A tight-rope walker, crossing a chasm between two cliffs

Valuing What Matters

New approaches to measurement can help prioritise what matters to people and the planet.

What gets counted, counts. nef is creating new approaches to value and measurement so that those things that matter most to people, communities and to achieving a sustainable planet are made visible and measurable.

Practices of measurement and valuation are still often focused narrowly and on the short term. Sometimes things that are easy to count, outputs, are the things that get measured and thereby valued. Instead nef believes measures should be focused on outcomes and how lives, communities or the environment changes as a result of policy.

Our approach focuses on a 'triple bottom line' where returns from investment are evaluated by their longer-term social, environmental and economic returns. These can be used across the public, private and third sector. nef works with a number of tools to measure and account for value.

Key facts

  1. 1
    £1 invested in high-quality residential care for children generates a social return of between £4 and £6.10
  2. 2
    £1 invested in alternative, non-prison based sentencing for women offenders generates a social return of £14
  3. 3
    The UK could save £486 billion over the next 20 years by switching to a preventative system of care for children and young people.

Projects

  • Close up of a man's feet stepping up an escalator | by Thomas Hawk

    Social Return on Investment

    Conventional cost-benefit analysis does not capture what really matters to us. nef has developed alternative measurement tools to improve decision making.

  • Windows of the houses of Parliament | by drpritch

    SROI and Public Policy

    Government can make better decisions if they have better measurement

  • Stripey deckchairs in a park | by the_amanda

    Commissioning for public benefit

    Using Social Return on Investment, commissioners can create real value in public services.

  • Coloured pencils | by m4r00n3d

    The Value of Work

    We must reward work that creates true value for the economy, for society and for the environment.

  • The sun sets behind a plane at Heathrow Airport | by duimdog

    SROI and Infrastructure

    We're expanding the use of Social Return on Investment to analysis of big infrastructure projects, starting with an assessment of the proposed third runway at Heathrow Airport.

  • The High Line in New York, a disused railway line which is now a public park

    The Great Transition

    Finding ways to survive and thrive through financial crises, climate change and the peak and decline of global oil production.

Publications