Research: Time Credits in Cambridgeshire
The Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research (CCHPR) is one of several research groups within the Department of Land Economy. Dr Gemma Burgess, a Senior Research Associate for the centre, explores a recent project on time credits.
At the Centre we always have a number of different research projects at any one time. We use a mixture of qualitative and quantitative research methods. One project we are working on at the moment is an evaluation of the public health outcomes of the Cambridgeshire Time Credits project in Wisbech, a relatively deprived town in the north of Cambridgeshire. The aim of the evaluation is to identify the potential of Time Credits to tackle social exclusion, loneliness and deprivation and to see if it can reduce health inequalities.
Time Credits are a way of recognising and celebrating the time people spend volunteering with a local organisation, community group, volunteer group or a public sector service provider in their local communities. For example, people might volunteer to read with children at a local school. In exchange for their contribution, the volunteers ‘earn’ a Time Credit note, one for every hour they give. These can be ‘spent’ on a range of leisure and other opportunities, typically donated by organisations and local businesses. For example, many people spend their Time Credits to go to the gym or the cinema. Time Credits were developed by a social enterprise called Spice. You can read more about Time Credits here on the Spice website.
The project is part of the Public Health Practice Evaluation Scheme, which enables people who are introducing innovative public health initiatives to work in partnership with the National Institute for Health Research School for Public Health Research to conduct rigorous evaluations of their effectiveness. This scheme is particularly focused on local initiatives, linking them to academics like us who can carry out research to understand the impact of different health initiatives. We are carrying out the research in collaboration with the Cambridgeshire County Council Community Engagement Team, Spice, and the Cambridge Institute of Public Health.
Many of the health benefits we expect to be associated with volunteering are indirect, arising from positive emotions associated with helping others, improved skills and confidence, work experience, and developing social connections with other people. For example, earning and spending Time Credits can improve access to opportunities for social participation, which may enable the volunteers to extend their social support networks. Social participation greatly reduces the risk of loneliness and social isolation which have been associated with numerous negative health outcomes. But so far there is little evidence that can prove these positive outcomes actually result from volunteering. The aim of this research is to demonstrate how volunteering has a positive impact on individuals and their communities.
The research uses a range of methods. We have been interviewing the key stakeholders involved in setting up the project about what they hope to achieve. We have been asking Time Credits volunteers to fill out a survey that tells us about what difference volunteering has made for them and have been following this up with face to face interviews. We also asked people how they would like to show the impact Time Credits have had on their lives, and some people want to do this by making scrap books or taking photographs. You can find out more about the research on the CCHPR website.
If we can show that projects like Time Credits reduce health inequalities, they may be funded in other areas of the country, allowing more people and communities to get involved and experience the benefits for themselves.
If you would like to know more about what doing research is like at the Department of Land Economy, or want to know more about this project, you can email Dr Burgess on glb36@cam.ac.uk.
