Impact Measurement in eDofE

Why is the DofE measuring impact?

Evaluating the impact of DofE is the starting point for improving what we do and ensuring that the Award has a positive benefit for the widest possible number of young people. We believe providing young people with a way of tracking their DofE progress and reflecting on how they may have changed along the way has tremendous value for them as individuals. It’s also beneficial for Licensed Organisations supporting young people, as they can demonstrate the wider benefit and positive outcomes of delivering the programme.

The Impact Measurement Framework is central to this and was referenced in the publication of our five-year Youth Without Limits strategy. The Framework consists of a number of questions that align with the short and medium-term outcomes of doing a DofE programme, as illustrated in our Theory of Change below:

The questions have been carefully selected from government and academic surveys to allow benchmarking against national data.

Why has impact measurement been embedded into eDofE?

The questions are asked at relevant points when the young person is most engaged in their programme. Because their responses are linked to their eDofE account, it gives an opportunity for them to reflect on the impact of the Award at different points in their DofE journey and see how they have changed over time.

What questions are being asked and when?

Here is a list of all the questions we’re asking young people and the point in eDofE they’re asked:

All the questions are optional. Participants select from a scale of possible responses, and if they don’t want to answer they can select ‘Prefer not to say’. This is emphasised to participants on every question. 

Why are we asking questions about wellbeing?

Our Youth Without Limits strategy recognises the importance of young people’s mental health and wellbeing. The four questions below from the Impact Measurement Framework relate specifically to wellbeing. We’re using these questions because we want to understand whether participation in a DofE programme has a positive effect on young people’s wellbeing, particularly given the long-term impact of the Covid 19 pandemic. 

• Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays?
• Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday?
• Overall, how anxious did you feel yesterday?
• Overall, to what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile?

These questions replicate those routinely used by the Office for National Statistics and are standard measures that are widely included in government and academic surveys. Here is some further information, which explains the measure and some of the other surveys it has been used in, including youth surveys:

Surveys using our four personal well-being questions - Office for National Statistics.  

What if the responses give rise to safeguarding concerns?

The welfare of young people is the DofE’s top priority. So, if an individual’s answers give rise to concerns about issues they may be struggling with, it’s right that we see that as an opportunity to help and support that individual – especially as each respondent has a unique, identifiable eDofE number. While we don’t know the personal context of a young person’s life when they are answering the questions, we have a duty of care in cases where their responses could potentially indicate that they are in distress.

t’s important to emphasise that before embedding the wellbeing questions into eDofE, we took independent specialist advice which has led us to introduce a safeguarding process around the responses. We concluded that a proportionate response would be to raise a potential safeguarding concern if the two most negative responses were given to all four wellbeing questions. 

What about confidentiality? Are individual responses shared?

The data collected through the impact questions is used for statistical purposes and responses will not be used or shared in a way that identifies individuals (please see our Privacy Statement for more information about how we use data). The only exception is if the two most negative responses for all four wellbeing questions are entered. In this situation, the DofE centre will be notified so they can follow up any concerns with the participant.  Where the participant is 18 or over, we will follow up to confirm their consent before we do this. This approach is explained within eDofE to all participants when they reach the wellbeing questions.   

By introducing this, isn’t DofE passing more work and additional responsibilities on to licensed organisations? 

Keeping young people safe is everyone’s responsibility – so if the responses give rise to concerns about issues someone might be struggling with, it is important we see that as an opportunity to offer support. That begins with us alerting the licensed organisation’s DofE Manager in the very rare cases where an individual provides the most negative responses. In such cases, we would ask the Manager to follow their organisation’s own safeguarding policy and notify us accordingly. We are continually looking for ways to best support organisations to ensure we keep young people and volunteers safe. Specific responsibilities are set out clearly in our licensing agreements.