The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award Foundation releases ground-breaking social value research

The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award Foundation releases ground-breaking social value research

The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award Foundation releases ground-breaking social value research.

Pilot research in Australia highlights a $4.27 : $1 Social Return on Investment (SROI), the Award is a worthwhile investment in human capital.

For more than 60 years, The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award (the Award) has been helping to ensure young people are ready for the world by championing the importance of non-formal education and learning across the globe. Now, a new pilot study has started to shed some light on the potential value of that impact to society.

The Award is a blueprint for successfully investing in human capital, promoting global prosperity and helping the world’s most vulnerable. It supports young people and their communities in finding their own development solutions, rather than imposing solutions on them. For this reason, The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award Foundation and PwC UK are proud to introduce the ‘Changing lives in the changing world’ publication which presents the social value model of the Award, and the impact it can make on the lives of young people. It also highlights the results from the social value analysis of the Award in Australia to provide further insight into the principles and methodology behind the figures and the impact areas that make up the overall social value, not just in Australia but across the globe.

The social value analysis of the Award in Australia estimated that in 2017, for every $1 that was invested in the Award, $4.27 in social value was generated. While the total social value in 2017 amounted to AU $134 million, approximately 77% of this value was due to increased engagement with charitable and community causes. Other impacts of the Award that were valued were improved mental health and emotional wellbeing, improved physical health and fitness and improved employability and earning potential.

The Award creates certain habits and behaviours that last a lifetime. Therefore, the social value analysis also looked at the social value that can be attributed to the Award after a young person completes their Award journey. As a result of continued volunteering, regular physical activity and practice of a skill into the future, it is estimated that there are additional future benefits amounting to AU $6,800 per Award holder on average.

Peter Kaye, the CEO of The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award in Australia said: “While the Award has been running for over 60 years in Australia, we have never before had the chance to see the exact societal value of the Award in Australia. With this in mind we can now accurately say the Award has a tangible dollar value not just for the 45,000 young Australians who undertake the Award every year but also for the wider community.”

John May, Secretary General of The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award Foundation said, “It has never been more important to equip young people with skills and confidence for life and to help them to realise their potential. On an individual level this can make a transformational difference to a young person’s life; on a collective basis, it has the power to bring significant change to wider society. In the coming months and years, this social value measurement activity will continue to grow and evolve to a point where we will be able to paint a global picture of the Award’s social value and impact.”

Alan McGill, Partner at PwC UK said: “PwC UK is delighted to have helped the Foundation to develop methods to measure the Award’s social value. Social value measurement is not easy but, as demonstrated in this publication, it is certainly possible and is increasingly being adopted. With this publication, and the ambition to broaden social value assessment across the countries in which it operates, The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award Foundation sits at the forefront of social value assessment in the charity sector.”
You can access the ‘Changing lives in the changing world’ publication here.

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For further information, please contact:
Marianna Davis, Acting Head of Brand and Communications, The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award Foundation: [email protected] / +44 (0) 20 7222 4242

Notes for Editors

• The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award is a global, non-formal education framework which challenges young people to develop new skills, get physically active, learn about teamwork and leadership through adventurous journey and volunteer within their community.
• It is known by a range of different names around the world – including, to name a few, the DofE in the UK, the President’s Award in South Africa, The International Award for Young People in India and Mednarodno priznanje za mlade (MEPI) in Slovenia.
• The Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex is Chairman of The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award Foundation
• There are currently 1.3 million young people completing their own unique programme, via hundreds of thousands of youth-focused partners and operators, including schools, youth organisations, examination boards and youth offender institutions.
• From running as an established programme in a blind boys’ academy in India, to the introduction into youth organisations in Israel and projects working with teenage mothers in New Zealand; the Award’s framework can support and thrive in a multitude of different environments.
• Since its launch over 60 years ago, millions of young people have participated and received Awards, with millions more benefitting from its impact in communities around the world.
• Both national and international case studies, imagery and additional video content are available on request.
• For more information, please visit www.intaward.org or www.worldready.org.

The Award in Australia

• The Award has been operating in Australia since 1959
  Today, over 775,000 young people have completed the Award in Australia in the past 60 years, with over 40,000 young Australians taking part in the Award every year.

PwC UK

• PwC UK’s TIMM framework uses robust methodologies to quantify and value in monetary terms the impacts of activities across economic, social, environmental and fiscal dimensions. This framework can be applied at the level of a product, a project, a site or even entire organisation. PwC UK has worked with many private and third sector clients, as well as academics and other experts, over the last 10 years to develop and refine its methods for valuing social, natural and economic capital. The methods build on widely accepted approaches such as the UK Government’s Green Book on Policy Appraisal and Evaluation, Social Return on Investment (SROI) Principles, and WBCSD’s Social & Human Capital Protocol. We review and update our approaches in line with evolving best practice. See www.pwc.co.uk/TIMM for more information and case studies.