ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF PLATER TRUST

FUNDED PROJECTS
2008-15

Tracey Gregory
Shehnaaz Latif
Faruk Barabhuiya

October 2016
 Acknowledgements
Thank you to all those who have taken the time to contribute to the research into the
Impact of the Plater Trust funding.

Thank you to the grant recipients who took the time to be interviewed and provide
additional documentation about their projects and their work. Thank you to the Plater Trust
trustees, Grant Making Board and Finance Committee members for their openness in
responding to interview and survey questions.

Thank you especially to Kevin Ambrose, Plater Trust Manager, for his support and quick
responses to all queries about the work of the Trust and in providing the contacts and
supporting documentation so vital for this study.

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 Contents
. Introduction ................................................................................................................... 3
1.1 Background to the Plater Trust .............................................................................................. 3
1.2 Plater Trust grant-making ....................................................................................................... 4
1.3 Purpose of the impact assessment......................................................................................... 5
1.4 The methodology.................................................................................................................... 5
1.5 Issues and limitations ............................................................................................................. 6
2. Voluntary Sector and Trust Funding Trends ..................................................................... 7
3. The Outputs of Plater Trust Grant-making ....................................................................... 9
3.1 The number and value of awards by theme .............................................................................. 9
3.2 Awards by voluntary sub-sectors ............................................................................................. 10
3.3 Regional distribution of funding .............................................................................................. 12
3.4 Faith and/or non-faith based organisations ............................................................................ 14
4. The Outcomes of the Plater Trust Grant-making ............................................................ 15
4.1 Data and evidence challenges good practice to learn from .............................................. 16
4.2 Outcomes for funded organisations ..................................................................................... 17
4.3 Outcomes for individuals...................................................................................................... 20
4.4 Outcomes for wider society ................................................................................................. 25
5. Plater Trust Grant-making: Processes and Approach Review ......................................... 27
5.1 The three themes ................................................................................................................. 27
5.2 Types of organisations from which the Trust wants to attract applications ........................ 29
5.3 The application and selection process ................................................................................. 30
5.4 Size of grant and length of grant award ............................................................................... 30
5.5 Monitoring and evaluating grants ........................................................................................ 31
5.6 Sharing the learning.............................................................................................................. 32
5.7 User Involvement ................................................................................................................. 32
6. The Future Direction of the Plater Trust ........................................................................ 34
6.2 Theory of Change supporting better planning and evaluation of success ........................ 35
6.3 Does the Plater Trust want to grow?.................................................................................... 36
7. Conclusions and Recommendations .............................................................................. 36
Appendix 1: Principles of Catholic Social Teaching ................................................................ 39
Appendix 2: Summary of grants that Section 3 outputs analysis is drawn from ..................... 41
Appendix 3: Outcomes summary table ................................................................................ 43
Appendix 4: Number of people participating in Plater Trust funded projects. ....................... 57
Appendix 5: Theos report media coverage and research promotion ..................................... 58
Appendix 6: Catholic Social Teaching Themes ...................................................................... 59

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 1. Introduction
The Plater Trust enables people to learn how the way we live and work can become
more fully human in the light of the Gospel and the application of Catholic Social
Teaching. (The Plater Trusts Mission Statement)

The Charles Plater Trust is a charitable grant-making organisation dedicated to advancing

the work of Father Charles Plater by developing social justice through education. The Plater
Trust commissioned NCVO Charities Evaluation Services (NCVO/CES) to carry out an impact
assessment of its grant-making, as part of a wider strategic review to inform the future
direction of the Trust. This report presents the findings of the impact assessment.

Section 1 of the report provides the background to the Plater Trust and why the impact
assessment was commissioned. It sets out the research approach and some of the
challenges in establishing the overall impact of the Trusts grant-making. Section 2 provides
a wider context for this piece of work and an indication of where and how Trust funding
could be most effective. It introduces the key trends in voluntary sector funding,
highlighting the parts of the sector where organisations are facing reducing income due to
changes in funding and the wider economy. Section 2 also introduces some best practice in
Trust and Foundation grant-making.

Section 3 and 4 present the outputs (the numbers) and outcomes (the changes) the Plater
Trust funding has brought about for organisations, individuals and wider society. Section 3
sets out the mapping of Plater Trusts grant-making showing where the grants have been
focused geographically and by sub sector (area of need). Section 4 highlights some of the
outcomes from Plater Trust funding. There may well be more outcomes but the lack of
monitoring by projects, has made outcomes difficult to identify. Where we found evidence
available, outcomes for funded organisations, individuals they work with and wider society
are presented through examples of projects where changes have occurred, partly or totally
as a result of Plater funding.

A review of Plater Trusts grant-making process and approach in Section 5 includes

commentary on the application and selection procedures, the grant-making themes, the size
of grants, length of funding, monitoring and evaluation of the grants, and how the outcomes
and outputs for the funding could be more effectively shared. Questions are raised in
section 6 as to what kind of funder the Plater Trust wants to be. Section 6 also introduces
theory of change as an approach to planning and evaluation that the Trust is encouraged
to adopt. Finally, Section 7 summarises the findings of the impact assessment and puts
forward recommendations for the Trust to consider.

1.1 Background to the Plater Trust

The Charles Plater Trust was established in 2006 to continue the work of Father Charles
Plater in developing social justice through education. The Trust is the successor to the
former Plater College, Oxford and manages the endowment from the sale of the Plater
College building through the awarding and administration of grants throughout England and

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 Wales. Catholic Social Teaching principles (see Appendix 1) are central to the work of the
Plater Trust as they were to Plater College (originally called the Catholic Workers College).

The Trust is governed by a board of nine trustees. This includes the original trustees, the
Archbishops of Westminster, Birmingham, Cardiff and Liverpool, plus five lay trustees.
Three of the current trustees were appointed in 2013, following open recruitment, to bring
a broader range of expertise into the Trust.

Grant applications are considered annually by a Grant-making Body (GMB) which then
makes recommendations to the trustees on which projects should be supported. The GMB
is made up of two trustees and six lay members with expertise in the education, charitable
and public sectors. There is also a finance committee of three trustees and one lay person.
New lay members were also recruited to the GMB and finance committee in 2013.

In 2012 the trust took on a manager to take over the administration of the grant-making and
to provide support to the boards. This role had previously been provided by the Catholic
Education Service.

Following eight years of operation and six rounds of annual grant-making, the Plater Trust is
undertaking a strategic review. This impact assessment is a key part of the review which has
also included a survey of grantees carried out by the Plater Trust itself and a review seminar
on 5 May 2016 attended by grantees, Plater trustees, GMB members and others.

A previous review was undertaken after the first three years of grant-making, leading to the
appointment of the manager and the recruitment of new trustees and committee members.
A specialist investment adviser was also taken on to manage the Trusts legacy investments
on the recommendation of the review. A further recommendation was that additional
complementary funding from appropriate Catholic sources should be pursued1 to increase
the Trusts investment. This final recommendation has not been implemented. There is
some support for bringing in and/or managing other legacy funds and investments among a
number of the trustees, but support for this is not unanimous. While most would welcome
the chance to award more or larger grants, the lack of capacity of a small Trust to pursue
growth in this way, is a concern for some.

1.2 Plater Trust grant-making

Between 2008 and 2015 Plater Trust has funded 25 projects across its three funding themes.
The themes were agreed when the Plater Trust was first established in 2006 to further the
original aim of the Plater College of championing the pursuit of social justice through
education.
The themes are:

Theme 1: Leadership development for the laity, particularly in the area of justice and
social action, to equip individual Catholics to apply Catholic Social Teaching
Theme 2: Education for people from the most marginalised sectors of society.

1 http://plater.org.uk/?page_id=289 The Plater Trust website The Journey So Far, referencing the 2011 review.

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 Theme 3: Intellectual endeavor of refreshing Catholic Social Thought (CST) and
Teaching within a British context, for example through scholarship and writing or
policy formation.

Funding has been awarded across six cycles of grant-making (two cycles of each of the
three themes). Around 180,000 is awarded in each funding cycle. There was a pause in
2011-12 for the previous review, and in 2015-16 no grants were awarded as the Trust had
started the process of this strategic review. At the July 2016 trustee meeting it was agreed
that no grant round would be held in 2016-17 until the findings of this impact assessment
had been reported.

A full break down of the grants by theme is provided in Section 3.

1.3 Purpose of the impact assessment

The impact assessment was commissioned to get an independent review of the
effectiveness of the Plater Trust grant-making to date, so that the Trust could gain a fuller
understanding of what the funding has accomplished, and crucially what lessons could be
learnt to improve its grant-making in the future. Specifically the evaluation has investigated
the following questions:

A. What have been the outcomes and impact of Plater Trust funding since 2008 for:
the organisations funded;
the individuals among the most marginalised communities in society that
many of the organisations are working with;
wider communities and society?

B. What improvements can the Trust make to its grant-making processes

to better engage beneficiaries in designing grant-making;
to ensure the relevance of its grant-making themes?

C. How can the Trust be more proactive in its grant-making to support long-term
change?

1.4 The methodology

The evaluation methodology has included a review of secondary data and the collection of
primary data. This have involved:

A review of all available documentation for the 25 grant awards. This

included grant applications, monitoring visit reports, mid-term and final
project reports. Not all documents were available for all awards made.
A review of other Plater Trust documents including original Deeds of the
Trust, grant application guidelines, selection criteria and scorecards as well as
the results from a survey of grantees carried out by the Trust in early 2016.

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 Participation in the Plater Trust review seminar on 5 May 2016, attended by
grantees, Plater trustees, GMB members and others.
An online survey of trustees and GMB members. Sent to all 15 trustees and
GMB members. Nine responses were received.
Interviews with 18 grant recipient representatives.
Interviews with beneficiaries: five women participants in the Baytree funded
project and five participants in the Noah training project.

The NCVO/CES team members have also drawn on their own expertise, particularly in
recommending potential refinements to processes and outcomes reporting for the Trust
and the organisations it funds.

1.5 Issues and limitations

While the evaluation approach has given access to both qualitative and quantitative data,
there are a number of limitations to the study that should be acknowledged.

Attribution

Attribution is a challenge for all outcome and impact evaluations. Without a well-designed
experimental trial with control groups it is a challenge to demonstrate definitively that any
observed or reported outcomes, such as behavioural change, or wellbeing benefits, can be
attributed to any one intervention. Experimental studies are not well-suited to multi-strand
programmes or to being applied retrospectively. Contribution analysis is an evaluation
method that permits a strong case to be made for linking outcomes with the intervention.
While neither attribution nor contribution analysis have been possible in this evaluation,
triangulating data from multiple sources surveys, interviews and written reports has
helped in validating some of information about the outcomes achieved.

Theory of Change not completed

NCVO/CES initial proposal for this impact assessment included the recommendation for
working with the trustees, or a sub-group of the trustees, to develop a Theory of Change.
The purpose of this was to review the goals of the Trust and establish a set of outcomes (or
changes) that the Trust was seeking to bring about through its grant-making. It has not been
possible to set a date to work with trustees collectively, so the Theory of Change included in
the report (See Section 6.2) is based on the reviews and interviews but has not been
developed collectively nor reviewed. A good Theory of Change aids effective planning but
also crucially in this context, monitoring and evaluation. The development of a Theory of
Change would also have helped with the assessment and attribution of the outcomes of
Plater funding.

Limited quality data

The quality of reporting by the funded projects has been variable. For some of the projects
funded in the first couple of years there were no reports. Three of the projects funded in
2014-15 are still to be completed so had not submitted final reports at the time of this

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 study. Where six-month and end-of-year reports are available, the data provided on
outcomes of the project was hugely variable. (In Section 4.1 we provide examples of good
practice in reporting from funded projects.)

Outcomes can most accurately be assessed by measuring change against a baseline. Only
one or two projects were measuring the changes they were making against a baseline. Even
on interview some of the project leaders spoke generally about the outcomes of their work
but were unable to provide evidence to support the statements they were making. It has
not been possible through this study to consult widely with project beneficiaries and
participants. This lack of data has made the verification of outcomes achieved a challenge.

2. Voluntary Sector and Trust Funding Trends

Government remains one of the biggest funders of the voluntary sector. However with the
move towards contracting services rather than grant giving, it is the top 40 charities with
income of over 100 million that benefit most from Government funding in the form of
contracts. A number of smaller voluntary organisations have joined consortia to bid for
these larger contracts or have become sub-contractors. However, tendering for contracts
and setting up consortia, which are increasingly required if smaller voluntary sector
organisations are going to access ever larger contracts, is complex.

Charities with an income of between 10,000 to 100,000 have been among the biggest
losers of government funding between 2012-13 and 2013-14.2 This indicates that this move
towards contracting is reducing funding for often specialist support services for particular
vulnerable groups at a local level.

Voluntary sector organisations with an income below 1 million have seen their income
from all sources fall between 2008-09 and 2013-14.3 Recent joint work between NCVO and
Lloyds Foundation for England and Wales found that organisations with an annual income
between 100,000 and 1 million were more financially insecure than smaller and larger
organisations. The organisations the Plater Trust is funding through its education for the
most marginalised in society theme are mainly charities of this size: those facing the biggest
challenges in securing income.

The reduction in funding from the European Union, particularly for skills development work,
and the further cuts from UK central government, which have been indicated as likely in an
autumn spending review, will only further exacerbate the challenges of funding for these
small and medium-sized voluntary organisations.

It will not only be the voluntary sector that is hit by financial shocks and uncertainty. Those
most in need in society are likely to be directly hit the hardest, creating ever more demand
on the voluntary sector for support. This leaves trusts and foundations with what the

2 NCVO, The Road Ahead, 2016

3 ibid

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 Association of Charitable Foundations calls the triple jeopardy:4 diminished governmental
support, increased grantee need and potentially reduced foundation resources and income
from reduced return on investments.

The increasing pressure from all sides means that trusts and foundations are having to focus
on the outcomes they want to achieve individually and collectively to ensure they are being
effective in supporting those most in need.

Charities and community organisations are also having to become better at evidencing their
outcomes to compete for funds and reflect on their own effectiveness. All funders, trusts
and foundations, public service commissioners, social investors and even individual donors,
want evidence of the changes their money is making for those most in need.

Trusts and foundations are also increasingly becoming outcome-focused funders. There are
various offers for funders to develop their understanding and skills in this area. For example,
NCVO/CES run a course on how to assess the outcomes and impact of funded programmes.
This enables funders to set up monitoring and evaluation systems that allow them to
capture the difference their money makes. There are also tools and resources for funders to
access, for example, through the Inspiring Impact5. This incudes Measuring Up!, a resource
for funders to carry out a self-assessment of their impact practice. A number of funders also
support those that they fund to develop their own skills and understanding of outcome and
impact monitoring and evaluation. For example, the Trust for London and BBC Children in
Need offer training and, in the case of Trust for London, additional funding to their grant
recipients6.

There is a growing trend towards greater collaboration between trusts and foundations
helping to ensure they can learn from each other, be more effective in bringing about
change and make the most effective use of their resources. For example, London Funders7 is
a network for funders and investors in Londons civil society aiming to strengthen and
support funders and promote effective funding practices, to meet the needs of
Londoners. The Corston Independent Funders Coalition8 extends beyond grant making to
engagement in funder advocacy to jointly influence an area of social change in which they
are all stakeholders, in this case the causes of disadvantage and risk for women and girls.
The Child Sexual Exploitation Funders Alliance (CSEFA)9 is a group of 12 charitable funders
that came together in 2012 to bring about a step change in the way child sexual
exploitation is dealt with in the UK.

This short section has highlighted just a few of the current trends in the charitable sector. All
have implications that the Plater Trust should consider as it moves forward. Should the Trust
focus on organisations which are facing the greatest challenges with securing funding, small
and medium sized charities? Becoming more outcomes focused as a trust and supporting
funded organisations to become more outcomes focused would certainly be beneficial in

4 http://www.acf.org.uk/news/brexit-and-the-role-of-foundations-first-thoughts 29 June 2016

5 http://inspiringimpact.org/where-to-start-a-guide-to-inspiring-impacts-resources/
6 http://www.trustforlondon.org.uk/funding/managing-your-grant/reporting-and-evaluation/
7 http://londonfunders.org.uk
8 http://www.thebromleytrust.org.uk/index.php?/cifc/
9 http://www.ivar.org.uk/news-events/news/funder-collaboration-it-worth-it

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 understanding the effectiveness of grants and interventions. Collaboration, not always easy,
may be a way of pooling resources to potentially bring about greater changes for
beneficiaries, society and influence policy.

3. The Outputs of Plater Trust Grant-making

This section summaries the (outputs) of the Plater Trust grant-making. This includes where
the grants have been most focused, by grant-making theme, voluntary sub sector or area of
need and geographically.

3.1 The number and value of awards by theme

A total of 1,133,501 has been awarded to 25 projects (24 different organisations) through
six funding cycles between 2008 and 2015. This equates to an average of 188,917 each
year. This is slightly above the average of 150,000 each year reported by the Trust. The
higher average is due in part to a larger award of funding in in 2013-14: 286, 565. This
larger amount was made possible by the 2011-12 review year, when no grants were made.
The first two years of the Trust funding saw around 200,000 awarded in grants each year.

The size of grants awarded has varied. The smallest grant was to St Marys College (17,090)
for their Education project for Catholics in leadership roles in healthcare. The largest was to
Ten Ten Theatre (89,820) for their project in young offender institutions under the theme
of education of the most marginalised. Young Christian Workers also received an above
average size grant of 86,319 for training young people as leaders under the theme of
leadership development of the laity.

Projects under the theme education for the most marginalised have received the largest
proportion of the Plater Trust funding 42%. Eleven projects have been funded with an
average grant of just over 43,000.

31% of the funding has been awarded to seven projects under the theme leadership
development of the laity. These had a slightly higher average grant of just over 50,000.

310,352 or 27% of total funding has been awarded to academic institutions. Five of the
seven intellectual endeavour projects and two of the seven laity development projects have
been led by academic institutions.

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 Table 1: Plater Trust funding breakdown

Theme Year No. of grants Amount Smallest Largest Average

grant grant grant
amount
Leadership
2008-09 4 203,409 17,090 St 86,319
development
Marys Young
for the laity 50,473
2012-13 3 149,905 University Christian
Total 7 353,314 College Workers
Education for 2009-10 3 189,260
people from Smallest St Largest
the most Wilfreds Ten Ten
2013-14 8 286,565 43,257
marginalised Centre Theatre
sectors of 28,927 89,820
society Total 11 475,825
Intellectual 2010-11 3 148,310 Largest
Smallest
endeavor of Von Hugel
2014-15 4 156,052 Von Hugel
refreshing Institute 43,480
Institute
Catholic Social 65,150.
Total 7 304,362 25,000
Thought
Overall Total
25 1,133,501 45,340

3.2 Awards by voluntary sub-sectors10

Projects funded are often working with people facing multiple challenges and may be
considered to be working in a range of voluntary sub-sectors or areas of need. For example,
the Ace of Clubs is an organisation supporting homeless people the primary sub-sector
they are working in. They may also be considered to be working with other sub-sectors such
as mental health, or with ex-offenders and those at risk of offending or of substance misuse,
as the people they are working with will be facing some or all of these additional challenges.

Plater Trusts own survey of grant recipients identified that projects are working with people
facing multiple challenges and are addressing multiple areas of need.

Allocating a primary sub-sector (or area of need) to each project, where one can be
identified, shows a fairly broad spread of activity being funded across different sub. The
breakdown is as follows:

21% (240,950) of funding went to projects that were working

predominately in the criminal justice sector.
14% (162,210) went to the homeless sector, 13% (147,240) to migration
and asylum projects and 10% to projects working with vulnerable women and
girls (107,928).

10A table is provided in Appendix 2 showing a summary of the grants that the findings in this section have been drawn
from.

10
 14% of funding (162,185) went to four non sector-specific projects, three
under the leadership development theme and one under the intellectual
endeavour theme.

The breakdown of funding by voluntary sub sector is further illustrated in Figure 1 and Table
2 below.

Figure 1: Funding by voluntary sub sector

Criminal justice 129,820 79,970 31,160

Homeless 69,710 47,500 45,000

Non sector specific 122,435 39,750

Migration and asylum 70,240 77,000

Vulnerable women and girls 107,928

Young people 86,319

Public services 65,150

Marriage 46,302

Drug and alcohol recovery 40,000

Disability 29,200

Mental Health 28,927

Healthcare 17,090

Education Leadership Intellectual endeavour

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 Table 2: Spending and number of grants by sector (numbers in brackets denote number of grants)

Education of Leadership Total

Intellectual
Sub sectors most development of Grand Total no. of
endeavour
marginalised the laity grants

Criminal justice 129,820(2) 79,970(1) 31,160(1) 240,950 4

Homeless 69,710 (2) 47,500 (1) 45,000 (1) 162,210 4
Non sector specific 122,435 (3) 39,750 (1) 162,185 4
Migration and asylum 70,240 (1) 77,000 (2) 147,240 3
Vulnerable women
107,928 (3) 107,928 3
and girls
Young people 86,319 (1) 86,319 1
Public services 65,150(1) 65,150 1
Marriage 46,302 (1) 46,302 1
Drug and alcohol
40,000 (1) 40,000 1
recovery
Disability 29,200 (1) 29,200 1
Mental Health 28,927 (1) 28,927 1
Healthcare 17,090 (1) 17,090 1
Grand Total 475,825 353,314 304,362 1,133,501 25

3.3 Regional distribution of funding11

The geographical reach of projects varied. Some projects, such as Baytree PEACH project for
women and girls, are focused on participants from Lambeth in south London. Others such as
Ten Ten Theatres workshops in young offender institutions reached eight institutions across
the country. It has not been possible to analyse the total geographical reach of Plater Trusts
funding. However, it is possible to see what proportion of funding went to different regions,
based on the main location of the organisation receiving the grant.

Analysis shows that more than half (53%) of funding was awarded to 13 projects based in
London. Funding has reached all across England and been fairly evenly spread outside
London:
13% of funding has been awarded to projects in the East region - three
grants to two organisations in Cambridge, the Margaret Beaufort Institute
and Von Hgel Institute.
Two projects were funded in the North West (THOMAS and St Anthonys
Centre), two in the West Midlands (LIFE and the HE consortium led by
Newham University College) and two in the South East (International Young
Leaders Network and Noah Enterprise).
The South West, North East and Yorkshire regions each had one project.

11 A table is provided in Appendix 2 showing a summary of the grants that the following findings have been drawn from.

12
 No grants were awarded to organisations in Wales.

Table 3: Plater Trusts grants broken down by English region

Region Percentage of No. of grants Amount

value of grants
London 53% 13 604,558
East 13% 3 142,150
North West 10% 2 110,240
West Midlands 8% 2 93,416
South East 6% 2 69,210
North East 4% 1 45,000
South West 4% 1 40,000
Yorkshire 2% 1 28,927

Total 25 1,133,501

Figure 2, the map below shows the location of projects by theme. The map can be viewed
online with additional information showing the name of the organisations, the value of the
grant and the main voluntary sub-sector project was in. (Click here
https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1hztcJSQ8KMkMi8yxhd7o3q0-wVU.)

13
 Figure 2: Plater Trust grant-making by location of funded organisations

Education of people from most marginalised sectors of the community

Leadership development of the laity

Intellectual endeavour of refreshing Catholic Social Thought

3.4 Faith and/or non-faith based organisations

Storybook Dads is the only grantee with no connections with the Catholic Church or any
particular faith. However, their objects are clearly aligned with Catholic Social Teaching,
supporting the emotional bond between imprisoned parent and their children. With just
one non-Catholic organisation funded, this raises the question of what type of organisations
the Trust is willing to fund?

If it is only Catholic charities, what is a Catholic charity? The Plater Trust funded research
Catholic Social Thought and Catholic Charities in Britain Today (2016) asks this very

14
 question. The purpose of the research was not to provide an answer but it does highlight
the huge diversity in the Catholic charitable sector. There is the work of the parishes,
diocese and religious orders, Catholic schools, universities and colleges. There is charitable
work and social action at a parish or diocese level. This activity may be part of the Caritas
network or go on below the radar of a registered organisation. There are also registered
charities that were started by friars, priests and nuns but may not now be registered as
specifically Catholic charities. For example, Plater Trust funded the organisations Women at
the Well and Ace of Clubs; both have Catholic principles at their core, but their listings with
the Charity Commission make no reference to their Catholic links. As with Storybook Dads,
there are many hundreds, possibly thousands, of charities working with the most
marginalised groups in society whose work broadly reflects Catholic Social Teaching
principles but that do not have any direct connection with the Catholic Church. (This issue is
explored in more detail in Section 5.2.)

4. The Outcomes of the Plater Trust Grant-making

This section focuses on the changes that have been brought about for organisations,
individuals and wider society through Plater Trust funding. A table summarising the
outcomes by project is included in Appendix 3.

A survey of Plater trustees and GMB members carried out at the start of this study shows
that members have quite divergent views on where the Trust is having the most effect.
Figure 3 below provides a summary of views about how effective the Trust has been in
enhancing organisational capacity for organisations, producing significant outcomes for
individuals and generating social/systemic change. These areas are broadly linked to the
outcome areas we are focusing on throughout this section outcomes for organisations,
individuals and the wider community and society. It is clearly felt that the Trust is having the
least effect in the area of generating social and systemic change. This is not surprising as this
is a very big task. It is also an area where it is difficult to assess the outcomes in the short
and even the medium term due to the length of time required to achieve and evidence a
wider societal change. It is also an area where no Trust can really expect to have significant
impact working alone.

Our findings broadly reflect the overall view that the Trust is having most effect in producing
outcomes for beneficiaries those most marginalised in society. The Trusts funding also
appears to be producing some outcomes for the organisations it funds. However, outcomes
for wider society are less evident. The outcomes being produced are presented in more
detail below. Examples of two or three projects for each outcome are provided where there
is some evidence available of activity resulting in a particular outcome.

Figure 3: Plater Trustee and Grant-making Board feedback on Plater Trust's effectiveness of
bringing about change in different areas

15
 Generating social/systemic change

Producing significant outcomes for beneficiaries

Enhancing organisational capacity of grant recipients

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Extremely effective Very effective Moderately effective Not at all effective Not very effective

4.1 Data and evidence challenges good practice to learn from

As highlighted in section 1, attributing direct causal relationships between funds provided to
organisations and the changes they report is a challenge. This is particularly the case with
the Plater Trust funded projects as there was little outcomes reporting by organisations and
for some there seemed to be only very basic monitoring of projects and others no
monitoring at all. The interviews with project leads provided some additional anecdotal
evidence of outcomes for some of the projects. A number of the projects, including Women
at the Well and Noah, were able to provide further evidence of the types of outcomes their
work was having in the forms of annual reports and case studies.

Baytree is the exception among the projects as it has a systematic approach to evidencing
the outcomes and changes its work brings about for participants. It uses a combination of
approaches and tools to monitor and evaluate its work. This includes National Foundation
for Educational Research baseline and follow-up surveys and bespoke monitoring and
feedback of and by their programme mentors, developed in collaboration with the
Mentoring and Befriending Society, now part of NCVO. Baytree is looking at becoming one
of the first organisations outside the USA to start using the Economic Mobility Pathways
model mentoring programme developed in Boston to guide low-income families towards
independence, a metric-led review process which is built into the core of the programme.

Other projects are showing emerging good practice. Prisoners Advice and Care Trust use a
toolkit developed for them by nef (New Economics Foundation) to capture feedback and
evaluate some of their work. They used some of the tools in the toolkit to monitor their
Basic Care in the Communities project funded by the Plater Trust. However, the small team
reported a lack of time and resources to extract and analyse the data captured, so no final
report on the programme was done. Others, such as Women at the Well, are using baseline
and follow up tools to track change and committed to developing a more outcomes-focused
approach to their monitoring and evaluation. Like many organisations working with
vulnerable people, they find collecting feedback from the women they work with

16
 challenging, as the women have unstable lives and their progress is not always linear.
Women at the Well do have a system of self-assessment by participants and project work
assessments that monitors the womens positive and negative journeys across a range of
different areas, including accommodation, relationships, abuse, finance, prostitution and
health.

Apart from the three organisations mentioned above, there is little outcomes evidence
other than the number of people participating in projects and some case studies and the
occasional quote from a participant. Noah Enterprises and Life both submitted case studies
to demonstrate outcomes. Otherwise the voice of the participants is almost entirely absent
from the reporting. Reporting on outcomes of the leadership development of the laity
projects and the intellectual endeavour projects is particularly weak.

4.2 Outcomes for funded organisations

4.2.1 Education for the most marginalised and leadership development of
the laity projects

For organisations funded under the themes of education for the most marginalised and
leadership development of the laity led by non-academic institutions, there appear to have
been two main outcomes:

New, adapted and expanded activities and services that more effectively meet the
needs of some of the most disadvantaged and vulnerable groups in society.

Additional funding for services based on a track record and experience developed
through the Plater Trust funded projects.

Not all projects have been successful in achieving these outcomes. Examples are provided
below both of projects that have benefited through these types of changes and projects that
have not been able to build on the work funded by the Plater Trust as successfully.

New, adapted and expanded activities and services

The Plater Trust funding has provided an opportunity for organisations to develop new
initiatives and expand their services. The one-year grants have allowed organisations to
pilot new activities and new ways of working. The learning from the pilots has allowed the
organisations to develop new services and adapt and improve services, with many still
offering the activities funded by Plater as part of their core work. For example:

The Saint Vincent de Paul Societys leadership development of the laity project was
to develop understanding of social justice and CST among volunteer holiday camp
leaders and how this applies to their work on camp with young people. The pilot was
a catalyst for wider change and greater involvement from the national SVP office in
the camp programme. Subsequently, a national camp co-ordinator has been
employed and there is much improved communication with the camps. A handbook

17
 developed through this project is still given out to all new leaders. Training of leaders
around health and safety is reported to have improved as a result of the Plater-
funded project.

St Wilfreds education for the most marginalised project Personal Development Skills
project allowed the organisation to employ their first Development Skills coordinator
and pilot new courses. Having a new staff member allowed other staff to focus on
fundraising for their capital development fundraising. They have now built a 20-bed
apartment block for homeless people. A condition of tenancy is that residents sign
up to the skills and personal development programme overseen by the Development
Skills coordinator.

The research carried out for this evaluation indicates that three of the seven leadership
development of laity projects are continuing in some capacity and nine of the eleven
education of the most marginalised projects.

Organisations that have not been able to develop the work or have had to scale it back
include:

Ten Ten Theatre Company learnt a great deal about working in young offender
institutions. However, they now only occasionally run workshop programmes in
prisons as they find this kind of work is a challenge to fund. There are a number of
other theatre companies specialising in work in prisons and young offender
institutions who have a greater track record and are better able to evidence the
outcomes of their work to funders and the prisons. They are also more able to
maintain the relationships within individual prisons so crucial for access. Ten Ten is
continuing to focus on its core work in schools.

PACT Basic Caring Communities volunteer-led resettlement programme was

expanded and new volunteer leaders were trained. However, funding for the
expanded programme has been hard to secure so the programme has been scaled
back again.

Westminster Diocese Signs of Hope Deaf Service ran a reportedly successful

programme of life skills courses for deaf people, although there was little hard
evidence to support the claims of success. They now just run occasional one-off
courses and continue to offer one-to-one support, mainly due to lack of capacity
within the organisation with one part-time worker.

All the organisations reported on interviews that they continue to use what they have learnt
whether on ad hoc programmes of the work funded or in their wider work.

Additional funding

The experience of piloting and testing new services and activities has enabled some
organisations to attract further funding to continue the work. The projects funded by Plater
gave some organisations the evidence they needed to show other funders and

18
 commissioners they could achieve successful outcomes, this is despite the outcomes
evidence being limited. For example:

St Anthonys developed a new model of training and development working in

partnership with local communities; they have been able to roll this out across the
north through new skills contracts. As contracts for skills development have been
awarded to ever larger providers in recent years, St Anthonys has become a valued
sub-contractor for their access to and reach into more marginalised communities.
They offer a more bespoke service that may not achieve the large numbers of the big
providers but that delivers outcomes for those furthest from the labour market. The
work that St Anthonys does with a range of support groups within the community
also differentiates it from other training providers. Even though St Anthonys was
funded under the education for the most marginalised theme, they successfully
supported local people from within the parishes and beyond to set up support
groups for others. One was a dementia support group run from within a local parish;
another was a more diverse reading group to overcome loneliness. Both are still
funded and operational today, five years after the Plater Trust grant helped St
Anthonys to support their set up.

Noah Enterprises now deliver Luton Borough Council adult learning services through
their carpentry training workshop piloted with Plater Trust as one of the first
funders.

4.2.2 Intellectual endeavour projects and laity development projects led by

academic institutions

For the intellectual endeavour projects, grants of the size offered by the Plater Trust are
really valued by project leaders we have spoken to. They allow research on a scale not
otherwise possible. Grants for research from elsewhere are typically either up to 10,000,
so only cover very small scale projects, or over 100,000, funding longer-term more in-
depth study.

The research funded has led to some outcomes for the organisations in terms of new
partnerships but these are often limited to the project lifetime and are more about the
individual researchers relationships than the institutions themselves. This lack of
institutional-level engagement with the research can be seen to limit the overall impact of
the projects. This can also be said to be true for the projects led by academic institutions
under the leadership development of the laity theme. For example:

The project lead for Education for Catholics in leadership roles in healthcare at St
Marys moved institutions just as the project was coming to a close. While he has
continued to use the booklet produced through the project in his own lectures, the
lack of another identified person within the original institution to continue the work
has severely limited the legacy.

Virtual Plater, the development of online modules for Catholic Social Teaching, faced
a related but slightly different challenge. The project was again led by one person at

19
 Newman College. There was no additional administrative support or real institutional
buy-in to the project. This became even more challenging when the project lead was
tasked with working with partner institutions by the Plater Trust. While multiple
partners would ideally have broadened the reach of the project, maintaining a
partnership can be time consuming and needs someone to administer. The lack of a
clear plan for distribution and marketing the online materials is limiting awareness
and use of the modules, therefore reducing their potential overall impact.

Conversely for Theos, a smaller specialist think tank, the research project has been more
fully embedded as a key piece of work for two of their researchers and has helped support a
number of research interns. Just a few months on from the launch of the publication there
have been a number of positive outcomes for the organisation. Theos has gained substantial
media coverage for the report, important for a small research organisation (detailed in
Appendix 5). This has also raised the profile of the Plater Trust in the media. The work has
also led to new relationships with individuals and organisations within the Catholic Church
which will potentially lead to further research work.

4.3 Outcomes for individuals

An estimated 2,000 individuals facing challenges in their lives have been supported
through Plater Trust funded projects. 1,683 are reported to have participated in activities.
With data not available for four projects a conservative estimate of the total number of
participants is 2,000.

In addition, 788 lay Catholics are reported to have participated in programmes of training
and development to support their understanding and application of Catholic Social Teaching
in social action. There is no data available on the number of people receiving the 2,000
handbooks published by St Marys healthcare project.

The numbers of participants reported are summarised in Appendix 4.

Outcomes for individuals vary depending on the types of project, and on the user groups
and individuals that funded organisations are working with. Again, limited monitoring and
evaluation makes identifying attributable outcomes a challenge. This is particularly so in the
leadership development for the laity projects where evidence of impact for individuals is
almost completely absent. Projects funded through the intellectual endeavour theme may
ultimately deliver some impacts for individuals through improved services or changes in
policy but it has not been possible to identify these much longer-term impacts through this
piece of work.

Commonly cited outcomes for individuals supported through projects under the education
of the most marginalised themes include:
increased confidence and self esteem
improved skills
people gaining employment
improved relationships with others.

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 Increasing confidence and self esteem

Ace of Clubs, Baytree, Noah, St Anthonys, St Wilfreds, THOMAS and PACT (Prisoners Advice
and Care Trust) all report increasing confidence and self-esteem among their participants
that enable them to go on and achieve other outcomes and improvements in their lives. For
example:

In the interview we had with participants and in the case studies Noah provided,
participants from Noah Enterprises carpentry training programme talked about their
growing confidence and self-esteem:

I was already quite a confident person but being unemployed and getting nothing
makes you feel like you are treading water and at times it really gets you down!...
NOAH have been brilliant at building my confidence. (Participant from Noah case
study)

Signs of Hope Westminster Diocese Deaf Service report that participants have told
them their confidence increased and as a result they wanted next stage training;
advanced courses were subsequently developed in anger management and further
confidence building.

Baytree has a more systematic approach to measuring changes in confidence and

other soft skills. The mentors of the girls in the PEACH (Parents in the Education,
Achievement, and Character of their Children) programme are asked to rate the
distance travelled by their mentees in five categories. The analysis of the data
collected from these ratings show that confidence and concentration are two areas
where the girls have improved most.

Figure 4: Baytree girls involved in PEACH projects progress in soft skills development

21
 Source: Rating of progress of 45 girls on the PEACH programme. Graph taken from Baytree final
report to the Plater Trust, April 2015.

Interviews with the PEACH mothers confirmed that a growth in confidence for their
girls and themselves were important outcomes that allowed them to achieve other
changes and improvements in their lives. In the case of the girls, this included
speaking out more in class and going on to improved academic achievement. For the
mothers who attended weekly parent sessions, support from their peers and with
developing their own skills also increased their confidence:

I learnt to speak English here that now makes me more confident. (PEACH mother
interviewed)

PACT Basic Care in Communities project trained lay people and set up networks to
support ex-offenders as they leave prison. Feedback collected from ex-offenders was
not fully analysed, but the project anecdotally reports an increase in confidence and
self-esteem among those supported. The project did no equivalent follow-up with
the lay participants and did not provide any analysis or commentary on the
outcomes of participation for them.

The interim and final report submitted to Plater largely contain a narrative on what projects
have done i.e. the activities they have delivered, rather than reflecting on and evidencing
any changes brought about by these activities, other than through general statements.

Improved skills

The focus of the majority of projects under the leadership development of the laity theme,
was around learning and greater understanding and then application of CST in a social
justice context. However, there was no report of any direct outcomes in increased
understanding or skills from any of the projects, either in the annual reports to the Plater

22
 Trust or in our interviews. This does not mean that no positive outcomes occurred, but
projects did not carry out any monitoring or assessment of changes or improvements
following training, joining groups and networks, or accessing online or printed publication
materials. There have been considerable levels of project activity through funding by Plater
Trust but evidence about impact on skills and understanding is absent.

Saint Vincent de Pauls handbook for volunteer holiday camp leaders provides ideas
of activities for the leaders and their skills development through the health and
safety and other training they receive. There has been no monitoring of how this is
being used and any learning implemented

International Young Leaders project identified young people who showed leadership
potential from different backgrounds, aiming to develop their skills and
understanding through connection to inspirational mentors. The young leaders also
participated in a number of international trips to Australia, Israel, Kenya and Bosnia.
There is no reporting on what the young people gained from these trips or even
what they did. The International Young Leaders network in the UK has gone into
abeyance and it is not clear what the 120 young leaders who were supported took
from the programme.

A new piece of research is being led by Newman Colleges Dr Louise Hickman to

monitor and investigate use of Virtual Plater online modules among Caritas lay
church groups in the north of England. This could provide some evidence of
outcomes of a previously funded project that is still yet to complete. The final
modules should be launched in autumn 2016.

Projects supported through the education of the most marginalised theme have clearly
contributed to developing the skills of the beneficiaries in a number of areas. For example:

90% of prisoners taking part in the Storybook Dads scheme said they had improved
their skills (such as in IT and creativity).12

35% of Women at the Well participants with an identified skills need, had made
positive progress towards developing skills by the end of the project.13 This is a very
vulnerable group who come in and out of the service and for whom progress is rarely
linear.

In the Baytree PEACH project: 74% of girls improved in reading, 68% improved in
writing and 78% improved in maths. Of the few girls that slipped back, the majority
were still at or above the average level for their age.14

Other projects talk more generically about skills developed.

12 Storybook Dads Final report to the Plater Trust 2015 reporting findings from their survey of dads recording stories no
details of the number of dads surveyed.
13 Women at the Well final report to Plater Trust 2015. Reporting of follow-up assessments by project workers against a

baseline assessment. No details of the number of women the data is reporting on.
14 Baytree final report to Plater Trust 2015. Skills assessments of 19 girls.

23
 People gaining employment

A number of the projects working with homeless people, ex-offenders and substance
misusers have seen their bespoke services successfully support some participants to move
into employment. Plater Trust funded 36% of Ace of Clubs employment project for
homeless and vulnerable adults in south London for 12 months. 10 participants in that
programme gained employment:

We have seen more than 40 people engage in a weekly support class to help people
build their CVs and search for jobs and gradually we have seen increased
engagement in both volunteering and employment from our members...To this point
we have seen 10 people gain employment through this work this is an increase
from 7 at the 6 month point. This is a direct result of increased confidence and
engagement with our services. (Ace of Clubs final report)

The mix of challenges that many of the participants face mean they are so far from the
labour market that ongoing support is needed if they are going to access work. For some
volunteering is a first step.

Noah and THOMAS have both employed former participants from their own training
programmes who now bring their own experience to supporting others. Storybook Dads
provides employment to ex-offenders on their release whom they have trained as editors of
the storybooks while in prison.

Improved relationships with others

Another outcome reported by a number of projects is improved relationships with others,

often family members:

Women at the Well reported 46% of participants making positive progress towards
improved relationships with their children and other family members.

96% of prisoners said that taking part in Storybook Dads Me and My Dad project
had improved their relationship with their children.

There is also anecdotal evidence from the Signs of Hope Westminster Diocese Deaf
Service project that the people participating reported improved relationships with
family members and others.

In our interview, the mothers in the Baytree PEACH project referred to the improved
relationship they have with their children:

I have more time to listen to them. Baytree tell us when your child comes to you, you
stop what you are doing and listen to them and after you can go back to what you
are doing. So I make a big improvement in listening and it has made me more close
with my children. (Baytree PEACH mother)

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 Improved relationships with children, in particular, will hopefully lead to improved
outcomes for them too.

Other beneficiary outcomes projects refer to include:

Improving mental and physical well-being. This is an outcome that we would have
expected to see referred to more consistently. A number of projects had improved
health as an ambition but did not report on it as an outcome for participants. The
exceptions are St Wilfreds who say their participants have a reduction in
medication or fewer/no admissions to psychiatric wards but there is no tracked data
on this.

Women at the Well data shows that 89% of women accessing the activities funded
by Plater Trust had a mental health issue; for 69% physical health was an issue. Their
final report showed that, of those, 42% made positive progress with improvements
in their mental health and 62% made positive progress with their physical health.

Securing accommodation. This was a secondary outcome rather than a core

outcome of the projects. Women at the Well, Life, Ace of Clubs, St Wilfreds all refer
to participants being able either to move into their own accommodation or to
maintain secure accommodation as a result of the other improvements and
outcomes increasing confidence, skills and well-being. Again, there are mainly just
general statement about participants securing accommodation. Only Women at the
Well do any monitoring of where their participants are in terms of accommodation
needs.

4.4 Outcomes for wider society

The outcomes for wider society are even more challenging to identify. The projects funded
under the intellectual endeavour theme are where the greatest outcomes for wider society
may be expected. Four projects under this theme have been reviewed through this study.
Three projects funded in 2014-15 were not included in the evaluation as they are still to be
completed. There is certainly an ambition within the Trust for the intellectual endeavour
projects to influence policy, help establish inter-faith and secular partnerships and support
a wider reach of CST in academic spheres that in turn leads to greater lay understanding
and application of CST in practice15. There are some indications of where of intellectual
endeavour projects are producing some level of outcomes in these areas, but again lack of
monitoring of outcomes from these projects means it is not possible to confidently state
these outcomes have been achieved. Examples include:

Caritas Social Action Network (CSAN) Criminal Justice Project did potentially deliver
on some levels in influencing policy. A number of church policy statements on
criminal justice were published and shared through conferences and through a
network of criminal justice practitioners within the church. The advisory group had
links into parliament, with the shadow criminal justice minster on the group, and

15 Outcomes expected under the Intellectual Endeavour theme cited in the survey of Plater trustees and GMB members.

25
 directly into prison chaplaincy through the Director of Prison Advice and Care Trust
and prison chaplain also on the group. Until recently a report from the 2011
Theological Colloquium on criminal justice, and other resources from the project,
were still available through the CSAN website. It is also thought that CSAN continued
dialogue with government on policy beyond the lifetime of the project. The project
also fed into the Caritas Europa network.

The work of Theos the UKs leading religion and society think tank on the
development and publication of their recent study Catholic Social Thought and
Catholic Charities, has brought CST to a much broader faith and even secular
audience. One of the ambitions of the project was to take difficult and ecclesiastical
language and make it more accessible. The report is certainly in a more accessible
language than some writing on CST. Theos is continuing to work with the Catholic
charitable sector to take forward this piece of work. The report has already secured
considerable media coverage (See Appendix 5)which also helped to raise the profile
of the Plater Trust.

The Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology study Asylum, Catholic Social Teaching
& the Big Society also saw the lead, Dr Rowlands, join a learning hub on the
constructive role of faith-based communities in building resilience in situations of
forced displacement. The group was established by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr
Rowan Williams, and is a collaborative venture involving theologians from Muslim,
Christian, Jewish traditions and representatives of the major aid and development
agencies and United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

Funding academic research on CST could be said to be achieving the ambition of

widening the reach of CST in the academic sphere. Some of the research funded is
being taken forward and expanded through further research, but there is no
evidence of what outcomes there are from this work for academics or wider society.
In the case of the Margaret Beaufort Institute, the study on Asylum, Catholic Social
Teaching & the Big Society is being taken forward through a further piece of research
by the Von Hugel Institute funded in 2014-15: The relevance of Catholic social
thought and practice in the field of migration and asylum policy in the UK. This is yet
to be completed.

It is unclear how the academic research is generating greater understanding and

application of CST within the lay community. A number of the projects did have that
intention the CSAN Criminal Justice project worked at a local level through the
criminal justice practitioner network and published resources on the CSAN website
for a national and international audience. There was also an intention for the
Asylum, Catholic Social Teaching & Big Society project to produce resources for
publication on the CSAN website, but it is unclear if this work was completed.

The ability of some Catholic charities to develop understanding of CST among the lay
community and wider society may be somewhat limited. As Theos identify in their study,

26
 while Catholic social principles are evident in Catholic charities work, only a minority really
understood principles such as subsidiarity.16

Under the theme of leadership development for the laity, the trustees and GMB members
expected lay participants to be more able to take on leadership roles within the Church
and wider communities, and through increased understanding of CST be able to spread
this knowledge and be involved in parish renewal. With more than 1,000 lay Catholics
participating in funded projects there are likely to be those that are leading work within the
Church and broader social action. Interestingly, one of the projects where this new
leadership in social action benefiting the wider community is demonstrated best, is in the St
Anthonys project that was actually funded under the education of the most marginalised
theme. As well as providing training for migrants, the project worked with lay Catholics and
the wider community, supporting them to set up support groups, two of which continue to
operate.

5. Plater Trust Grant-making: Processes and Approach

Review
The section presents the findings of the review of the Plater Trusts grant-making processes.
Suggestions for refining processes presented in summary in this section, are picked up in the
recommendations in section 7.

5.1 The three themes

Theme 1: Leadership development for the laity, particularly in the area of justice and
social action, to equip individual Catholics to apply CST.
Theme 2: Education for people from the most marginalised sectors of society.
Theme 3: Intellectual endeavor of refreshing CST and Teaching within a British
context, for example through scholarship and writing or policy formation.

There is a general feeling among grant recipients that the three themes are broadly still
relevant for the work they are doing. This is perhaps to be expected, as their projects
matched one of the themes and they successfully secured funding. It has not been within
the remit of this piece of work to speak to unsuccessful applicants or others outside the
Plater Trust where there may be a different view on the appropriateness of the themes.

The intellectual endeavour theme is where there is less support. This theme is clearly felt to
be valuable by academics and perhaps most closely reflects the original vision of Plater
College. However, there is a feeling among some grantees and trustees that a greater focus
on projects that directly support education, training and ultimately changes in the lives of
individuals, would be welcomed. If the intellectual endeavour theme, or an adaptation of
it, is to be continued, more direct work with charities and/or policy makers should be one
of the criteria. There should also be greater detail requested at the application stage of
how the research will be disseminated and used by policy makers and the charitable

16 Theos (2016) Catholic Social Thought and Catholic Charities in Britain Today: Need and Opportunity p.10

27
 sector. In the majority of intellectual endeavour projects reviewed for this study the
outcomes appear to have had little, if any, influence on policy and the charitable sector. It
should be noted again that three of the four intellectual endeavour theme projects funded
in 2014-15 had not reported at the time of the research for this study, so outcomes from
these are unclear.

The review of the outcomes of projects has shown that there is some crossover between
leadership development of the laity and education of the most marginalised sectors of
society projects. For example, St. Anthonys migrant support project helped lay Catholics
and other volunteers to successfully establish local mental health support groups. Some of
the laity development projects, such as International Young Leaders, were about leadership,
others had a stronger social action focus, for example, PACTs work with volunteers to
support ex-offenders as they come out of prison. If the laity development theme is
retained, the need for projects to enable people to support the poorest and most
marginalised in society more effectively could be made more explicit. There is also an
issues around what is meant by leadership and what the Trust expects to see in terms of
developing new leaders.

The themes would benefit from being refreshed with clearer wording, being combined or
even completely reviewed in line with an overall review of the future vision and changes
the Trust wants to bring about. Having specific programme areas, but being open to
research applications or work with the laity, as well as education and development, under
each programme area, could be a way forward.

The Porticus Trust, who themselves are undertaking a review, have four specific programme
areas:
Education
Society
Faith
Care

Their education and society programmes broadly reflect Platers education of the most
marginalised sectors of society and their faith programme is closely aligned with Platers
leadership development of the laity theme.

Reviewing the language would make the Trust more open and accessible. The Church itself
has categorised CST using more contemporary language. The themes are:

Human Dignity
Community and Participation
Care for Creation
Dignity in Work
Peace & Reconciliation
Solidarity17

17 A full explanation of each theme can be found in Appendix 6 and at www.catholicsocialteaching.org.uk

28
 5.1.1 The theme cycle

The feedback from grantees showed some support for the current themes to be run
concurrently, should they remain the same in the future. Having a single theme each year
means waiting three years for an appropriate theme under which organisations can bid.

Funding for a single piece of research could be awarded each year.

5.2 Types of organisations from which the Trust wants to attract

applications
It is unclear if the Trust just wants to attract applications from Catholic charities and
organisations in their many forms or whether it is also open to applications from non-
Catholic charities whose activities are broadly aligned with CST principles. So many
organisations work with people on the margins of society, the materially poor, providing
routes out of poverty and support for improving lives. They work for the common good,
promoting and directly supporting the welfare of their community and the people within it,
and in solidarity with people from around the world. Many organisations seek to empower
decision making among individuals at a local level, ensuring people are awarded their
human rights.

It is not for this piece of work to interpret the application of CST by different non-Catholic
charities. However, as in the case of Storybook Dads, it can be said that there are many
charitable organisations that through their work are delivering on the ethos of CST.

A number of the trustees felt the Trust should only fund Catholic charities, seemingly
unaware that Storybook Dads does not have any connections to the Catholic Church. It is for
the Plater Trust to decide if they want to be open to the many non-Catholic charities in
order to support the Trusts overall mission. If they do not, then they should be explicit
that they only fund Catholic charities or charitable organisations with some links to or
foundations within the Catholic Church.

The Charity Commission website has 388 charities listed as having some Catholic
connection.18 This is likely to be just a small proportion of the organisations and activity the
Plater Trust might support. Much social action within the Church is carried out at local level
either within the structure of the wider diocese, for example, the Westminster Deaf Service,
or on a more informal basis. Many charities with their ethos and/or origins in Catholicism
serve individuals and groups of all faiths and therefore do not state their faith at the
forefront of what they do. Even if the Trust does decide to only fund organisations and
activity with links to the Catholic Church, they could still be open to hundreds of
organisations.

18 Theos (2016) Catholic Social Thought and Catholic Charities in Britain Today: Need and Opportunity

29
 5.3 The application and selection process
The Plater Trust has developed a clearer and more structured selection process in recent
years. Each application is scored by GMB members against a set of broad criteria. These
cover the eligibility of the applicant, the likely impact of the project and the capability of the
organisation.

However, applicants are not told in advance what criteria their applications will be scored
against. Being explicit about how applications will be scored is good practice for Trusts and
Foundations as part of a transparent and open selection process.

The scoring of projects does seem to help with selecting a short-list of applicants. This is
particularly useful in the years when the theme has been education of the marginalised
sectors of society as this elicits a much greater number of applicants than the other themes.
Ultimately, however, decisions of what projects to fund appear to come down to discussions
at the GMB meetings. While some trustees and GMB members feel the selection process is
rigorous, others feel that the process might not stand up to scrutiny if a decision were to be
challenged by an unsuccessful applicant. Within the wider grant-making sector there has
been a move in recent years to greater clarity and openness in awarding grants, ensuring
the process is fair and equal. This can include feedback on how an applicant has scored
against set pre stated and shared criteria as part of a response to why their applications
have been unsuccessful. The Plater Trust does provide feedback to unsuccessful applications
on request. In future this could include the scores of applications against the selection
criteria, that are shared with applicants as part of the application guidance.

One area where the Plater Trust scoring is a little unclear is on match funding. The GMB is
asked to score the applicant on a scale of 1-5 (5 being the highest) on the question: Has the
applicant secured other funding towards the costs of the project? The guidelines for
applicants state that up to 100% funding will be awarded and that match-funded projects
will only be supported when they meet the Trusts object. If a project was asking for 100%
funding from the Plater Trust and there was no match funding would this be a 1 or 5 on the
scoring criteria?

Some of the trustees and GMB members have direct relationships with the organisations
being funding. It is good to see that the Trust has in place a protocol of declaring a conflict
of interest if any GMB member or trustee has a direct relationship with a project being
proposed for funding and that not involved in decision making process about whether or
not that organisation receives a grant.

5.4 Size of grant and length of grant award

Section 3 above highlights the range of sizes of grants awarded by the Trust. The guidelines
for applicants clearly state that awards will usually be between 30,000 and 50,000 for
projects to be delivered over a 12-month period. Larger grants can also be considered if a
strong case can be made for additional funding.

30
 Grants in the range of 30,000 to 40,000 are welcomed by the grantees. They allow for a
substantial piece of work to be undertaken, particularly if used as match funding. In reality
nearly all projects are match funded. No project takes place in complete isolation of an
organisation. Fully-costed projects, showing other staff management costs, premises costs
and so on, should be encouraged.

The timeline for delivering the project should be extended to up to two years. Over a third
of projects funded to date have taken more than the originally stated 12 months to
complete. A period of set-up and then trialling is often required for new projects, before full
delivery can begin, and this usually takes longer than 12 months.

It is not suggested that the Trust offers multiple years of funding, as this would reduce
number of projects that could be funded. Grants of 30,000 to 50,000 could be awarded
with up to two years to deliver a project. If the Trust decides to grow the endowment or
increases the money it has to distribute in other ways, such as managing other
endowments, multiple-year funding may become an option.

There was some support among a small number of grantees for smaller size grants of up
to 10,000. While this might open the Trust up to some more grassroots activity, overall the
feeling was that larger grants allow for more substantial pieces of work. Offering a larger
number of small grants would also increase the administrative burden for the Trust.

5.5 Monitoring and evaluating grants

Applicants are asked to state clearly their project objects, anticipated outcomes and how
these will be monitored. Most grantees have seemingly clear objectives set out in their
applications. However, in their six month and final reporting only one or two projects
actually refer back to the objectives and intended outcomes and report clearly on how these
have been achieved. On the whole, evidence is anecdotal at best.

The Trusts relatively light touch approach to reporting is welcomed by grantees. It is

understood that the Trust does not wish to place an extra burden on organisations in terms
of reporting. However, it is important that effectiveness of the work being funded is
monitored effectively. If organisations are not carrying out monitoring and evaluation, or
only have very basic systems, support from the Trust or a partner organisation would be
beneficial. This would help in developing the capacity of the organisations. It would enable
them to be more effective in monitoring their work, helping them to really evidence the
outcomes. This would in turn would help with securing additional funds from a range of
sources and make the sustainability of the services piloted and their outcomes more likely.
More effective monitoring by organisations will in turn help the Trust to have greater
understanding of the outcomes their funding is having. A small fund could be set aside by
the Trust to support with monitoring and evaluation training or support for organisations.

The recently introduced visits to projects by trustees and GMB member sponsors, have
provided some further scrutiny and valuable connection with projects. They have facilitated
a better understanding of the work organisations are doing with funding from the Trust.

31
 There is room for the sponsor visits to provide an additional level of monitoring and
include more reflection on how the original objectives are being met and what outcomes
or changes the funding and activity is bringing about for the beneficiaries and
organisations. A proforma reporting template could be developed to assist this.

5.6 Sharing the learning

Grantees really appreciate the award ceremonies that the Plater Trust holds. They enjoy
meeting other grant recipients as well as the trustees. One or two organisations working in
similar fields have met at the awards events and subsequently developed a relationship.
Noah Enterprises in Luton and St Wilfreds in Sheffield are two such organisations. They
have visited each other, discussed their approaches to working with homeless and
vulnerable adults and shared experiences of what works in engaging and supporting people,
as well as some of the challenges.

Grantees, trustees and GMB members feel the Trust could do more to promote the projects
they funded and to share good examples. There are various ways this could be done:

A simple approach could be written case studies on the Plater Trust website of past
projects.

The awards events could be reformatted to become more focused on sharing the
learning from past projects. They could even be opened up to potential applicants
and become an opportunity to encourage collaboration between researchers,
charities working to change the lives of disadvantaged people, and Caritas and other
church networks and organisations.

Better promotion of funded projects and the resources that have been produced
would help to widen the reach and take up. For example, the CST online learning
modules, available through Virtual Plater, currently only have limited reach.
Newman College does not have the resources to promote the modules more widely.
The healthcare and CST booklet produced by St Marys and the handbook for
volunteers produced by SVP could also be promoted more widely. The Trust could
promote the online and offline publications themselves but also ensure that
applicants proposing to publish work have a clear and practical costed dissemination
plan as part of the grant application and agreed delivery.

It is understood that there are resource and skills issues for the Trust in setting up wider
promotion of the projects and the Trust itself. However, both would benefit from greater PR
and marketing.

5.7 User Involvement

Currently the Trust does not ask grantees to state how users or beneficiaries will be involved
in decision making about projects, nor are grantees asked to report on any level of user
involvement. However, as the principle of user involvement in the voluntary sector has

32
 grown in recent years it is understood that the Trust is rightly keen to ensure that
beneficiaries have a say in the way programmes and activities are designed. Having the
needs of beneficiaries at the forefront is crucial. But user involvement is far from
straightforward.

Grantees had some valid concerns about needing to ensure users are involved in designing
services and activities. For many vulnerable people with unstable lives, being able to engage
in decision making for their own lives is hugely challenging. Participation in decision making
about services for themselves and others is not impossible but would be a real challenge,
with considerable resource implications for the organisations working with them.

If the Trust were to ask for user involvement in service design the implication of this it
should be clearly understood. A useful tool for understanding different levels of
involvement or participation is The ladder of participation developed by Arnstein in the US
in 1969, which still holds relevance today. It has been widely used and adapted to describe
the different levels of participation/ user involvement in different contexts. The adaptation
by Futurelab in their publication on Learning engagement provides a useful summary19.

Even the Plater Trust funded organisations leading the way in innovation in project ideas
and who do seek feedback from and participation of their users are really only at the
partnership or higher end of tokenism scale in the Futurelab model of participation.

19 Learnervoice a handbook from Futurelab (2006:11). Authors Tim Rudd, Fiona Colligan and Rajay Naik

33
 Calling for users or beneficiaries to be involved in service design would clearly be beyond
the scope and ability of most organisations Plater Trust currently funds. Asking applicants to
be clear about how they involve users, get their feedback and use this to ensure that
activities reflect the needs, could be an additional question that organisations are asked to
respond to in their application.

6. The Future Direction of the Plater Trust

There are a number of things that Plater Trust needs to consider in terms of its future
direction. Does the Trust want to be more strategic in its approach and more able to
monitor its effectiveness? Does it want to grow to distribute more funding to more
organisations? This section presents some of the key issues the Trust should consider. This
includes the further development of a Theory of change, started through this piece of work.

6.1 What type of funder does the Trust want to be?

Julia Unwins Grant-making Tango20 provides a useful typology for the Trust to consider
what funding style they have and wish to have. Three types of funder are identified givers,
shoppers and investors.

As a giver the Trust would continue to take a relaxed approach to monitoring,

evaluation and reporting outcomes, trusting in the organisation or individual that
they are giving money to, to achieve what it commits to.

As a shopper the Trust would have greater clarity of it is trying to achieve perhaps
by developing a Theory of Change (see 6.2) and then probe more deeply to see if
those to whom it plans to award money, are in a position to meet the Trusts
outcomes. This would require more stringent collection and reporting of outcome
data.

As an investor the Trust would want to build a lasting relationship whereby it and
those it funds are aligned on the outcomes that need to achieve, and there is really
good information flowing from grantees to the Trust. The Trust would also need to
be prepared to invest in capacity building, supporting and learning from the work of
the organisation, and to hear feedback from grantees on what the Trust itself can
improve on.

The decision about which type of funder the Trust wishes to be is pivotal for being able to
determine its effectiveness, the nature and depth of monitoring and evaluation required,
and resource how to allocate resources. Currently it seems that the Trust does want to build
a more than money relationship with its grant recipients but while the intention exists the
approach is largely giving.

20 https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/grantmaking-tango-issues-funders

34
 6.2 Theory of Change supporting better planning and evaluation
of success
Developing a Theory of Change (ToC) is an ideal way of clarifying organisational goals,
intended outcomes and articulating assumptions about what conditions are needed to bring
about changes from any grants awarded. A Theory of Change is a process as well as a
product. ToCs are not just about managing change within an organisation they help explore
and identify the changes that organisations are seeking to bring about through their work.
In the case of the Plater Trust and the funding it currently makes, these are changes for
funded organisations, the beneficiaries and wider community and society. Theories of
Change are important tools for:

- Planning and programme development: The process of developing a ToC can help to
refine and enhance the effectiveness of programmes and interventions, linking them
to organisational strategic plans.
- Communicating internally and externally complex programmes: The TOC itself can
be a useful tool for communicating what your programme does, and how it has an
impact, in a clear and convincing way.
- Evaluation and impact monitoring: Developing a TOC is a first step in designing
effective evaluation as it identifies all the outcomes that need to be measured. The
outcomes framework can then be developed to include key performance indicators
and measures for each outcome.

A Theory of Change should ideally be developed collaboratively with a range of stakeholders

involved. In the case of the Plater Trust this should be a number of trustees and members of
the GMB as a minimum, and potentially with past grant recipients.

Thus far it has not been possible to hold a group meeting, but we have started to develop a
very basic TOC based on research and consultation with trustees, GMB members and
grantees.

35
 Figure 4: An emerging Theory of change for the Plater Trust

Developing/Greater social jus ce through educa on Plater Trust

overarching aim
Dignity of the The Common Solidarity Subsidiarity Op on for
human person Good the poor CST principles

Sharing of learning through celebra on events

Increased skill and ability to take
Greater understanding of
specifically Catholic character
of the mission and work of
Catholic chari es today and
their links to CST.
Increased capacity of
organisa ons to make
social ac on by Catholic laity
posi ve changes to lives of
Increased social ac on most marginalised in society
by Catholic laity
Increased ability of most
Greater awareness among laity of
marginalised in society to
of social jus ce issues facing most
achieve their full poten al
marginalised

Intellectual Leadership Educa on for

endeavour of development of people most
refreshing CST laity marginalised

More sustainable organisa ons

Annual grant
making

Once a TOC is developed identifying the outcomes, these form the basis of an evaluation
framework that can help the Trust and the projects they fund monitoring the outcomes of
funding.

6.3 Does the Plater Trust want to grow?

Does the Trust want to grow the endowment, taking on other investments and legacies?
The review commissioned by the trustees in 2011 highlighted concerns about the declining
value of the Trusts investments, which had been adversely affected by economic downturn
since 2008. A specialist investment adviser was appointed to manage the Trusts current
legacy investments but the review also called for the Trust to pursue securing further
funding from appropriate Catholic sources, in order to invest to increase the legacy. The
annual investment return has stabilised under the management of the investment adviser.
As yet the Trust has not sought additional funding. The impact of the UKs vote to leave the
EU on investments is yet to be fully understood but this may have further effects on the
available funds. The trustees should decide whether they wish to continue as a small Trust
or whether they wish to secure additional funding that will at least allow them to
continue as a small grant-maker or even to grow to further develop their impact.

7. Conclusions and Recommendations

The support the Plater Trust provides is highly valued by the grant recipients. It is clear that
for many an award from the Plater Trust is not just about securing additional funding but

36
 equates to recognition by the archbishops of the work they are doing. The visits from
trustees and GMB members plus the invites to award ceremonies further contribute to
organisations feeling that they and their work are appreciated and understood by the Trust.

Over 3,000 people have been supported by the grants made by the Plater Trust. Research,
policy and practical publications on CST have been produced. While over half the funding
has been awarded to London-based organisations, the Trust has reached across England
with its grants. Prisoners, ex-offenders, homelessness people and migrants and refugees are
areas of particular focus for the Trusts grant-making. A more systematic approach in future,
asking applicants to indicate the sectors they work with, and then collating this, would help
the Trust to review areas of need their grant-making is reaching.

There is some evidence of positive changes being brought about for organisations,
individuals and wider society through the grant awards that the Plater Trust has made.
However, verifying and evidencing these changes remains a real challenge due to the lack of
clarity on what outcomes Plater Trust is seeking and lack of effective monitoring by many of
the funded organisations. If the Trust wants to be confident about the impact it is making,
monitoring by the funded organisations and the Trust itself must improve.

Around two thirds of the projects funded under the education of the most marginalised and
leadership development of the laity themes have continued beyond the Plater Trust
funding. The numbers of people that continue to be supported long after the Plater funding
has concluded demonstrates the positive work that some of the organisations are doing,
often as a legacy of the Plater Trust awards. However, a third of projects not continuing is
significant and something the Trust needs to consider in how it makes its selection of
projects to fund in the future. Funding of innovative work involves an element of risk and
there is as much to learn from what doesnt work as what does. However, the lack of
monitoring means this learning from projects that dont continue is not being captured.

The Plater Trust is valued by the grantees for its fairly straight-forward application and
reporting processes. While it is understood that the Trust wants organisations to focus on
their work and not be burdened by onerous reporting, and that they want to support
innovation and risk taking in developing new approaches to addressing difficult challenges
within society, a more structured approach to monitoring and evaluation is needed by the
grantees and the Trust.

As the Plater Trust moves forward into the next phase of its grant-making it is
recommended that:

1. The Trust completes the Theory of Change with the support of NCVO Charities
Evaluation Services as part of its future planning. This will help the Trust to clearly
identify the outcomes it is seeking to achieve and provide a framework against which
achievements can be measured in the future. Once identified, these outcomes can
be articulated externally so it is clear to applicants and potential partners what the
Trusts priorities are. Some additional resources may be required to fully engage all
the stakeholders in the Theory of Change development process.

37
 2. The Trust should ask applicants how they propose to deliver the Trusts outcomes
identified through the Theory of Change. Even if a Theory of Change is not
completed the Trust should be clear about what outcomes it is seeking through its
grant-making and ask applicants to demonstrate how what they propose to deliver
will feed into these desired outcomes.

3. The Trust should encourage and expect more effective monitoring and evaluation
from its grantees. This will enable the Trust to more effectively assess the impact of
its grant-making in the future and also help to build the capacity of the organisations
it funds. The Trust should consider ways of supporting organisations. This could be
through collaboration with other organisations or setting up a pot of funding that
organisations could access to buy in support to develop more effective monitoring
and evaluation systems. Collecting baseline data against which progress and change
can be effectively measured should be an aim for all projects funded. Currently
feedback from beneficiaries is very limited. Projects should confirm how they are
going evidence outcomes for project beneficiaries.

4. The Trust should agree whether or not it is open to non-Catholic charities and
organisations and seek to make this clear in calls for future applications.

5. The Trust should make a decision on whether or not to seek further investments to
increase its fund.

6. The Trust should consider closer collaborative working with other Trusts and
Foundations inside and outside the Catholic Church to ensure it is targeting its funds
to the areas of most need. Joining the Association of Charitable Foundations would
be a useful first step. There is also potentially an opportunity to maximise funding
and benefit through joint funding with others. Initially, conversations started with
the Porticus Trust could be picked up and closer collaborative working explored.

7. The Trust should review its three themes, preferably in line with the process of
developing a Theory of Change. It is suggested:

a. At least the wording to be refreshed. The Porticus Trust and

www.catholicsocialteaching.og.uk are good examples of using Plain English to
explain Catholic priorities and programmes that are underpinned by a
Catholic ethos.
b. The Leadership development for the laity theme, if retained, could seek more
explicit social action outcomes and be more focused on enabling social action
among lay Catholics and possibly other non-Catholic volunteers within
communities.
c. One research grant could be made each year, preferably with researchers
working directly with charities or identified policy makers.

8. The funding cycle should be run annually with all programmes or themes running
concurrently. On review, it may be that the Trust wants to focus on particular areas
of need. For example, prisoners and ex-offenders, migrants and refugees, older
people, children and young people. Making us of area of need data already

38
 collected from applicants and grantees, could help inform future funding rounds.
Using this data would help the Trust to identify particular areas of need among
applicants and how it meets those areas of need through grants awarded.
Geographical reach of the grants should also be mapped so the Trust can see where
beneficiaries are supported across England and Wales. Currently the trust records
where applicant organisations are based, but doesnt fully analyse and make use of
this data.

9. The size of grant should be retained at around 30,000 to 40,000 to allow for
substantial projects to be undertaken. Organisations should be given up to two
years to complete projects. If the Trust is to support occasional projects with larger
grants in future much greater evidence of why additional funding is required and
what changes this will bring about for the organisation as well as beneficiaries or
policy, should be required.

10. The application assessment criteria should be reviewed and applied more
rigorously in the selection of grantees. The selection criteria should be published for
applicants to see in advance of the application. Scores and feedback should ideally
be offered to unsuccessful applicants. Greater clarity around how the proposed
projects will be sustained beyond the life of the grant should also be sought at
application stage.

Appendix 1: Principles of Catholic Social Teaching

The dignity of the human person:

The focal point of CST is the human person, made in the image of God, and so having fundamental
freedom and dignity, the basis for human rights. Recognising this image in our neighbour, the
teaching rejects any policy or system that reduces people to economic units or passive dependence.

The Common Good

People exist as part of society. Every individual has a duty to share in promoting the welfare of the
community and a right to benefit from that welfare. This applies at every level: local, national and
international. Public authorities exist mainly to promote the common good and to ensure that no
section of the population is excluded.

Solidarity
As members of the one human family, we have mutual obligations to promote the rights and
development of peoples across communities and nations. Solidarity is the fundamental bond of
unity with our fellow human beings and the resulting interdependence. All are responsible for all;
and in particular the rich have responsibilities towards the poor. National and international
structures must reflect this.

Subsidiarity
All power and decision-making in society should be at the most local level compatible with the
common good. Subsidiarity will mainly mean power passing downwards, but it could also mean
passing appropriate powers upwards. The balance between the vertical (subsidiarity) and the
horizontal (solidarity) is achieved through reference to the common good.

39
 Option for the poor
Implicit in earlier CST, this has now been taken up with new urgency and far-reaching consequences
for pastoral action. Fidelity to Christ means seeing him above all in the faces of suffering and
wounded people.

(Principles taken from www.catholicsocialteaching.org.uk )

40
 Appendix 2: Summary of grants that Section 3 outputs analysis is drawn from
Grant
Organisation amount Funding year Funding theme Sector Location
Young Christian Workers 86,319 2008-09 Leadership development for the laity Young people London
HE Consortium- Lead: 60,000 2008-09
Newmam University West
College Leadership development for the laity Non sector specific Midlands
St Mary's University 17,090 2008-09
College Leadership development for the laity Healthcare London
International Young 40,000 2008-09
Leaders Network Leadership development for the laity Non sector specific South East
Prison Advice & Care Trust 79,970 2012-13
(PACT) Leadership development for the laity Criminal justice London
Anchor House 47,500 2012-13 Leadership development for the laity Homeless London
The St Vincent de Paul 22,435 2012-13
Society Leadership development for the laity Non sector specific London
Ace of Clubs 40,500 2013-14 Education for people from the most Homeless London
marginalised sectors of society
Baytree 40,000 2013-14 Education for people from the most Vulnerable women
marginalised sectors of society and girls London
LIFE 33,416 2013-14 Education for people from the most Vulnerable women West
marginalised sectors of society and girls Midlands
Noah Enterprise 29,210 2013-14 Education for people from the most
marginalised sectors of society Homeless South East
St Wilfred's Centre 28,927 2013-14 Education for people from the most Drug and alcohol
marginalised sectors of society recovery Yorkshire
Storybook Dads 40,000 2013-14 Education for people from the most
marginalised sectors of society Criminal justice South West
THOMAS 40,000 2013-14 Education for people from the most
marginalised sectors of society Homeless North West
Women at the Well 34,512 2013-14 Education for people from the most Vulnerable women
marginalised sectors of society and girls London
St Anthony's Centre 70,240 2009-10 Education for people from the most Migration and North West

41
 marginalised sectors of society asylum
Ten Ten Theatre 89,820 2009-10 Education for people from the most
marginalised sectors of society Criminal justice London
Signs of Hope Westminster 29,200 2009-10 Education for people from the most
marginalised sectors of society Disability London
Caritas Social Action Network 31,160 2010-11 The intellectual endeavour of refreshing
(CSAN) CST Criminal justice London
Von Hugel Institute 65,150 2010-11 The intellectual endeavour of refreshing
CST Public services East
Margaret Beaufort Institute 52,000 2010-11 The intellectual endeavour of refreshing Migration and
CST asylum East
Roehampton University 46,302 2014-15 The intellectual endeavour of refreshing
CST Marriage London
Theos 39,750 2014-15 The intellectual endeavour of refreshing Migration and
CST asylum London
Von Hugel Institute 25,000 2014-15 The intellectual endeavour of refreshing Migration and
CST asylum East
Durham University and 45,000 2014-15 The intellectual endeavour of refreshing
CSAN CST Homeless North East

42
 Appendix 3: Outcomes summary table
Year and Organisation funded,
theme project name and
award amount
2008-9 Young Christian Workers
Leadership
development Project: School for life,
for the laity training young people as
leaders.
Amount: 86,319
Newman University
College lead of intended
consortium with Liverpool
Hope University; Leeds
Trinity University College;
St Marys University time from Newman
College; and Heythrop
College, London
Project: Virtual Plater 2016.
Online CST modules
Amount: 60,000 Newman researching
International Young
43
Project The numbers Main outcomes Other observations
sustained?
Unknown 96 adults trained For the organisation Outcomes just statements with no
24 parishes involved Improving the profile of evidence.
12 young people organisation
attended the leader Organisations communication Not interviewed. No further
training weekend materials have become far information available.
Four young people more professional
to take over the Stronger regional network
running of the Trained network of adults
national team
Project over ran the 30 copies of the first An open access resource on CST. Partnership working takes time and
12 months funding. module have been For the organisation resources, not factored into the
Still not complete. downloaded from If the resources and skill are original application. Having asked
Being resources the Virtual Plater identified to market the online partners to come together should
financially and with website by 2016. resource, Newman college Plater Trust have played a bigger
(Update from would be credited with leading role in facilitating the partnership?
College. Second interview) this work.
module should be Project management and
online by autumn No figures available For individuals and wider society marketing of final resources not
on use by parish Research being undertaken at well considered at the outset.
groups. Newman College on use of the
Dr Hickman from Modules by parish group in Now a potential to share materials
North of England could provide with a global Catholic and wider
the use of the some insights. Currently no ecumenical lay and academic
module by parish evidence of any outcomes. audience with support. A valuable
groups in Newcastle. outcome for the Plater Trust
funded work if the resources
Modules available reached a wider audience.
need promoting.
IYL in abeyance in 120 people on L2C For organisation: Challenges with owner ship and
 Year and Organisation funded,
theme project name and
award amount
Leaders Network
Project: Leaders to Come
Identifying, nurturing
and training future
Catholic leaders aged 16-
33.
Project The numbers Main outcomes Other observations
sustained?
UK. residentials in the None it stopped operating management of IYL. It was not a
year of funding registered organisation in its own
2000 people For individuals right.
attending L2C day Unclear but some of them
and school based went on international trips International element expensive so
events. could only be realised for a few.

Amount: 40,000
St Marys University Anscombe Bioethics 1000 booklets printed - For organisation and particularly No outcomes monitoring.
College Centre became a Staying Catholic in individual producing work:
partner so the Healthcare: a The process of developing the For a relatively small grant an
Project: Education project project expanded. handbook for health booklet and engaging with interesting area to explore.
for Catholics in leadership professionals. healthcare professionals was useful Dissemination not clearly thought
roles in healthcare Continued in a small and fed into other things. out at the outset.
way as project lead Four dissemination
Amount 17,090 continues to use events in 2012/13 For individuals using the booklet: Idea stemmed from the Bishops
booklet in teaching across England. Total Enables people to understand and conference.
and lectures. Not as of 222 people engage critically with the issues
widely distributed as attended. facing them.Its allowed them to
hoped. Challenge think about problems in front of
with accessing them and relate it to their faith
Catholics working in with a structured way of thinking
healthcare. through the issues. Project
manager feedback. No way to
verify.
2009-10 St Antonys Centre. Completed in 17 Initial assessment Outcomes for the organisation Moving more towards outcomes
Education months not 12. with 186 local Further training contracts as a monitoring with new contracts, still
for people Project: Bringing residents - project result of the training piloted large anecdotal on outcomes other
from the language, education and Started as training target 120. and model of close work with than numbers of people
most other services to migrant for mainly Polish 148 have enrolled other community groups. participating and securing jobs and
marginalised workers. migrants. Expanded on a course of Outcomes for individuals volunteer posts.
sectors of to general into learning and 120 Introducing people to different
society Amount: 70,240 training for migrants Well networked locally. Part of

44
 Year and Organisation funded, Project The numbers Main outcomes Other observations
theme project name and sustained?
award amount
and others. had achieved models of learning and training, welfare support services
qualifications as at showing them it is not all group that meets every month and
Also expanded to December 2011. about authority figures as they shares what each organisation
have community/lay 22 learners had may remember from school, does chance for referral for
people development progressed into gave them greater confidence training or additional support with
element. employment by to go on and do further health and well being.
the end of the learning.
Project. For wider society
48 people had Supported the establishment
volunteered of other groups. 2 became
during the Project autonomous. One, a dementia
with 30 agreeing awareness support group led
to continue by Catholic parish but open to
beyond the life of all, managed to secure 19k
the Project. from local authority and still in
receipt of that. Another, a local
reading network to alleviate
isolation more diverse not
parish based more area based.

Ten Ten Theatre Work in young Went into 8 YOIs. For the organisation Aims of the project more about
offenders institutions 12-15 young New understanding and developing the organisation than
Project: Sam's Story: (YOI) not continued offenders took experience of working in the impact for young offenders.
young offenders drama other than on an part in each. prisons. Have been back to
presented in eight young occasional, ad hoc About 100 in total. Feltham to do another Learnt that for them not really
offender institutions. basis. Performed to workshop. viable to move into working in
audience of family Built confidence of the prison settings.
Amount: 89,820 Too difficult to fund and other organisation Directors, that
work and offenders and staff Palter trusted them. Other arts in criminal justice setting
competition from in each. Audience Develop a relationship with a projects have a proven track record
other theatre of between 40 and theatre Northcote in Exeter, of outcomes for participants in
companies 100 in each YOI. and strong creative team. feeling valued, increasing self
specialising in work Have been commissioned since esteem and encouraging reflection,
with offenders. even if only temporarily.

45
 Year and Organisation funded, Project The numbers Main outcomes Other observations
theme project name and sustained?
award amount
to do plays on human and
child trafficking.
For individuals
Very little evidence of
outcomes for young offenders.
Anecdotal from prison staff
and theatre team, that they
could see a change in
behaviour and personal
interactions during the week
of participation.
Signs of Hope The programme of 100 attendees in For the organisation: No further funding sought to
Westminster Diocese training was just run total Asked to run their anger continue. Funding not available
Deaf Service once. management course for from within the Diocese, better
Between 7 and 16 married couples who arent able to support people on a 1-2-1
Project: Life Skills Course - Now run occasional participants on deaf. Came through a basis.
to provide low cost or day courses and each course. colleague who does Marriage
where necessary free of provide 1-2-1 and family work in church.
charge linguistically and support, mainly due For individuals:
culturally accessible Life to lack of capacity Statements on outcomes
Skills education for deaf within the including feeling more
adults. organisation. confident, more able to cope,
no longer being used.
Amount: 29,200 For wider society:
Better relationships with
family and others reported
anecdotally by participants.
2010-11 Caritas Social Action The project was A report from For the organisation It appears from the reporting and
The Network continued through Theological A higher profile of criminal interview with the project lead, a
intellectual the church criminal Colloquium justice work within CSAN. consultant to CSAN, that some
endeavour Project: Criminal justice justice network and conference. For wider society effective work with a high level
of refreshing Project - opportunities for resources from the Church policy It is unclear what changes the advisory group and legacy of
Catholic dialogue between the project remained statements of project brought about at a resources.

46
 Year and Organisation funded, Project The numbers Main outcomes Other observations
theme project name and sustained?
award amount
social Catholic Church and the available on the criminal justice church level or more broadly,
thought Government, to stimulate CSAN website until issues. but the project produced Interviews with a range of other
debate, develop policy, recently. A criminal justice briefing for parliamentarians stakeholders would be needed to
inform Government policy practitioner with representatives attending establish outcomes.
and propose practical Not clear if the work network within meetings in Whitehall with
initiatives regarding is still being the church. civil servants and
prison population. continued parliamentarians and engaging
in multiple consultations and
Amount: 31,160 work on Bills in the criminal
justice field.
Von Hgel Institute, St. No follow-up and no
Edmunds College reporting

Project: Review the

relationship between
Catholic Social Teaching
(CST) and the UK Coalition
Governments Big
Society Programme.

Amount: 65,150
Margaret Beaufort Not clear. Further Presented at Only interim no final report and no
Institute of Theology research being national and interview with project lead so
/Citizens UK undertaken in this international difficult to assess the outcomes.
area by Von Hugel academic
Project: Asylum, Catholic Institute (see 2014- conferences
Social Teaching and Big 15 projects). Publication of
Society research
Publication of Launch of
research still publication at the
available on Von House of Lords in
Hugel website. 2013
2012-13 Anchor House the Project extended to 75 key individuals For the organisation Little reflection on whether

47
 Year and Organisation funded,
theme project name and
award amount
Leadership Brentwood Dioceses 18 months.
development Caritas initiative
for the laity
Project: Creation of a role
Caritas Development
Manager, to rekindle an Some of the
enthusiasm in Catholic
Social teaching, develop
sustainable links,
establish partnerships and
develop leaders for the
future.
Amount: 47,500
Prison Advice & Care
Trust (PACT)
Project: Basic care in
communities (BaCCs)
volunteer programme
expansion to new areas
plus more robust training.
BaCCs - a group of 4
volunteers motivated
support ex offenders on
their first 3 months after
release.
Amount: 79,9750 Hard to fund, so
48
Project The numbers Main outcomes Other observations
sustained?
engaged from 9 New relationships with schools and activities are leading to better
parishes churches, through them young people. A engagement with the church and
No CST training 9 primary and school staff Caritas group CST or other hoped for outcomes.
developed. secondary schools, established and a Caritas week in
12 religious primary schools engaging children
communities, and with idea of service and charity.
networks and 10 Catholic Part of community action day and
partnerships groups. justice week in secondary schools
established though and engagement with SVP and
the project A fund established religious communities but less
continuing. to provide small success at parish level. Unclear
amounts of what the outcomes have been
financial and from this action.
material
assistance to those
in temporary crisis
in the Newham
deanery.
Plater was part New lay leadership Use New Economic Foundation The main focus of PACTs work is
funding for a 3-year training developed. relationship radar monitoring tools on families, supporting both
programme also 46 new fully trained but outcomes never written up for prisoners and their family outside.
funded by Henry volunteers and 15 BaCCs.
Smith and Lankelly part-trained by end They rely on volunteers for 1-2-1
Chase. of funding- almost Outcomes reported during mentoring.
reached target of 60. interview for offenders:
BaCCs was expanded 55 offenders Improved self confidence The BaCCs programme is labour
to Westminster supported - target Improved sense of worth, have intensive, and therefore costly, to
diocese HMP was 54. low self esteem. Dramatic support both groups of volunteers
Pentonville, Bristol increase. and the offenders for 3 months
and Manchester 80% went onto employment paid after release.
HMP Forest Bank. or voluntary. Without the
support many say they wouldnt It seems PACT have some useful
have bothered. monitoring tools developed for
BaCCs scaled back to them with New Economics
 Year and Organisation funded, Project The numbers Main outcomes Other observations
theme project name and sustained?
award amount
core prisons in Foundation which they report
London and Bristol. using to collect evidence. However,
Also challenging to they cite lack of resources to write
sustain and co- up results.
ordinate groups of
volunteers.
Saint Vincent de Paul Project extended to 384 camp leaders were For the organisation
Society (SVP) 18 months. trained. Project was a catalyst for change
and greater involvement of
Project: Providing Built on materials 1250 children were national office with camp leaders.
information in catholic developed through exposed to Catholic Appointment of national camp co-
social teaching for SVP the project and now social teaching ordinator and now better
camp leaders (volunteers a handbook principles at a camp communication with camps.
on the holiday camps for produced is given out Health and safety training
children that SVP run) and to all new camp improved.
developing their leaders.
understanding of social For individuals
justice and how this All camp leaders get the handbook.
applies to their work on Up to them how they use it. Some
camp with disadvantaged find helpful some not.
young people. Better trained in health and safety,
so ultimately safer environment for
Amount: 22,435 children in camps.
2013-14 Ace of Clubs Training programme 108 trained on For the organisation No outcomes reporting.
Education for continues as people accredited Trialled courses and identified
people from Projects: Training and important part of the courses needs. Good relationships with other
the most
employability support for Ace of Clubs support 137 on course in Learnt peer learning and services and training providers for
marginalised
homeless people. for homeless people. total. support is essential to success referral to services and courses Ace
sectors of
society 40 people engaged allocating time to this. of Clubs dont provide themselves.
Amount: 40,500 in weekly job For individuals
search CV writing Gained new skills
club stage. Increased confidence
10 people now Moved to more secure and

49
 Year and Organisation funded, Project The numbers Main outcomes Other observations
theme project name and sustained?
award amount
into employment. stable life
Some moved into volunteering
position others gained paid
employment.

Baytree Centre
PEACH progrmme
(Parents in the Education,
Achievement, and
Character of their
Children)- supporting
families and young people
to move into financial
security through
addressing barriers to
achieving and staying on
in education, so
ultimately they secure
good employment.
Amount: 40,000
Life
Project: My Life will
PEACH programme is 102 girls aged 6-18 For the organisation
continuing and and their mothers Enhanced the way services are
starting to introduce (74). run through learning what
new elements for the There were 85 works well and understanding
mothers around job volunteer mentors the needs of the girls and their
skills and improving and 20 group mothers better and the
the types of jobs activity volunteers different needs of different
aspirations of the for the girls. communities i.e. recent
women. arrivals in London with little
English.
For the individuals
100% of the girls are still in
full- time education
Three quarters of girls
improved in maths, writing
and reading with less than 10%
showing they fallen back
Increase in soft skills such as
confidence also monitored.
For the mothers increased
aspirations and improved
relationships with their
children.
New support network of
mothers.
The project changed New training and For the organisation:
from a programme support package Piloted a new training and
for women in their designed and delivered outreach programme. Life now
Baytree provide a good practice
example of monitoring and
evaluation using rigorous systems
and extensive feedback from girls,
their mothers, mentors and staff.
Continual reflection to improve and
develop services to meet the needs
of the women and girls they are
working with.
Looking to adopt the US developed
Economic Mobility Pathways model
to become the first organisation
outside the US to use this
programme and its build in system
of measuring changes enabling
people to move out of poverty.
Organisation reports that it has
helped them gather evidence of
the outcomes for the women, but

50
 Year and Organisation funded,
theme project name and
award amount
deliver a self-sustaining,
basic life skills education
programme for vulnerable
women across the UK.
Amount: 33,416 mothers. The
Noah Enterprises
Project: A new training
course in carpentry and
woodwork skills to 100 of
the most excluded and
disadvantaged people in
and around Luton.
Amount: 29,210 learning and others.
51
Project The numbers Main outcomes Other observations
sustained?
23 homes to an in local care centres does much more outreach no evidence provided. Support
outreach programme covering physical work as a core service and workers to complete assessments
to identify and wellbeing, emotional engages with a much wider of progress.
support pregnant wellbeing, integration, range of agencies including
women and new and life skills. other voluntary organisations, Clear about the training they do
191 women supported. no longer just the statutory and in what areas but dont seem
outreach work is now sector. to track what outcomes of the
part of their core Now operate a local hub training and support is for the
service. model rather than a women.
centralised model, largely as a
result of what they learned
from the Plater pilot.
For individuals supported
No outcomes for women
reported. There are some very
general statements such as
pregnant women were able to
keep their babies and not have
an abortion.
Plater funding enable 67 participants trained. For the organisation Noah provide a structured
a carpentry trainer to The employment of the programme of training access by
be employed who is carpentry skills trainers and some of the homeless people they
still in post and the the experience from first support through the day centre
carpentry skills programme has allowed Noah plus adults facing other challenges
learning programme to secure additional funding from isolation to mental health
continues under a with the programme now a issues. A bespoke service meeting
contract from Luton core part of the organisations the needs of all levels of progress
Council for adult services. and ability together.
For individuals
Outcomes include increased
self esteem, confidence,
practical skills, volunteering
and employment. Evidenced
 Year and Organisation funded,
theme project name and
award amount
St Wilfreds
Project: Expansion of
personalised development
programme and training
for vulnerable adults over
30, primarily with mental
health issues.
Amount: 28,927
Storybook Dads
Project: Me and My Dad.
Rolling out the project
that was piloted in HMP
Dartmoor. Imprisoned
parents create interactive,
educational resources for
their child such as activity
sheets 'Read Along DV.
Amount: 40,000
52
Project The numbers Main outcomes Other observations
sustained?
through case studies.
The programme was 419 individuals trained For the organisation: In Nov 2015 awarded the best faith
established before double the original Helped them expand the inspired social action project in the
the grant. Grant target. service and offer two day UK. They have also secured over 2
enabled expansion, training sessions. million to build 20 bed
new classes and the Development skills co- accommodation.
employment of a ordinator employed bringing
programme co- additional capacity This would indicate they do achieve
ordinator. For individuals: outcomes for those they support
Their reports states a whole but there is a lack of recorded
Struggling to secure range of outcomes such as evidence of this.
further funding. increased confidence,
increased independence, They do report having an advanced
reduced medication etc. client computer system that tracks
On interview stated all clients, activities and outcomes.
beneficiary outcomes are At the moment they dont appear
More classes they can attend to be using this in reporting.
to improve their skills
Now run the project Trained 44 prisoners in For the organisation Do what they do well. Prison
in 90 prisons, but audio/video DVD Expanded the programme. Set environment challenging to work
have had to adapt editing up new service and editing in. all about relationships with
and be flexible to Recorded and suite at HMP Charnwood individuals within prisons.
what works in produced 4746 discs in extending to 2nd base. Also
different prisons. total for prisoners and trained staff and prisoners to Looking to advance IT they use,
Some only have a families across the run Me and My Dad in 4 other animation, film mobiles but
couple of hours to prisons prisons challenging to get this past prison
dedicate. Work with Employed 5 ex For the individuals security. Lots of potential.
different agencies to prisoners as home 96% of prisoners said taking
run project in editors exceeding part in Storybook Dads
different prisons. target of 2. improved their relationship
with their children
Now have a Me and 98% of prisoners said they feel
My Mum project in better about themselves as a
 Year and Organisation funded, Project The numbers Main outcomes Other observations
theme project name and sustained?
award amount
womens prisons parent
96% of prisoners said
Storybook Dads encouraged
them to read more
90% of prisoners said taking
part had improved their skills
(such as IT and creativity)
Jobs as editors for some
prisoners first job some have
had. Confidence to get other
jobs.
For wider society
86% of families reported that
being involved with Storybook
Dads had improved/increased
contact.
Relationship with partners and
children maintained. Hopefully
ultimately reducing re-
offending and improving
outcomes for the families.

THOMAS (Those who are Pilot of academy 20 participants For the organisation: Long association with Plater. In
on the Margins of a training. reaching target Developed a new area of work early days sent some clients to
Society) 6 participants Academy. study there.
Now included in core employed at Secured additional funding for
Project: Developing an services and THOMAS the training through expanded Appear to be well networked with
Academy - a spiritual, contracts for drug contracts and other other agencies and support
personal and social and alcohol rehabilitation agencies and services.
development programme rehabilitation services paying to send
in a recovery setting, services. individuals on training Little evidence of outcomes
enabling individuals with For individual participants: tracking or reporting.
chaotic backgrounds, Reported by project lead

53
 Year and Organisation funded, Project The numbers Main outcomes Other observations
theme project name and sustained?
award amount
multiple disadvantage, interview: Increased
prolific and persistent confidence and self-belief.
offending, longterm Feeling that they could
addictions, to rebuild achieve, that they were
their lives. valuable. Important second
phase or rehab - getting those
Amount: 40,000 in recovery to believe in
themselves and that they have
something to contribute.

Women at the Well Plater funded a shift 171 separate For organisation Women at the Well committed to
in the way of working women accessed The activities programme was tracking progress of very
Project: Providing for Women @ the the service on a first step towards a new vulnerable women. A key project is
activities and classes Well. The creation of average 16 times strategy and organisational to improve outcomes monitoring.
alongside one to one a senior support during the period. structure. Now have co-team
support to engage women worker role 84 of those leader responsibilities making
and enable them to start delivering activities women accessed more strategic use of activities.
to move on with their alongside drop in over 6 times The next step is a social
lives. meant there were during the period enterprise. Through Plater
activities to engage and 38 accessed project recognised skill many
Amount: 34,512 the women while over 26 times. of the women have so want to
they waited for sell their creations.
essential support. For the individuals
Activities and courses A routine. They know want
now central to the class will be on what day.
way they work. Progress not linear but track
health progress (or
regression), financial and
accommodation stability,
move away from prostitution.
2014-15 Theos Completed within 12- By July 2016: For the organisation Potentially taking CST and the
The month grant period. 285 downloads of New relationships with application for charities to a wider
intellectual Project: Catholic Social report from the Catholic organisations and audience, moving beyond just the

54
 Year and Organisation funded,
theme project name and
award amount
endeavour of Though and Catholic
refreshing Charities Today - Work
Catholic social with six Catholic charities
thought
in a project aimed to help
them to understand,
strengthen and incarnate
their Catholic identity,
and through them, other
Catholic charities as well.
Amount: 39,750
Roehampton University
Project: Identification of
learning points for
Marriage Care, to enable
renewal of practice, and
clearer understanding of
their Catholic identity,
their place in CST and the
implications for their
55
Project The numbers Main outcomes Other observations
sustained?
The publication site plus 7 Amazon individuals Catholic church.
continues to be sales of paper Good media coverage
distributed and copies Profile raised of how Theos
discussion around 210 copies work feeds into wider thinking
the research is distributed at on a range of social issues.
ongoing. launch event with New income research
Archbishop and commissions and individual
cardinals, Catholic supporters who wouldnt
Charity event and previously have signed up.
Plater Trust event St Marys University
100 distributed to Twickenham is looking at
CSAN, other introducing a module in a new
Catholic charities MA degree in Catholic Social
and key thinkers in Teaching that would look at
charity world the charity sector and CST, for
10 articles on the which Theos would provide
research in the classes and lectures
Christian press For wider society
with total Wider outcomes unclear
readership reach however the six partner
of over 200,000 charities understanding
(see appendix 5) their work more clearly
within the context of CST.
No reporting to date
 Year and Organisation funded, Project The numbers Main outcomes Other observations
theme project name and sustained?
award amount
work.

Amount: 46,302
Von Hugel Institute No reporting to date

Project: The relevance of

Catholic social thought
and practice in the field of
migration and asylum
policy in the UK

Amount 25,000
Durham University and No reporting to date
CSAN

Project: PhD funding for

research in the area of
Catholic charitable work
around homelessness,
housing, and social
inclusion

Amount 45,000

56
 Appendix 4: Number of people participating in Plater
Trust funded projects.
Education of Laity Other Note
marginalised engaged volunteers
Education of the most marginalised projects
Ace of Clubs 137 Homeless people attending training
Baytree 176 85 74 mothers 102 girls mentored and supported.
85 volunteer mentors
Life No data
Noah 67 Homeless and unemployed people trained in
carpentry
St Wilfred's 213 Homeless people attending training
Storybook dads 500 Prisoners producing books for their children
THOMAS 20 Completed full academy programme training
Women at the 171 Women accessing services
well
St Anthony's 148 40 Migrants and others accessing training. Local
people trained as volunteers and encouraged
to set up own support groups
Ten Ten 96 Young offenders participating in week of
workshops
Signs of Hope 100 Attending life skills training
Total 1628 40 85
Leadership development of the laity projects
Young Christian 108 12 young people. 96 adults
Works
Newman No data
College Virtual
Plater
St Mary's 2000 handbooks published
International 120
Young Leaders
PACT 55 61 46 new fully trained lay volunteers and 15 part-
trained. 55 offenders supported
Anchor House 75 A network of 75 individuals established from 9
parishes churches, 9 primary and secondary
schools, 12 religious communities, and 10
Catholic groups.
Saint Vincent 384 No data
de Paul
Total 55 748
Overall total 1683 788 85

57
 Appendix 5: Theos report media coverage and research
promotion

09/04/16 p2 Tablet leader piece Raised Profile Would Benefit Everyone Circulation 19,965
09/04/16 p4-5 Tablet feature piece Catholic Social Thought and charities in Britain Circulation
19,965
11/04/16 online article Christian Today Government cuts hit Catholic charities hard as they
attempt more for less Circulation 35,609
15/04/16 p6 article Scottish Catholic Observer Cardinal Nichols praises report that highlights
Catholic charities struggles Circulation 15,000
15/04/16 p11 article Catholic Herald Catholic charities hit hard by local government cuts
Circulation 16,680
15/04/16 p3 feature piece Catholic Universe New report sheds light on role of Catholic
charities 25,000
16/04/16 2 stub pieces in Tablet circulation as above
22/04/16 opinion piece in Catholic Universe Catholic charities and the future of the Church in
Britain 25,000
29/04/16 opinion piece in Catholic Herald OUR CHARITIES FACE THEIR GREATEST TEST 16,680
01/05/16 p5 article Reform THE 'POPE FRANCIS EFFECT' 11,000
Radio pieces on Premier Christian Radio and United Christian Broadcasters for which no Gorkana
circulation data was available. Audiomonitor data suggests that 1.3 million people per week
listen to Premier Radio, but we do not have data on how many listened to that show in
particular. UCB has a weekly listenership of about 500,000.
Events
Launch event in Archbishops House Westminster, hosted by the Cardinal. Around 100 guests
including academics, charity leaders (including the CEOs of at least 10 major Catholic charities),
Church leaders (including 3 bishops) and journalists including representatives of The Tablet and
the Catholic Herald
CSAN Directors Forum results presented to the directors of the CSAN charities (40 will receive
reports and minutes, around about 25 were present on the day) and discussion on the findings.
SVP annual meeting of regional leaders
Father Hudsons Care briefing to all Senior Management Team and trustees.
Plater Trust presentation to participants in Plater review event.
Forthcoming meeting with Circle 115 of the Catenian Association in Chelmsford and Mid Essex
(numbers unknown)
Theos Director Elizabeth Oldfield and Relationships Manager Brice Sokolowski attended and had
a stall at the Catholic Charites conference, at which over 100 Catholic investors and charities
were present.
Future event with marriage charities (exact make-up unknown at this point).

58
 Appendix 6: Catholic Social Teaching Themes

Themes as outline on www.catholicsocialteaching.org.uk

Human Dignity
We must recognise we are all brothers and sisters which requires us to respect, value and uphold a
common dignity for ourselves and each other. As human beings we are created in the image and
likeness of God so therefore we have an inherent worth and distinction.

Community and Participation

As humans we were are not created to live alone, community is clearly linked in the history of
humankind. One way for Catholics to practise solidarity is to participate in pursuing the common good
for a community. Every member of society has a duty to develop this common good and every member
has a right to enjoy the benefits brought about by it.

Care for Creation

Respect for human life means respecting all of Gods creation. We must re-engage with our environment
and take responsibility for it; live sustainably, live so that there are enough resources for everyone. Our
environment influences almost all of our lives, and Catholic Social Teaching recognises that undervaluing
makes us all poorer. Rural women around the world are taking big steps in caring for creation. Find out
more here.

Dignity in Work
This theme looks at the importance of work, the dignity of work and the value of balance in our home
and work lives. Catholic Social Teaching holds that work is not to be drudgery, but creative, positive and
an intrinsic good. It is not however, all for yourself, ways to accumulate power and influence, but is
rather to play our part in being co-creators in Gods loving act of creation.

Peace & Reconciliation

The Church teaches us that peace is central to the gospel and represents a challenge to many
contemporary attitudes and assumptions. Pope Benedict XVI has challenged Christians to be true
peacemakers bringing forgiveness and non-violent solutions to situations of hurt and violence.

Solidarity
Solidarity is an important concept for Christians and is one of the most mystical and deeply human
founding concepts of the social teaching of the Church. It is based on the belief that together we can
make a difference and together we are much stronger. When we value fellow human beings we respect
each other as unique individuals and we can stand up for what is right for one another.

59