Impact tracking software

[Ditto]

For the TLDR readers;

Any suggestions for software that is used for 'impact tracking', more in a emotional well-being sense rather than academic attainment.

End TLDR;

 

Perhaps not the right forum, but I think it's the nearest. Brief back of background first: Since the beginning of the year, I've started a new job. It's not in a school anymore, but we are based on a school site. The organisation is a charity that looks to provide support to vulnerable young people. Early intervention programmes are a key part of the charities work. We work extensively with schools, perhaps more secondary, but also and increasingly with primary. The charity also work with other youth organisations including youth clubs etc.

 

My role is as a Data Analyst - yippee, back in an area that I really enjoy! What I have very quickly learnt is that much of the funding the charity receives is 'restricted' - meaning we have to spend it on specific goals and then we need to report back in some detail what the expenditure was and demonstrate that the money was utilised well. Additionally, and rightly, the charity wants to understand it's own expenditure and measure 'success' so it can guide it's future plans.

 

So, to my question.... does anyone know of any software solutions that might help in tracking both activities and programmes of work, but also have the ability to track 'impact' against goals.

 

For example, we might have a young person attend a number of support sessions over a period of time. We might use a questionnaire or assessment sheet at the outset to measure well-being or anxiety levels and then measure again at the end of the programme. We would be collecting both quantitative and qualitative data. For me based on the schools I've worked with, I can't think of any software used that quite fits the bill, but can think of things that are touching on some aspects of it. So, if anyone has any suggestions based on school experience or outside (thinking health?), I'd be grateful to hear about them.

[p858snake]

I don't know the full bit about it or how customizable it is, But one of the teams I support use PCOMS to do some assessment/questionnaire to see how their client believes the engagement and progress is going.

 

Also depending on what areas of vulnerability you are working with, There is also OutcomeStar as well.

Edited February 6, 2020 by p858snake

[Ditto]

Many thanks for this, I'll look in to this. At first I thought it might be a misspelling of CPOMS. CPOMS is popular in England, but is more for safe-guarding.

[mavhc]

Google form to collect data, then the results are in a spreadsheet for analysis. Pivot table all the things

[Ditto]

Google form to collect data, then the results are in a spreadsheet for analysis. Pivot table all the things

I've discussed GSuite as an option with the COO, but it's a firm 'we are O365'. I had wondered what could be achieved with Google App Maker but with it's EOL recently being announced I have abandoned that idea. I guess MS Forms could be use in much the same way? The software we have has more functionality than I could reasonably create on my part time hours. The two big issues I see with the software we have are:

 

i) no business rules implemented so we have a classic 'garbage-in', 'garbage-out'. If data inputters follow the expected process rules, processing the data to getting meaningful output is possible, but the input is where it is failing, hence looking at alternatives.

ii) the reporting is very limited - most excel spreadsheets exports and a few online graphics

 

I've learnt that it's MySQL in the back-end, so I might look into a Power BI to address point ii), but unless point i) is addressed, it's going to be a never-ending battle. My predecessor has left the most complex Excel sheet I've seen which ultimately is trying to make sense of the poorly structured data, but I know this is not viable long term.

[mavhc]

What are they inputting the data into?

[Ditto]

Browser front end - don't know the tech stack. MySQL back end.

 

***EDIT*** PHP is used

Edited February 7, 2020 by Ditto

[mavhc]

Depends if you can add the validation at that point, are they using a framework?

[Ditto]

Not a recognisible one. In some parts the process is more of a work-flow management one, so perhaps an software solution around that approach might work. In truth, this organisation works in a niche area with limited budgets. Building a bespoke solution would be great but not viable with current setup, so a purchased solution is what we want to investigate at present.

[mavhc]

I assume O365 forms does a similar thing, worth looking into anyway