By nef is evaluating the impact on individuals who are pooling personal budgets to plan and purchase things collectively. up2us was conceived by HACT, the housing action charity, in response to the personalisation agenda. It has been developed with social housing providers in six pilot areas, each one developing practical, locally focused responses to collective purchasing alongside the people they work with.
Our evaluation is focused on the collective purchasing approach, where a group of people pool money to make purchases which can be experienced collectively, such as a trip or training course, or individually, such as personal support or one-to-one tutoring. The pooled money can come from public, private, charitable or personal sources. Our work is measuring the extent to which co-production is in operation in the pilot areas, analysing changes in participants’ wellbeing and tracking the impact of spending on local economies. The work so far has exposed the extent to which personalisation is underdeveloped across the pilot areas and has highlighted the limited engagement that the housing providers have had with people affected by their work.
View the report Making the choice: early insights from up2us.
This work is supported by HACT
For further information contact lucie.stephens@neweconomics.org