Charity Services and Influence: stronger together

Charities that provide direct services are not always aware of the rich data and intelligence they hold and how that could benefit work to influence long term change for their beneficiaries. They may not realise the value of policy influence work to improve the lives of those they support.

Many years ago, I joined a charity delivering complex services. Most of the organisation who did the “real work” of directly supporting clients and had no awareness of the public policy team. In turn, the policy team ignored the services.

When I joined the organisation, I realised the value of the services in policy influence. Service users and staff knew where the policy and legal frameworks were helping or hindering people’s ability to live full and active lives. This evidence could be used in support of the changes we were calling for. As a result, we achieved legal changes that would benefit people who might never even know of the exitance of the charity. Policy and service delivery are both vital parts of many charities role, and stronger when they work together.

So, if you are a charity providing direct services to individuals, how can you use that intelligence to drive change for your beneficiaries?

• Smaller charities don’t have staff working on policy influence. But they can pool their intelligence through national organisations, alliances and coalitions. In health, for instance, National Voices and any number of condition specific alliances spring to mind.

• Local charities can provide valuable information to local public services about where the need is greatest and the best way to meet it.

• In larger charities, it is vital that policy and services work closely together to provide a stronger voice.

If you’d like to talk about how to maximise the impact you have by using the evidence from your service delivery, get in touch.