Service Data: Introduction¶
The Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector enriches British social and civic life in many, measurable ways. Demonstrating this impact and quantifying the value of the sector is an important task.
Data generated through service provision is a good place to start to build an evidence base. The data can be split into two types: routine and specific.
Routine data¶
Routine data can be thought of as everyday day and includes: Demographics; Numbers of service users; Processes of the service – courses run, attendance, etc; Costs of service elements; Needs of service users.
Specific data¶
Other specific data might be linked to service goals. This data might include: Effectiveness measures – i.e. outcome success rates; Quality measures – i.e. user ratings of services or satisfaction surveys; Efficiency measures – DNA rates.
What to do with the data¶
Service data can tell us about the outcomes and impact of the service. Some basic analysis can show: Basic analysis tells you
What is working
Who it works for
How it works
How much success costs