How to use this page

Specific guidance for day centres wishing to show a contribution to national indicators is available by indicator number. The indicators are grouped according to the themes set out in the National Indicator set. Not all indicators in the set are included - those indicators that are most likely to be useful to day centres have been selected. For more information about LAAs, see Homeless Link's LAA briefing .

Stronger communities

NI 6: Participation in regular volunteering

This indicator will be measured by the new Place Survey, which will be a postal survey. Regular volunteering is defined as taking part in formal volunteering at least once a month. For this indicator, you will need to count the number of members of the general public who fit this definition volunteering at your centre, as well as the number of service-users who you are supporting to volunteer at your centre or elsewhere. Remember, this indicator is aimed at building stronger, more active communities, so this should be a focus. While it is not necessary, it could be useful to estimate or record the total number of hours that your centre is contributing to volunteering, as these are hours spent in service of the community. Any specific training or support given to volunteers would also enhance your contribution. It could also be convincing to include a testimonial from a volunteer.

Safer communities

NI 17: Perceptions of anti-social behaviour

This indicator will be measured by the new Place Survey. Since it is about how people in the area perceive anti-social behaviour (we must assume the indicator is asking whether or not they perceive it as a problem), there are two things to show: how your clientele could be perceived to contribute to anti-social behaviour (either as perpetrator or victim) and how your centre changes this perception. If possible, it will be useful to collect data on street-based activity, and especially street drinking, either systematically as part of a client profile or by conducting a snapshot survey. If your centre is involved with community or residents’ associations, then surveying their opinions of your centre’s clientele and the work you are doing could also be useful (e.g. Do you think the centre’s work reduces ASB? or Do you think the local homeless population contributes to ASB? – the first question evidences the work you are doing, the second evidences that there is a problem your day centre can help to fix. Depending on the relationship you may have with the local community, one or the other will probably be more useful). Other bits of data which could be useful in evidencing your contribution will be outputs such as number of hours spent by individual clients in the day centre, or engaging in a particular activity – the argument being that this time is time not spent on the street. A testimonial could also be effective. It can also be argued that meaningful occupation activities which build skills, self-esteem and self-efficacy and hence coping mechanisms will also be important in motivating people to move away from uncontrolled or anti-social substance use.

NI 18: Adult re-offending rates for those under probation supervision

If you work with anyone on probation, you should record this information.

NI 20: Assault with injury crime rate

This indicator will be measured by police figures, and targets to alcohol-related assault in particular. There will be little data that a day centre can collect for this indicator, except to point out that if someone is rough sleeping it follows that they are more likely to be the victim of alcohol-fuelled assault, so getting them into accommodation will be a good outcome. One can also point out that single homeless people are more likely to experience violence generally, so progress towards independent living will contribute to this indicator. The best a day centre can do is probably a snapshot survey to determine how often its clientele are experiencing assault and under what circumstances (e.g. rough sleeping, street drinking, in hostel, etc.).

NI 38: Drugs related (Class A) offending rate

This will be measured by police figures. Any work that your centre does around drugs should be monitored - see NI 40 below.

NI 39: Alcohol-harm related hospital admissions rates

Monitored by PCTs. Again, good data for this indicator could come from a snapshot survey asking clients how often they have been admitted to hospital because of alcohol. Other good data is collected during client profiling – asking people about their alcohol use. More specific information than ‘alcohol misuse’ is better – for example, asking people about the quantity that they drink and the circumstances (a little often, or a lot at once) will determine whether they are a hazardous or harmful drinker or a dependent drinker. If your centre has specific interventions for alcohol use, the outcomes of these will be important evidence that you are helping people to consume more healthily – number of people who received advice and support on alcohol issues, number of people accessing alcohol services, attending AA meetings etc. It can also be argued that meaningful occupation activities which build skills, self-esteem and self-efficacy and hence coping mechanisms will also be important in motivating people to move away from uncontrolled or anti-social substance use.

NI 40: Drug users in effective treatment

This indicator will be monitored by the National Treatment Agency. The data collection for this indicator is fairly obvious. You will need to know how many people you refer to drug treatment (that is part of the national treatment system) or a specialised drug service. Other convincing information will include the number of people using drugs (in particular opiates and/or crack), the number of people who received advice and support on drug issues, and any soft outcomes monitoring on drug use, as well as self-esteem and motivation to change for those who are using drugs. It can also be argued that meaningful occupation activities which build skills, self-esteem and self-efficacy and hence coping mechanisms will also be important in motivating people to move away from uncontrolled or anti-social substance use.

NI 41: Perceptions of drunk or rowdy behaviour as a problem

This indicator will be monitored by the new Place Survey. It targets alcohol-fuelled disorder and anti-social behaviour and is particularly aimed at the night-time economy, but day time activities will still be part of local perceptions where they are a problem. Similar data to NI 17 and NI 39 will be required: participation in street-based drinking either by client profile or by snapshot survey, numbers of people referred to alcohol treatment or participating in interventions aimed at reducing or controlling alcohol use (advice, AA meetings, etc.). Getting people into accommodation can also be argued to help reduce alcohol related anti-social behaviour since it removes people from street-based living (in theory) so they no longer drink on the street. In practice, however, it is impossible to tell if someone will drink at home or on the street, or be drunk or rowdy in their drinking behaviour or not. It can also be argued that meaningful occupation activities which build skills, self-esteem and self-efficacy and hence coping mechanisms will also be important in motivating people to move away from uncontrolled or anti-social substance use.

NI 42: Perceptions of drug use or drug dealing as a problem

This indicator will also be monitored by the new Place Survey. It targets drug use and drug dealing in local communities. Data on day centre clientele who engage in street-based drug use, or indeed any drug use at all, will be useful for this indicator, as well as outcomes for drug interventions including advice and referral, support groups, people accessing treatment, etc. It can also be argued that meaningful occupation activities which build skills, self-esteem and self-efficacy and hence coping mechanisms will also be important in motivating people to move away from uncontrolled or anti-social substance use.

Adult health and wellbeing

NI 119: Self-reported measure of people’s overall health and well being.

This indicator is a subjective measure of health and wellbeing of the total population, to be monitored by the new Place Survey. Soft outcomes data on physical and mental health will be helpful to show a contribution to this indicator, as well as any outcomes from health interventions (see below for more).

NI 120: All-age all cause mortality rate

Monitoring of deaths per year. Data for this indicator will include number of people registered with a GP, accessing a nurse or doctor, accessing health training, and other health-related interventions. A day centre could also include outputs on its basic services such as meals and showers. Soft-outcomes monitoring of improvements in physical health would be very useful. Number of people into accommodation will also be important.

Tackling exclusion and promoting equality

NI 141: Number of vulnerable people achieving independent living.

The aim of this indicator is to measure the extent to which housing related support helps people move on in a planned way to more independent living. Currently, it will be measured using Supporting People data, but it is unclear how this would change if Supporting People is pooled in the Area Based Grant in April 2009. For the time being, day centres wishing to show a contribution to this indicator should monitor their clients’ progress in terms of housing status. In particular, day centres could present themselves as a building-based outreach service for moving rough sleepers into accommodation. One would require the same information for each client accessing housing-related support (advice, information, referral, advocacy, life-skills training etc.) – i.e. their accommodation status upon first contact with your service and their current level of accommodation. On an annual basis, one would then be able to state how many planned moves into more independent accommodation your service had helped to facilitate and more specifically how many people it helped to achieve different levels of accommodation. This information could also be broken down by service user type: e.g. number of rough sleepers moved into more independent accommodation and their progress from thereon. This would be represented by dividing the total number of rough sleepers seen into categories by most independent level of accommodation achieved.

NI 142: Number of vulnerable people who are supported to maintain independent living.

The purpose of this indicator is to measure the extent to which housing related support prevents service users from moving into institutional care. Again, this indicator is currently monitored using Supporting People data, but this will likely change in April 2009. To prepare for this change, day centres should be collecting the following information: the number of people who have achieved independent living and are maintaining it and the number of people who are being supported to maintain independent living. Independent living is defined as living in one’s own home or in long-stay accommodation. Day centres will therefore have to present the work that they do in terms of tenancy sustainment.

Local economy

NI 151: Overall employment rate

This indicator refers to the employment rate for the whole population. It is better to use 152, as people on out of work benefits are a smaller population and one that your centre is likely to have a high percentage of, but the evidence is essentially the same for both.

NI 152: Working age people on out of work benefits

This indicator refers to overall worklessness. Working age benefits include the main out-of-work client group categories (people on JSA, Lone Parents on Income Support, Incapacity Benefits customers and others on income-related benefits with the exception of carers). The most relevant data for this indicator will be the number of people who were on benefits who are no longer – this will include people who move into full-time work, part-time work (of more than 16 hours per week), full-time education and part-time education (more than 16 hours per week). Other outcomes will be the number of people in volunteering or training, and the number of people participating in employability interventions. The number of people participating in other meaningful occupation, even if it is not necessarily work-related, could also be a good outcome – the argument is that many people must make a journey through meaningful occupation, and into education and training to finally end up in employment. Similar data and argumentation can be used for NI 151, which refers to the overall employment rate.

NI 161: Learners achieving a Level 1 qualification in literacy

If you provide this qualification, or refer people to a service that does, then the number of people obtaining the qualification as well as the number of people referred to the course are the relevant statistics. You could also make an argument that other activities around literacy learning would contribute to preparing people for these qualifications – in this case the number of people participating in such activities would be relevant.

NI 162: Learners achieving an Entry Level 3 qualification in numeracy

Same as above.

NI 163: Working age population qualified to at least Level 2 or higher

People are counted as being qualified to level 2 and above if they have achieved at least either 5 GCSEs grades A*-C (or equivalent, i.e., O levels, CSE Grade 1s), two A/S levels, or any equivalent or higher qualification in the Qualifications and Credit Framework. While it is unlikely that your centre will provide Level 2 qualification, Level 1 qualifications and other education and training work that you provide could be seen as a necessary base from which to move people on to Level 2 qualification. In this case the number of people obtaining Level 1 qualifications would be a relevant statistic, and especially the number of those who move on to higher qualifications.

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