Wendy Stephenson, David Whittaker, Voscur and Alex Marsh, University of Bristol Traditional infrastructure organisations create social impact through a broad range of support, parts of which are notoriously hard to measure. A 'market-led' approach arguably delivers focused improvements in performance that are much easier to evaluate. This session compares the practical and policy implications of both.

1. David Whittaker
In defence of voluntary sector support services: providing evidence
of impact against a context of market driven service provision
Alex Marsh

2. Outline
 Introduction and expectations
 Questions and discussion
 Summary

3. Traditional infrastructure
 Local CVSs
 Public (local authority) core funding
 Interrelated services:
support, development, representation, advocacy, br
okerage, collaboration
 Impact on organisations and their clients in diverse
ways - measurement difficult

4. Market-driven / demand-led
 Austerity
 Critique of ‘supply-side’ approaches:
 Difficult to demonstrate value for money
 Frontline groups have less say in support
 Private sector support should be available

5. Demand-led to date
 Trial and error / work-in-progress
 Time / take-up / familiar providers
 Customer and supplier capacity limited
 Diagnosis of needs more important than thought
 Automated processes still need human input
A brave new world for voluntary sector infrastructure? Vouchers, markets and
demand led capacity building
Caron Walton and Rob Macmillan, March 2014 (TSRC)

6. Proving Our Value
 Develop methodology / tool to measure the
economic impact of infrastructure
 University of Bristol SROI analysis - £11.82
 Simplified tool for any infrastructure
organisation now in development
 Does this capture impact?
 Does this measure value?

7. What makes a market function well?
 Under what conditions would a market for
infrastructure be more efficient?
 Demand side
 Choice is more effective than voice at
signalling what is valuable
 Informed consumers
 Supply side
 Economies of scale and scope limited
 Barriers: transitional or structural?

8. Demand v supply
 Demand-led:
 Easier to quantify impact
 Competition over cooperation
 Doesn’t address
representation, collaboration, advocacy
 Supply-side:
 Full range of support (and diagnosis)
 Difficult to measure impact

9. Questions
 Will a demand-led approach create more impact? Or
just make what happens easier to measure?
 How is the demand-led system developing in different
parts of the country? Problems? Possibilities?
 What sort of information are commissioners currently
looking for on impact? (How) is it changing over time?
 If the future is a market/demand-led system, what
does this mean for infrastructure organisations and
frontline groups?