Measuring What Matters: From people’s stories to better decisions

What is countable isn’t always what counts

Appointments booked. Assessments completed. Referrals made. People seen. Money spent.

These numbers matter. But they don’t tell us everything.

They can’t always tell us whether someone feels more confident, less isolated, or better able to manage their health. They don’t necessarily show whether support has helped someone stay independent, avoid a crisis, or simply live a better life.

That’s where people’s stories can help.

The Measuring What Matters (MWM) project in Lincolnshire is exploring how people’s lived experiences can be used as meaningful evidence alongside traditional performance and activity data.

A new report  from the project brings together learning from 55 people’s stories, showing how listening to and analysing people’s experiences can reveal important insights about what helps people, and what health and care services could do differently.

The stories were gathered through conversations, recordings, and case studies.

Importantly, people weren’t simply asked to answer a predefined research question. They were given space to talk about what mattered to them.

And when those stories were looked at together, some powerful patterns emerged.

Key insights

The report highlights ten main themes arising from the analysis of a diverse collection of 55 people’s stories.  These ten themes can be summarised into three clusters. Together, they tell a clear story about what helps people achieve better outcomes.:

1. Relationships matter:

How we work with people can be just as important as what we do.

Again and again, stories showed the value of being treated as a person rather than a task, referral or appointment.

People described the difference made by:

• trust
• compassion
• feeling listened to
• personalised care and communication
• the difference these make to health outcomes

A more relational rather than transactional approach can make a real difference to people's experiences, and potentially their health and wellbeing too.

2. Prevention and early action matter:

Small actions at the right time can prevent bigger problems later.

The stories highlighted the importance of professionals being curious, looking beyond the immediate issue and recognising when earlier support could help.

This included:

• professional curiosity
• acting early
• looking at the whole person
• clearer routes to support
• better coordination between services

The message is simple: the earlier we understand what is happening in someone’s life, the more opportunity we have to help.

3. Community and collaboration matter:

Health and wellbeing aren’t created by health services alone.

People’s stories showed the importance of families, communities, peer support, voluntary organisations, and different services working together.

Important themes included:

• multi‑agency working
• peer support
• wider support networks in communities and neighbourhoods
• the voluntary, community, faith, and social enterprise (VCFSE) organisations

Often, the support that makes the biggest difference comes from connecting people with the right help around them, rather than expecting one service to provide every answer.

Calculating the Social Value

The project also explored an important question:

Can we put a value on working with people in a more personalised way?

Of the stories collected, 23 contained enough information to undertake an initial social value analysis.

The findings suggest that every £1 invested in personalised care roles such as Social Prescribers and Care Coordinators could generate around £4.83 in measurable social value.

Across the stories analysed, £19,213 of service input was associated with an estimated £92,780 of social value.

That value included outcomes such as:

• reduced demand on health and care services
• reduced social isolation
• improved emotional wellbeing.

These figures are indicative rather than definitive. The methodology is still developing and further work is needed.

But the early findings are encouraging.

They suggest that understanding what matters to people may not only improve people’s lives, it could also help us understand the wider value created by personalised approaches.

So, what's next for Measuring What Matters?

The next phase will build on what has been learned so far.

This includes:

• gathering and analysing more stories
• improving the tools used to capture people’s experiences
• expanding Community Listening and Community Reporting
• increasing use of the People’s Stories Template
• developing a story library and digital resource
• exploring how qualitative evidence can inform commissioning, neighbourhood health, quality improvement, CQC evidence and strategic decision-making.

But perhaps the biggest challenge is not simply collecting more stories.

It is doing something with what people tell us.

Ultimately, the Measuring What Matters work challenges leaders and teams to turn listening into action. It encourages the health and care workforce to listen more actively, communicate in a more human way, and be willing to change services when people’s experiences show us that something could be better.

About the project

Measuring What Matters is facilitated by the It’s All About People (IAAP) personalisation team, working with partners and communities across Lincolnshire.

A growing group of people are helping to gather stories, while the People’s Story Review Panel brings people together to look across those experiences and identify recurring themes and learning.

Partners from across Lincolnshire are also involved through the Measuring What Matters Steering Group, exploring how we can better understand the difference health and care makes, both in human and financial terms.

Kirsteen Redmile, Lead Change Manager with the IAAP team:

“We are hugely grateful to everyone who has been part of the Measuring What Matters story so far. We hope this is just the beginning.

There is certainly interest among partners in adopting the methods and approaches, and people who gather stories are helping shape the development of the training and story-gathering tools.

The project has generated so much interest, not just in Lincolnshire.”

What inspired Measuring What Matters?

At the heart of the Measuring What Matters project are two deceptively simple questions:​​

• How do we know what impacts our actions and interventions are having on people?
• How are those impacts shaping future demand on the health and care system?

Measuring What Matters is therefore about much more than collecting stories.

It is about treating people's lived experiences as evidence, looking across those experiences, identifying patterns and using what we learn to make better decisions.

Ultimately, it is about moving from:

Listening → Understanding → Learning → Action.

Read the Measuring What Matters report

Want to explore the findings in more detail?

READ the full Measuring What Matters Report for more about the methodology, approach, thematic analysis, findings, and social return on investment. 

Short on time?

READ the Measuring What Matters Report Extract: The Ten Themes - Findings from Thematic Analysis, for a shorter introduction to the key themes identified by the People’s Story Review Panels.

And if you’d like to have a chat or get involved in the next phase of Measuring What Matters, please contact us at lhnt.itsallaboutpeople@nhs.net