A report on the feasibility of conducting a retrospective SROI analysis of a small-scale school-based arts project. The evaluation measured the impact of the project on levels of participation, behaviour and absences, while the SROI used ‘social cost’ data to calculate the monetary benefit to society of its impact.

The SROI analysis conducted on Urban Beatz at Beaconsfield School aimed to estimate the social added value of the project, in other words the benefit the project provided in terms of its social impact, and to evaluate the level of return on investment this represented.

The Corporate Citizenship Company worked with a small group of charities to explore the potential for measuring the social impact of their activities in this way and to create a series of toolkits to enable other organisations to decide whether SROI would be an appropriate approach for them and, if so, how to conduct a SROI analysis.

Prior to the start of Urban Beatz, the underlying assumptions were that participation in the dance project would not only give pupils the opportunity to participate in dance, perhaps for the first time, but could also result in:

better attendance at school

improved classroom behaviour and

an increased likelihood of participation in extra-curricular activities.

Reduced truancy rates combined with improved behaviour decrease the likelihood of exclusion from school and its potential consequences. The SROI analysis thus focused on these outcomes to calculate the return on investment to society of the Urban Beatz project.