Shelter works to alleviate the distress caused by homelessness and bad housing through providing advice and information, and campaigning for political change to end the housing crisis.

Shelter approached us to find an economist who could offer some input to their work building an economic case for investment in housing.

Our volunteer economist Robert Carver considered the constraints to housing delivery since 2008. His findings suggest that the decline in house building is due to the depressed level of final demand for new homes rather than constraints in the planning system. Robert presented his findings at Shelter’s Housing and the Economy roundtable event in October, informing discussion among leading economists from a broad range of fields on the role housing supply can play in stimulating national economic growth.

The report can be read here

For more information about Shelter and its work, visit the Shelter website.

We are grateful to Robert Carver for his time and hard work in delivering this report.

NCB is a national charity which supports children, young people and families and those who work with them, across England and Northern Ireland. Their Young Inspectors programme recruited and trained disadvantaged young people to inspect and report on services in their areas. The initiative aimed to provide opportunities for marginalised young people to improve services and enable change in their communities.

A team of economists from Europe Economics, looking at an evaluation of the Young Inspectors programme, investigated how far it is possible to quantify the economic costs and benefits of the programme, and identify other resulting benefits.

The full report can be read here
NCB’s own evaluation of the Young Inspectors programme can be found here

For more information about NCB and its work, visit the NCB website.

We are grateful to the team at Europe Economics – Jonathan Green, Deborah Kelly and Sarah Shannon – for their hard work in delivering this report.

Barnardo’s is the UK’s leading children’s charity. One of its most crucial areas of work is in providing services for young people who have been sexually exploited: from apparently ‘consensual’ relationships and informal exchanges of sex for gifts, accommodation etc., through to serious organised crime.

Barnardo’s aims to identify and support young people at risk of sexual exploitation. Its services provide an environment for young people to get help and support, and offer a range of therapeutic interventions including counselling, group-work sessions and drop-in support. Services also raise awareness of child sexual exploitation in their local areas: working with schools and others to deliver preventative education programmes and providing specialist training to professionals so they know what signs to look out for.

The charity approached Pro Bono Economics for help in looking how at effective these interventions are and the wider impact they may have.

A team from the Bank of England – Greg Thwaites, Amar Radia and Mervyn Tang – looked at the extent to which Barnardo’s interventions reduce the risk of sexual exploitation (and associated risk factors), and estimated the possible savings to the taxpayer resulting from these interventions.

Click here to read the full report

Click here for more information about the methodology used

Key findings from the report can be found here in a briefing from Barnardo’s

Click here for the press release for this report

For more information about Barnardo’s and its work, particularly in the area of child sexual exploitation, visit the Barnardo’s website

We are grateful to the Bank of England team for their hard work on this project and to Barnardo’s, and Laura Blazey in particular, for their commitment and dedication.

St Basils works with young people aged 16 to 25 across Birmingham and North Worcestershire, providing supported accommodation and support services including: housing aid and advice; family mediation; learning skills; advice and guidance on education, employment and training; and resettlement and floating support. St Basils approached PBE for advice on better measuring the impact of its work.

A summary of the project can be found by clicking here

More information about the charity can be found on the St Basils website

Greenhouse empowers young people in London’s disadvantaged communities to realise their potential through sport and dance programmes.

The charity approached PBE to do an economic evaluation of their programmes. We introduced them to a team of volunteers who work for the National Audit Office and have just completed the first phase of the work.

This takes the form of an advice paper to the charity, with proposals to enhance their data collection in the school year 2011-12. The volunteers are planning to use this data to produce an economic evaluation of the Greenhouse programmes in the second phase, which is due to conclude in Autumn 2012.

Ex-offenders face a range of pressures upon release from prison: finding work, often with poor skills; securing housing; dealing with addictions; rebuilding relationships with friends and family. The Foundation Training Company provides assistance, aiming to reduce re-offending by providing counselling, training and referrals to specialist services.

The charity approached PBE to help demonstrate the value of this work delivered at its Hackney Centre.

PBE matched three economists – Fraser Thompson, Tim McEvoy and Andrew Goodman – with the Foundation Training Company. The economists determined that every pound spent could result in between £8 and £17 in net benefits to society.

The key findings from the report can be found by clicking here

The full report can be read here

For more information about FTC and its work, visit the FoundationTraining Company website.

We are grateful to Fraser Thompson, Tim McEvoy and Andrew Goodman for sharing their time and expertise, and to FTC, and Andy Hope in particular, for their commitment and hard work in delivering this report.

Pro Bono Economics was approached by the Citizenship Foundation in 2010 to find economists who could provide input into the charity’s Paying for It programme, a set of resources which look to improve economic awareness among schoolchildren. Though contributing to lesson plans and an online teaching tool offered a slightly different way of using economists in a charity, it allowed the charity to develop the materials in a way that would not otherwise have been possible.

We are grateful to the economists involved in this project for their time and input – Rob Clogher, Angus Hebenton, Rob Mills, John Robertson, Maria Tubbs, Jonathan Wallis and Julia Wilcox.

More detail about this PBE project can be found by clicking here

The materials that the team helped to create can be found on the Citizenship Foundation website

Friday 17th June sees the launch of a new PBE report, delivered by FTI Consulting, for employment charity Tomorrow’s People .

Tomorrow’s People works to help people furthest from the labour market gain employment and stay employed. FTI Consulting have given their time and expertise to analyse the impact of the past five years of Tomorrow’s People Welfare to Work and youth programmes.

The report shows that for every £1 invested by Tomorrow’s People over the period 2006/7 to 2010/11, the value to British society is approximately £2.40. This figure is based on a number of assumptions and estimates which are conservative and clearly outlined in the report. This represents a very positive outcome for Tomorrow’s People.

We hope that, as well as helping Tomorrow’s People, this report can help contribute towards a conversation about how the sector can measure and demonstrate its impact.

- You can read the full report here

- For a shorter summary of the main points from the report click here

- The press release for the event is here.

- If you would like to find out more about Tomorrow’s People, please visit their website at www.tomorrows-people.org.uk.

We are grateful for the support of our funders, including the Economic and Social Research Council, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the Monument Trust, who enable us to undertake this work.

We are looking to find two new trustees to join our existing Board: Martin Brookes (Chair), CEO of New Philanthropy Capital, Andy Haldane, Executive Director at the Bank of England, and Dave Ramsden, Chief Economic Adviser to HM Treasury. The Board currently meets every other month. As the staff team is small (currently a Director and an Operations Manager) and the charity is expecting to grow over the next 3 years, we are looking for a commitment of at least 8 hours per month.

The trustees are looking for individuals who are well networked and have convening power in the charity sector and/or have experience of managing volunteers.

The Chair of the Board would be pleased to receive suggestions of individuals to contact, or expressions of interest directly by the end of March 2011. Please reply to trustees@probonoeconomics.com