/ MEM Academy · Methodology paper

SROI methodology — unit costs & reoffending treatment

Stakeholder reference for every £ shown on memacademy.org. All per-person and aggregate figures are produced by the same computeSroi() function in src/lib/sroi/formula.ts. We deliberately under-claim.

Document: SROI methodology v1
Issuer: MEM Academy
Generated: 12/05/2026
Audience: Funders, commissioners, CSR

1. Per-event unit costs

Each event a participant generates is multiplied by the corresponding unit cost. Sources: HACT Social Value Bank (wellbeing & employment proxies) and MoJ Economic & Social Cost of Crime 2019, uplifted to 2024 prices.

Event£ per eventSource

Session attended

WHO-5 wellbeing uplift, prorated per session attended (HACT proxy).

£90HACT Social Value Bank

Referral into structured employment support

Person engaged into the MEM employment pathway.

£1,400HACT Social Value Bank

Hire confirmed (sustained 6+ months)

Employment proxy plus HMRC tax contribution.

£4,200MoJ + HMRC

Reoffending event avoided

Economic + social cost of one reoffending event.

£4,080MoJ Economic & Social Cost of Crime 2019 (uplifted to 2024)

2. Investment baseline & ratio

The SROI ratio is total social value ÷ investment. We assume £2,500 of partnership investment per participant. For aggregate live totals, the denominator is attendees × £2,500.

ratio = total_social_value ÷ (attendees × £2,500)

3. How reoffending is treated in live totals

Counted only when avoided. A participant contributes the £4,080 unit only after a justice-partner confirms a 12-month no-reoffend window.
Binary, never averaged. The input is 0 or 1 per person — we never apply a probabilistic uplift across the cohort in conservative mode.
Excluded from short-window views. Sessions, referrals and hires update the live feed in real time. Reoffending-avoided £ only flow into the conservative aggregate once the 12-month window closes — so the live total is conservative by design.
Projected mode is clearly labeled. An optional projected view applies the MoJ baseline (~30% of attendees) for funder comparison only. It is never used for procurement or CSR reporting.
Removable on audit. If a partner disputes a flagged outcome, the unit is removed and the aggregate recalculates instantly via the same computeSroi() function.

4. Conservative vs projected — side-by-side

Same illustrative cohort of 100 attendees (1200 sessions, 40 referrals, 12 hires), priced two ways. Use the toggle above to switch views on screen — printed copies always show both columns for stakeholder review.

Conservative

Audit-grade

Reoffending-avoided counted only after a 12-month verified window. Used for procurement & CSR reporting.

Sessions delivered: £108,000
Referrals into work: £56,000
Hires confirmed: £50,400
Reoffending avoided: £0
Total social value: £214,400
SROI ratio: £0.86

Projected

Indicative only

Applies the MoJ baseline (~30% of attendees = 30 reoffending events avoided). For funder comparison only — not used for CSR or procurement.

Sessions delivered: £108,000
Referrals into work: £56,000
Hires confirmed: £50,400
Reoffending avoided: £122,400
Total social value: £336,800
SROI ratio: £1.35

Projected uplift vs conservative

+£122,400 social value · +£0.49 ratio · driven entirely by reoffending-avoided assumption.

5. Worked example — anonymised participant

12 sessions attended, 1 referral, 1 hire confirmed, 1 reoffending event avoided.

12 × Sessions£1,080

1 × Referral£1,400

1 × Hire£4,200

1 × Reoffending avoided£4,080

Total social value£10,760

SROI ratio (vs £2,500)£4.30