The Social Value created by Behind Closed Doors in 2015-16
West Yorkshire
Police
Safeguarding
BCD
73,990
Volunteers
665,763
In 2015-16 Behind Closed Doors
(BCD) created just over £3.1
million pounds worth of social
value, mostly for the women
and men they supported
through their Leeds Domestic
Violence Outreach (LDVS) and
Prevention and Recovery (PARS)
Services.
PARS 633,604
LDVS Outreach
2,450,828
People said that, because of our support they had:
Better Physical health
177 LDVS clients
Better mental health
113 PARS clients
Better able to parent
LDVS
New stronger relationships
PARS
More independent, in control and able to
make own decisions
0
400,000
800,000
1,200,000
Value £
They said
I have transformed, I’m confident
now, I used to walk with my head
down in the street and now I have
my head held high...I have seen
him [the perpetrator] several
times – each time I walk past with
my head held high, no looking
back, and no eye contact – I feel so
proud of myself – I now wear what
I want when I want, I dress smart.
I would like to stay as I am;
I want to be as happy as I
am now.
I’m proud of being able to
cope (with disabled child
and child contact with
perpetrator). I realise I’m
doing a good job.
My life is 100%
better.
I hated myself before, I
didn’t look in a mirror – I
was told for 7 years that
I was ugly, fat, I looked
like a man. Now I brush
my hair, I wear what I
want, I’ve lost some
weight. I’m just happy in
my own skin.
I’ve realised how
strong my children
are.
This is how they said we helped them achieve this.
Everyone’s experiences and problems are different and continually change, so our
workers and volunteers always modify the support they provide to match their
circumstances. Regardless of whether they were supported by LDVS or PARS teams
everyone we interviewed said that it was the consistent, reliable practical and emotional
support they received that enabled them to achieve their goals.
are different
and continually change, so our workers and volunteers always
Here isproblems
just one person’s
story:
the support
towas
match
their circumstances.
Regardless
whether
Jane’s modify
relationship
with herthey
firstprovide
husband
physically
and emotionally
abusive.of
After
she was
they
were
supported
by
LDVS
or
PARS
teams
everyone
we
interviewed
said
that
it
was
widowed, she found a new partner who abused her verbally, physically, sexually and emotionally
and
the
consistent,
reliable
practical
and
emotional
support
they
received
that
enabled
them
spent all their money on alcohol. When he threatened to kill her, she was moved to a refuge in Leeds
to achieve
their
who helped
her get
findgoals.
somewhere to live. However, her problems continued. The property was a mess,
and there was lots of anti-social behaviour and drug abuse in the area. She was afraid to go out, was
unable to get out of bed and sat in the dark all day, feeling alone and isolated. She thought she had lost
everything because she had had to leave her job, home, friends and family and was frustrated that her
ex still had their family home and his job, but she managed to cope without self –harming again. Her son
was struggling too; isolating himself at school and missing meals because he was worried the
perpetrator was going to come and kidnap him.
The PARS worker gradually gained Jane’s trust and helped her understand what had happened so she
didn’t return to the relationship. Gradually she helped her to become more confident and Jane began to
trust her GP and the other services trying to help her. She helped Jane explain her housing problems to
her landlord and social services and she and her son were re-housed in a more suitable place and
organised and helped Jane take part in meetings with her son’s school so that everyone knew about
what had happened and could support him better together. At the same time, she helped Jane to
become a more confident parent.
And a result...
Jane began to believe she had a future and was able to keep
her family together. Now she gets up and dressed every day
and can leave her home and talk to other people. Last year
she and her son went on holiday to the seaside with her family
and she plans to start work again.
In 2015-16 we spent £425,350 on providing services to people like
Jane, made up of:
Other
income
12,568
Trust and
grant
funders,
175,998
Volunteer
time,
14,371
LDVS
contract,
£222,413
So, for every £1 we received in 2015-16 we created around £7.32
worth of social value
Thank you to all of our volunteers and funders!
What we learnt
Our clients, volunteers and the other organisations we work with told us what they valued about our
services and what we could change to provide people with even better support
 Community based support to help people address their own particular needs which offers them real
choices is very effective in enabling them to build new lives.
 Regular, consistent contact with key workers builds trust so that people open up and reveal their real
situations and problems. This means we can support them to solve the problems they are really
worried about producing genuine, long lasting improvements.
 Helping people build their own support networks of family and friends is important because this
maintains their progress when our support ends. More involvement with their local connections also
helps and gives some people opportunities to ‘give back’ BCD volunteers said their experience of
providing support to PARS clients was life-changing and they would welcome even more training,
responsibility and opportunities for progression.
 We are good at collecting and using data from clients to improve and develop services. Now we need
to understand more about how our services impact on the other people and organisations we work
with too.
Everyone in BCD needs to routinely see the outcome data we collect so they can understand and be
proud of what they achieve for the people they work with and suggest ways in which we can do things
even better in future
Our commitment:
We will continually measure the social value and impact of our services and use this to
develop our services so that BCD services always provide the best possible support for
women, men and children in Leeds affected by Domestic Violence and Abuse.
More information about our social value and how it was calculated is available in BCD’s ‘Living and Not Just Existing’
Social Value Report which is available on line at www.behind-closed-doors.org.uk or via e-mail from info@behindclosed -doors.org.uk