Agreeing some definitions

The diagram below sums up the relationship.between the terms defined on this page

Diagram showing relationship between outputs and outcomes

Inputs are the resources spent on your community engagement activity to achieve its overall aim or outcome. Inputs are time and money and include in-kind contributions (for example the use of a building). Inputs are relatively easy to measure and can be used to carry out a cost/benefit analysis, but there might be other indirect benefits which are the result of the activity which should be factored into the calculation. Social accounting is more holistic approach to which can be used to measure an activity's social, environmental and economic impacts.

The Process describes the form that your community engagement activity takes. The design of a community engagement process should take into account the overall purpose of that activity and should reflect its local context. Designing a community engagement process is much more than selecting from a menu of community engagement techniques; it must include an overview of the whole activity from its inception to the ways that the activity will influence and change things in the future. Sometimes activities that are part of a community engagement process can form part of an initiative's outputs (for example workshops or events).

Outputs are the products and activities of community engagement. They might include things like the number of events (eg. workshops, training sessions, information-giving sessions), the number of people attending an event, the numbers and results of a questionnaire or interviews (including data on people's attitudes about issues) The analysis of outputs can be based on both quantitative or qualitative data. Outputs should be readily measurable. To be of value outputs need to contribute intelligently to a project's overall objectives. In the Salford Agreement's community engagement objective there are a number of indicators which point to the outputs that the city is expected to achieve. Outputs are the results of the actions of individuals, communities or organisations using their resources (time and money) to make things happen. In the Community Engagement Delivery Plan there are lists of actions which have been planned to ensure that the changes in indicators will take place. For example an action under the action plan 42 ensuring community engagement makes a difference is to 'develop, pilot and roll out a framework for all partners to measure the impact and outcomes of community engagement including both qualitative and quantitative data.'

Indicators are measurements (quantitative and qualitative) that are used to analyse an initiative's progress and achievements against baseline information collected before the activity began. Agreed protocols on the ways that indicator data is collected may allow the comparison of performance between different organisations or areas. If indicators are continuously measured over time this might shed light on an initiative's success. There are six key indicators which will be used to measure the performance of the Community Engagement Objective of the LAA. The Community Development Foundation has published some useful research which assesses the value of community involvement indicators.

Outcomes are the benefits or changes that the activity hopes to achieve for its intended beneficiaries. Outcomes are often less tangible (and so less countable) than outputs, but they are more specific than the purpose of the activity. Outcomes from engagement activities might include things like: behaviour change (by individual community members and / or organisations), improved services, policy change, generation of new ideas. It might be helpful to divide outcomes into primary (essential to achieve if the activity is to be judged a success) and secondary (nice to achieve). Also be mindful that some outcomes might take a much longer time to develop. When you are planning the acitivity it might be helpful to divide your outcomes into long and short term ones. (People and Participation p38-39). The Community Engagement Objective of the Salford Agreement (the LAA -local area agreement) contains two high level outcomes:

Outcome 24: Empower local people to have a greater choice and influence over local decision making and a greater role in public service delivery
Outcome 25: Empowerment of children and young people

The Association of London Government has produced a useful guide on assessing outcomes.

Impact is any change resulting from an activity, project, or organisation. It includes intended as well as unintended effects, negative as well as positive, and long-term as well as short-term' (from Measuring Impact a Guide to Resources p10). When trying to work out the impact of a particular activity you need to look at its inputs, outputs and outcomes. One of the key issues when looking at impact is trying to work out

What is a direct result your actions
What has happened because of things other people are doing
What would have happened anyway

This is sometimes called attributing a cause or disaggregating impact. It is also important to remember that not all changes (and therefore impacts) occur immediately. This is particularly the case when working with communities or large organisations - entrenched views can take years to change.

To sum up: the impact of a project or initiative is the effect that it has on all its recipients which might be an individual, organisation or an neighbourhood. The planned outputs and outcomes as well as unintended effects (short and long term) need to be factored-in to the analysis of impact.

Process impacts is a term used to describe the benefits that happen as a result of the community engagement activity undertaken. Things that could result from the process of an effective engagement activity could be:

to give providers better local knowledge
to make user access to services easier
to increase awareness amongst providers of the potential for joined-up solutions
to enhance the motivation of front-line staff through different ways of working

(from Improving delivery of mainstream services in deprived areas– the role of community involvement). Effective community engagement is valuable because the process itself creates a sense of ownership and empowerment which will in turn positively influence people's lives.

Monitoring is part of the ongoing assessment of a project or initiative and is often used by funders to see whether a project is performing as expected. Information from monitoring should be used to improve or refocus a project to capitalise on good practice and learn lessons from less successful activity. Information from regular monitoring is a useful starting point when undertaking a final evaluation.

Evaluation is a process of measuring the success of a project or initiative at the end of its life, but should be planned for at the beginning. Planning an evaluation is in itself a useful exercise as it:

Clarifies the activity's objectives by identifying clear criteria against which these objectives can be measured
Encourages you to build in monitoring and review which can be used to improve your programme while it is in progress
Improves accountability by fully reporting what has been achieved (and looking areas which have been less successful)
Provides information which can be used to improve future policy and practice by developing an evidence base of ‘what works’

(from Making a difference)

The focus of any evaluation should be on assessing the effectiveness and impact of the project on its target communities and it should involve the analysis of both outputs and outcomes (see below for definitions).