• Project Leader: Jane Gibbon
• Sponsors: ESRC
• Partners: Jesmond Swimming Project

The project responds to the current UK Government strategy for the third sector where there is an evidence gap in relation to understanding the size and characteristics of individual organisations and the difficulty of measuring their impact on people and places. The project will use social measurement techniques developed with Jesmond Swimming Project, specific to community based organisations working within the leisure sector, and will then be shared through Sporta across the local, regional and national network of leisure trust and social enterprises. 

A large problem facing leisure services providers is the measurement of their impact on communities. The UK Government are now asking providers to demonstrate their impact on communities and how their service benefits their users and the environment in which they operate. An example would be swimming being high on the health agenda as a way of combating obesity and Primary Care Trusts taking action to reduce the cost of treating patients. New swimming programmes offer new opportunities to work with a PCT and these would need to be measured and monitored in order to demonstrate impact. One possible tool to identify and demonstrate impact is through social measurement techniques. Jesmond Pool found that financial accounting information did not provide the level of social information that the organisation required and introduced social accounts to address this information gap.

The research project is specific to third sector leisure sector providers and will develop and share best practice of social measurement across a UK network. The project will be unique in researching and sharing understandings of different approaches to social measurement practice developed with Newcastle University and Jesmond Swimming Pool.