Operational improvements to empower an anti-poverty charity to help more people

Project summary

To analyse North Bristol Advice Centre’s client journeys for opportunities to improve operations efficiency, focusing on time wasted on unanswered calls. 

Project description

NBAC aim to combat poverty and promote social justice by providing free and independent advice and support in North Bristol and South Gloucestershire.

In the last year, they have seen a sharp 20% increase in the volume of enquiries and the amount of debt seen has tripled. NBAC’s services are needed now more than ever.

The aim of this project is to translate client journey and call log data, with a focus on decreasing the volume of call-backs that go unanswered, to answer questions such as:

- Is there a best/worst time of day to call clients?

- What is the average length of ‘different level’ of phone calls, such as triage and casework? This would involve using multiple databases: clients' phone numbers can be extracted; phone numbers are recorded on phone system therefore clients/client profiles can be paired to calls, clients can be categorised by issue/level of service received and client profile based on length of phone calls can be created.

- What are the most active days/times for incoming calls to reception?

How will this project benefit the organisation?

Operational improvements that make better use of resources will allow NBAC to help even more people combat poverty.

The outputs will also inform NBAC’s 2025 strategic plan which aims to achieve funding for the further development of community support.

Location

Flexible - remote or in person depending on volunteer location. NBAC is based in Lockleaze, Bristol.

Commitment

To be agreed between volunteer and organisation when completing project proposal.

Desired project start date

May 2023

Desired project completion date

There is no specific target date, or deadline, so dates can be arranged to suit the volunteer.

Apply

If you feel you are able to offer your assistance please complete the application form and return along with your CV to ProBonoOR@theorsociety.com by Monday 10 April 2023.

The OR Society fully supports equal opportunities.

Information about the organisation

For further information about the North Bristol Advice Centre, please visit https://northbristoladvice.org.uk/

Information about Pro Bono OR

For further information about the Pro Bono OR scheme, please visit: www.theorsociety.com/Probono  or email ProBonoOR@theorsociety.com

Charity Excellence Framework: what lies beneath

Project summary

Critically review a large database and how its data is used, to advise on whether the system, the data aggregation and outputs are doing what is intended, and suggest improvements. 

Project description

The Charity Excellence Framework is a free resource for charities, with around 36,000 charities currently signed up as users. It enables charities to assess themselves on a set of criteria relating to key dimensions of their operations (eg fundraising, governance, communications) in order to help prioritise action for improvement; and it provides links to thousands of free resources that they might wish to use to help them with those actions.  

More information about how this works is here.

The charity self-assessments are held on a database, which currently has 350,000 data points. The primary output is the dashboard for each individual charity, which helps them view their own data. However CEF has a ‘master dashboard’ aggregating all the data and is planning to enable multiple versions of master dashboards that can support policy-makers and umbrella bodies who are responsible for decisions covering the whole charity sector. 

CEF would now like: 

• A critical review of the system, to see if there are an issues and advise on possible improvements (this is at the level of logic, process and data analytics, not coding). 
• Advice on how best to aggregate and explain the data so that it provides valid, reliable and useful output that can be safely used by any external organisation. 
• The volunteer should have the competence to undertake database review and to advise on analytics relating to large volumes of data, and be experienced in designing analytical output that will meet the needs of the end user. 

How will this project benefit the organisation?

The project will either (a) give CEF the confidence that they can make the master dashboard available to all comers without risk of misleading; or (b) demonstrate what changes need to be made before this can happen. 

Location

Remote

Commitment

CEF will be pleased to have however much external expert input is available, whether hours or days or a long-term peer-support commitment. 

This project may benefit from having a mix of volunteers with different experience around systems design and assurance, and analytics. When applying, please indicate what would suit you best, or call us to discuss. 

Desired project start date

Ideally as soon as possible, no firm deadlines.

Desired project completion date

Ideally as soon as possible, no firm deadlines.

Apply

If you feel you are able to offer your assistance please complete the application form and return along with your CV to ProBonoOR@theorsociety.com by Monday 6 March 2023.

The OR Society fully supports equal opportunities.

Information about the organisation

For further information about the Charity Excellence Framework, please visit https://www.charityexcellence.co.uk/

Information about Pro Bono OR

For further information about the Pro Bono OR scheme, please visit: www.theorsociety.com/Probono  or email ProBonoOR@theorsociety.com

Using data for insight, understanding and change

  

Project summary

Enabling Contact to make the most of their data to influence and improve services, campaigning, and fundraising.

Project description

Contact supports parents and families who care for a disabled child with a variety of services and through work directly with policy-makers. They hold a considerable amount of demographic data on service users (in particular: parent ethnicity; child age; and child disability/condition), which is not currently fully analysed. 

The volunteer(s) would be asked to work with the charity to:

- Prioritise the questions to be addressed by analysis

- Undertake suitable analysis, present the findings in an accessible way, and discuss their implications with the Monitoring and Evaluation team

- Provide tools and documentation so that some or all of the analysis can be undertaken routinely by the charity themselves in future years. 

Investigations may include, for example: 

- Which groups are currently under-reached by some or all of Contact’s services. This may help identify actions such as how best to design or market service to reach new users. (For example, one strategic aim is to reach families sooner, so the data on age of child will help understand how well different services attract younger families.)

- The needs of different user groups (there is coded data on issues raised by individuals, for example in helpline calls), and possibly inequalities in experience of public services, for example across different ethnic groups. This will help to inform campaigns; evidence future funding bids; and improve service design to meet needs of different groups.

- To identify research questions that cannot be answered by the data, but that Contact may want to investigate further e.g. through qualitative analysis.

The volunteer(s) should be experienced in planning and carrying out analytics to answer operational and strategic questions. Other desirable experience includes:

- Ensuring that some or all of the analysis can be reproduced by the charity on updated data in future years (depending on which tool(s) the analyst wishes to use, this might be code or documentation).

- Understanding and managing the risk that disaggregating data results in users being identifiable even though the data is anonymised. 

Geographical analysis of the data is not a priority for the client, but knowledge of GIS will be a nice-to-have additional skill.

How will this project benefit the organisation?

Contact aims to be the charity that families turn to for advice and support when they find their child has a disability, to drive social change, and to enable their user families to shape their work. They feels that at the moment the data is an under-utilised resource, and that this project will enable them to make the most of it, to inform the design and management of services, to influence decision-makers outside the organisation, and thus to improve the quality of lives of parents and families and their children.

Location

Remote

Commitment

The client would like to have at least part of the work completed by summer 2023, to feed into discussions of a new strategy.

This may be a project that will suit two or more volunteers working as a team, though it can also be undertaken by an individual.

Desired project start date

February or March 2023

Desired project completion date

Summer 2023

Apply

If you feel you are able to offer your assistance please complete the application form and return along with your CV to ProBonoOR@theorsociety.com by Monday 27 February 2023.

The OR Society fully supports equal opportunities.

Information about the organisation

For further information about Contact please visit https://contact.org.uk/

Information about Pro Bono OR

For further information about the Pro Bono OR scheme, please visit: www.theorsociety.com/Probono  or email ProBonoOR@theorsociety.com

Improving NSPCC’s Helpline

 

Project summary

Designing a discrete event simulation model to enable a helpline to provide good service levels across all channels. 

Project description

The NSPCC works to end child abuse and enable children to be safe and supported. Its helpline, for adults and professionals with concerns about a child, handles live calls, call-backs, emails and direct messages; but the system that manages the helpline is not sophisticated enough to support planning for this variety of channels. The NSPCC would like a discrete event simulation model of the helpline’s processes, to enable them better to match staff levels to varying workload, improve service levels, and explore ‘what-if’ scenarios to deal with different resourcing patterns and changes in demand. 

The volunteer(s) will need to spend some time understanding the current system, how the helpline works, and what data is available, before designing a model that can be used to start answering the questions. It will probably be appropriate to design a fairly simple model first, and (depending on time available) work with the NSPCC staff to adapt and develop it to ensure it can answer the most important questions. 

The senior sponsor of the project is an experienced OR and data science professional, who will be able to provide direction but will not be able to spend much time on the project. The volunteer will be asked to work closely enough with the data professionals and operations staff at NSPCC to ensure shared ownership and skills transfer by the end of the project. 

The volunteer should have some experience in discrete event simulation; or, if a team takes this on, at least one member should be experienced in DES and able to lead the model development. Ideally they will also have experience in participatory modelling, enabling not just the managers but the staff who provide the service to explore model insights and input into the analysis. 

How will this project benefit the organisation?

The Helpline is a crucial communications channel for the NSPCC to be there when children, young people and adults concerned about them are most in need. By enabling NSPCC to meet its service level targets, and to be resilient to variation in demand, this project will increase the flow of information and help prevent children falling through the cracks. 

Location

Remote

Commitment

This is potentially a large project, and will suit a team of people working together, or a single volunteer who is willing to give several weeks (spread over several months). Alternatively, it can be ‘chunked’, with the first part of the project being to develop a rapid prototype, and subsequent parts involving refining and using the model. When applying, please indicate what would suit you best, or call us to discuss.

Desired project start date

The current system is unsatisfactory so NSPCC would like to start as soon as possible. However, there is no specific target date, or deadline, so dates can be arranged to suit the volunteer.

Desired project completion date

There is no specific target date, or deadline, so dates can be arranged to suit the volunteer.

Apply

If you feel you are able to offer your assistance please complete the application form and return along with your CV to ProBonoOR@theorsociety.com by Monday 16 January 2023.

The OR Society fully supports equal opportunities.

Information about the organisation

For further information about the NSPCC please visit https://www.nspcc.org.uk/

Information about Pro Bono OR

For further information about the Pro Bono OR scheme, please visit: www.theorsociety.com/Probono  or email ProBonoOR@theorsociety.com

Improving impact and positive outcomes for a child bereavement charity

Project summary

To enable the charity, the Harvey Hext Trust, to collect data that will help them in successful grant applications and in targeting areas for support. 

Project description

Work with the client in designing a database that will satisfy all desired outcomes. Hand over database together with any training/supporting documentation that is required. After one month’s trial, liaise with client, examine how database has performed so far, make any amendments necessary and demonstrate to client how to obtain any desired outputs.

The technical requirements are simple: a knowledge of databases. This project would benefit a junior analyst with technical expertise but who would like experience in dealing with a client and seeing a project through from start to end. 

How will this project benefit the organisation?

It will enable them to collect data and to identify which areas of the country the memory boxes are being sent to and which hospitals/hospices are actively referring them to families. This in turn will support grant applications/corporate support and positive outcomes.  It will enable the charity to provide impact information and target areas of the country that need more intervention.

Location

Flexible - remote or in person depending on volunteer location. The Harvey Hext Trust is based in Bristol.

Commitment

Time commitment to be determined by volunteer when completing detailed project proposal with the client.

Desired project start date

As soon as possible.

Desired project completion date

3 months from the start date.

Apply

If you feel you are able to offer your assistance please complete the application form and return along with your CV to ProBonoOR@theorsociety.com by Wednesday 7 December 2022.

The OR Society fully supports equal opportunities.

Information about the organisation

The Harvey Hext Trust is a charity supplying bespoke personalised wooden memory boxes to children who have lost a sibling.

When you lose a child there is often very little support for the bereaved sibling. The memory boxes are a very simple, but effective way of helping a sibling remember their brother or sister and preserve their very precious and personal memories. The boxes can be an important part of therapy to encourage children to show emotions and to talk about their bereavement.

For further information about the Harvey Hext Trust please visit harveyhexttrust.com

Information about Pro Bono OR

For further information about the Pro Bono OR scheme, please visit: www.theorsociety.com/Probono  or email ProBonoOR@theorsociety.com

Support to Skilz Academy for Strategy Planning

Project summary

Provide OR support to Skilz Academy to help them better define their vision, values, impact and audiences to inform their 3 year strategic plan. 

Project description

The volunteer would be required to research the charity, plan and facilitate a workshop with trustees and staff to help them define Skilz Academy’s vision, values, impact and audiences. 

The output of the project would be a series of recommendations, reached through consensus, regarding the strategic direction of Skilz Academy. 

The volunteer should be experienced with workshop facilitation, soft OR methods and strategy planning. Knowledge of how charities operate would be desirable. 

This project will ideally run before or alongside Skilz Academy second Pro Bono OR project looking at how to maximise the insight value from existing data collection methods. 

Location

Flexible - remote or in person depending on volunteer location. Skilz Academy is based in Arbroath, near Dundee, Scotland.

Commitment

Time commitment to be determined by volunteer when completing detailed project proposal with Skilz Academy. An estimate of 5-7 days is suggested.

Desired project start date

As soon as possible.

Desired project completion date

As soon as possible.

Apply

If you feel you are able to offer your assistance please complete the application form and return along with your CV to ProBonoOR@theorsociety.com by Wednesday 2 November 2022.

The OR Society fully supports equal opportunities.

Information about the organisation

Skilz Academy are devoted to building a brighter future through sport - improving health & well-being, developing life skills, improving opportunity and building stronger communities. 

By impacting on our communities positively we believe that we will all benefit from a more motivated, confident, happier and healthier society.

For further information about Skilz Academy please visit www.www.skilzacademy.org.uk

Information about Pro Bono OR

For further information about the Pro Bono OR scheme, please visit: www.theorsociety.com/Probono  or email ProBonoOR@theorsociety.com

Skilz Academy Data Roadmap Project

Project summary

Provide OR support to Skilz Academy to help them unlock actionable insight from data and to embed good data working practices that become part of ‘business as usual’ activities.  

Project description

The volunteer would be required to:

• Understand the current data collection (e.g UpShot App, feedback and evaluation forms) and analysis picture 
• Identify some key metrics that provide insight on audiences and beneficiaries
• Provide recommendations on data collection, storage, management, use and retention to maximise the value from Skilz Academy data in a compliant and sustainable way

The volunteer would ideally have some experience developing data strategy for organisations and working knowledge of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

This project will run alongside another Skilz Academy project providing OR support to help re-visit and define their mission and values. Outputs from this data project could inform strategic discussions on the charity's vision. 

Location

Flexible - remote or in person depending on volunteer location. Skilz Academy is based in Arbroath, near Dundee, Scotland.

Commitment

Time commitment to be determined by volunteer when completing detailed project proposal with Skilz Academy. An estimate of 5-7 days is suggested.

Desired project start date

As soon as possible.

Desired project completion date

As soon as possible.

Apply

If you feel you are able to offer your assistance please complete the application form and return along with your CV to ProBonoOR@theorsociety.com by Wednesday 2 November 2022.

The OR Society fully supports equal opportunities.

Information about the organisation

Skilz Academy are devoted to building a brighter future through sport - improving health & well-being, developing life skills, improving opportunity and building stronger communities. 

By impacting on our communities positively we believe that we will all benefit from a more motivated, confident, happier and healthier society.

For further information about Skilz Academy please visit www.www.skilzacademy.org.uk

Information about Pro Bono OR

For further information about the Pro Bono OR scheme, please visit: www.theorsociety.com/Probono  or email ProBonoOR@theorsociety.com