Outcomes pilot shows good results but at a cost

ASA has published a report on its pilot work with Southwark Law Centre to collect information about the outcomes of its housing law work.
 
Working with Law Centre housing solicitors, ASA developed a questionnaire to ask clients about how the Law Centre’s work had affected their lives. The questionnaire asked how clients’ legal problems had affected their health and stress levels, their relationships with family, and their ability to take part in social activities and stay involved in work, education or training. It also asked whether their lives had improved in these areas after their cases had closed.
 
Results
 
The sample of clients was small but showed that most clients’ situations improved in nearly all areas:

• 14 out of 16 clients felt that they were less stressed after their case had finished
• 13 out of 16 felt that their health had improved
• 11 out of 16 felt that their ability to work, study or train had improved
• 10 out of 16 clients felt their relationships with friends and family had improved

 
Clients also gave positive feedback expressing their appreciation of the service and of what their solicitor had done for them.
 
I liked the service because they helped me a lot. The council made lots of mistakes and the Law Centre was very good in helping me sort them out.
 
It has given me the courage to keep going.
 
Cost
 
Staff working on the project estimated the amount of time they spent on the project to be about 50 hours. This included time spent by the Law Centre director and three housing solicitors discussing what they wanted to ask clients and how best to ask it. It also included 2½ days spent by a volunteer going through the questionnaires with clients and collating the results.
 
This is a lot of time for an agency that is already overstretched and would be beyond what most agencies are capable of doing without external help.
 
It is ASA’s view that whilst investigating the impact of advice work on clients is useful, it should not take up time that would be better spent on service delivery.
 
Future work
 
ASA will be carrying out 12 more outcomes pilots over the next two years. As a result of this work we hope to develop a set of questions that can be easily used or adapted by agencies to investigate the outcomes of their work, without requiring them to invest too much time.
 
Measuring the outcomes of housing advice