Supporting the NSPCC to evaluate a therapeutic intervention

The NSPCC is one of the UK’s leading children’s charity, and is a practice leader in life story work, a therapeutic intervention that allows a young person in care to explore their past, present and future in a safe way. While the practice is effective for younger children, it tends not to be so engaging for some older children.

To tackle this problem, the NSPCC developed the concept of Digital Life Stories, a digital tool to make life story work more engaging and relevant for adolescents, and ultimately improve their experience in care. The NSPCC asked Social Finance to help them test how this tool could enhance practitioners’ delivery of Life Story Work whilst being a sustainable service in the long run.

We worked in deep collaboration with the project team at the NSPCC, bringing experience and expertise in user research, business planning, market landscape analysis and financial modelling. We defined and evaluated three unique digital solutions to bring to market, each designed to a specific set of customers, user needs, value proposition and pricing schedule.

For each offer, we rigorously tested the following:

• Impact and value: Will the opportunity create better outcomes for young people?
• Feasibility: Can the opportunity be delivered efficiently and effectively?
• Viability: Is there a sustainable funding model?

• The NSPCC gained insights to make key strategic and funding decisions about Digital Life Stories
• High impact deliverables: Customer insights research, competitor and market landscape, financial model, commercial analysis and recommendations.
• Unique value add: We delivered a significant amount of capacity and knowledge building around digital innovation and transformation in the children’s sector. Building from our experience in Leaving Well and Family Context.