help your Healthwatch summarise the outcomes and wider impact you have achieved in a single document.
Record activities and recommendations as you go to help you:
- Plan follow-up work after reflecting on the results so far
- Reduce the possibility of impressive achievements being overlooked
This approach can also help you to review which areas of your work lead to the greatest success, ensuring that details about your achievements can be accessed more easily for reporting and publicity purposes.
Equality Impact Assessment Form
Healthwatch research and engagement projects seek to ensure that people who find it hardest to be heard have the opportunity to influence the design and delivery of health and care services.
This form is designed to help you show that when outcomes are achieved and recommendations implemented, they lead to increased equality and reduce barriers for protected groups and others who experience discrimination or disadvantage; whilst not inadvertently excluding others.