Substance's new outcome monitoring system, Views, got its first public airing on the 2nd December at the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts (NESTA) seminar Prove and Improve: Demonstrating impact and value in an age of austerity.

Over 100 delegates braved the snow and ice to gather at NESTAs prestigious HQ in Plough Place to hear a range of speakers discuss opportunities and challenges associated with demonstrating impact and value as public spending cuts and public service reforms begin to bit.

After Chris Sherwood set the scene and outlined the shape of impending public service reforms, Lord Victor Adebowale, CEO of Turning Point gripped the audience with a typically charismatic presentation which emphasised the importance of brave and radical leadership and presented a case for true evidence based commissioning as opposed to procurement.

A panel consisting of Clare Curran from North Liverpool Positive Futures, Steve Watt from Suffolk County Council, Chair of ACEVOs Commission on Personalistion Matthew Pike and Ian Charlesworth from the Social Investment Business then presented the key challenges from their particular viewpoint. A lively debate involving the audience which focused on notions of embedded evaluation and real time reflection then set up the final keynote from Professor Tim Crabbe who presented an engaging and passionate account of the learning to emerge from the development and piloting of Views which embraced 6 key principles:

1. Start with the quality of your users' lives

2. Empower frontline staff

3. Use your imagination and be creative

4. Embed evaluation in everything you do

5. Release the data

6. Use evidence to make resourcing decisions

During the lunch break a range of outcome tools were on display including the Mapping for Change and Soul Record tools before Dr Gavin Mellor presented Views in a workshop format focused on the layered approach taken by Views to mapping evidence against outcomes.

More details are available at www.views.coop