West London Zone

Project insights

1. A collective impact project

   WLZ is a place-based collective impact project, bringing together a range of organisations from schools to public services to charities, neighbourhood groups and private funders. Collective impact is a response to a common problem wherever multiple organisations seek to tackle complex social issues: sub-scale, isolated service delivery that ends up being somehow less than the sum of its parts.

   This collaborative approach underpins the unique finance model used to fund the project – a Collective Impact Bond. This brings together funding from local authorities, schools and private philanthropists, topped up by central government and Big Lottery funding. Payment is only released when each individual child engages with the programme throughout their two years and makes measurable progress at the end, ensuring that even the most challenging participants engage. WLZ is currently exploring how to bring the philanthropy component of the CIB onto an outcomes-based model. 

   WLZ acts as the backbone organisation for a suite of delivery partners. They are a diverse group of organisations with expertise in the core areas needed to support the strengths and needs of the cohort of children that WLZ supports. Some are very local to the Zone and have been involved in the early stages of co-designing the WLZ model, whereas others are large national charities or new social enterprises. All are different, with their own expertise, characteristics, delivery models and progress measurement methods. While WLZ is paid on an outcomes-basis through the Collective Impact Bond, delivery partners are paid on a fee-for-service basis.

   Read more about WLZ's funding model.

2. Defining measurable outcomes

   Because of the inherent complexity of the problems they are seeking to address, collective impact initiatives tend to try to achieve multiple outcomes, that are in turn underpinned by many indicators. 

   However, as payment is directly linked to outcomes in the WLZ funding model, outcomes had to be identified that can be reliably measured, monitored and attributable to the programme. In practice this required in the early stages of the project ongoing reviewing and refining of the outcomes framework. 

   The framework now covers four outcome areas – positive relationships, mental wellbeing, progress at school, and confidence/aspiration – with 7 specific measures (related to those 4 areas) which can release payment at the end of each child's two year programme. 
   

3. Data collection & analysis

   Data is a central pillar of the WLZ model, as it is through the collection of accessible, accurate, consistent and protected data that West London Zone’s impact on the lives of young people can be tracked, measured and communicated.

   West London Zone makes use of data for a number of operational purposes:

   • to help track students’ progress towards outcomes 
     
   • to drive evidence-based decision-making by management and other stakeholders
     
   • to help deliver new insights to help test, improve, and refine policies and practices.
     

   To ensure a robust monitoring of a young person's progress, WLZ collects data at regular time points from a range of sources:

   • WLZ data collection survey (composite of self-report measures on a wide range of health, wellbeing, character and non-academic progress measures; the survey measures 19 additional risks in addition to school data) – Annually in October
     
   • School administrative data (demographic information, attendance – Annually in October
     
   • Delivery partner data (weekly attendance, pre- and post- programme outcome measurement) – Weekly
     
   • Link worker engagement notes (qualitative reporting on young people's engagement and progress) – Daily

   To enable this data to be meaningful, WLZ worked with Dartington Service Design Lab to develop a data system that enables data to be collected from all four sources, merged into a single database, and presented visually in the form of ‘dashboards’.

   Source: West London Zone, 2018.