SROI: Volunteers getting digital skills

When the Covid-19 pandemic meant homeworking, this posed a problem for some of Healthwatch Kent’s volunteers who lacked basic digital skills.  Healthwatch Kent invested time in engaging their volunteers digitally and upskilling them.

Healthwatch Kent wanted to find out how their volunteers feel having joined their digital workforce and what social impact this has had. They wanted to measure how much, if at all, their quality of life has improved since developing their digital skills. They developed a survey to which 13 volunteers responded and developed some case studies.

The research found that Healthwatch Kent has been successful in providing some of their volunteers with digital skills and in doing so, have improved their quality of life. Considering that some volunteers already had strong digital skills, they claimed an average of a 39% attribution for their volunteers’ digital competence, and the benefits that gaining these skills has generated. Using the figure of £3,750 to value the introduction of digital skills to an individual over a period of one year, with an average attribution of 39%, they calculate that their intervention to provide training and support to 13 volunteers had a total value £19,012.50, or £1,462.50 per year, per volunteer.