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a spirit of local enterprise, and CIC status made sense. We work for organisations in the voluntary and social services sectors, and its obviously very important that they tailor services to the people they are trying to help in their community.” Which is, of course, where the data and analytical expertise of Wright and his colleagues comes in, because services can’t be tailored to need unless providers understand the precise outcomes of their services. Its equally important that Inside Outcomes
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“My vision is to achieve ‘parity of esteem’ between physical and mental health in the workplace.” Katie Buckingham
business model, and we have created an online community that will include e-learning about stress and mental health. “We’re profit-making and sustainable, and raised some revenue via crowdfunding to increase our ability to provide services. We now have eight mentors, and the latest is Mark Rogers. He was recently chief executive of the city council, of course, but I’d met him when he was at Solihull, and I was on its youth council.” Buckingham is also raising the profile of herself and her business through speaking in public, via digital forums and at events. Her first presentation to a global audience came in February at an Adobe conference, and in a busy month, she also launched Altruist’s human resources guide for companies; a free downloadable resource to help employers perform audits and identify gaps in their wellbeing provision, and then to implement a robust action plan. Inside Outcomes Community Interest Company (CIC) was founded by Darren Wright, who, although his undergraduate qualification was in law, has since worked in the NHS and local authorities in a range of roles around
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analysing needs, and devising and delivering services, related to healthcare commissioning. His experience in early interventions on drug abuse, smoking, cancer, obesity and cardiovascular diseases mean his current venture is – like Altruist – focused on improving well-being, but whilst Buckingham’s attentions are on the mind and the soul, Wright’s are very much on the body. His evolving passion has been to ally his long-established data skills to his knowledge of preventative healthcare, allowing organisations to analyse and understand the impact of their service provision on people and their health. Inside Outcomes has also evolved since its 2014 formation, having begun corporate life as a consultancy and limited company, it became a CIC a year ago. “We wanted people to use our software to determine the outcomes of their service provision, essentially it was about selling software as a service (SAAS), but we then decided that we could reach more people by making out software available by open source,” says Wright. “We were also committed to developing
can use the language and mindset of the public sector in general, and the NHS in particular, to work effectively with its clients. “I’ve been in Birmingham for 25 years, and almost all of that time has been working in the public sector and with healthcare providers, so its a great asset to have,” admits Wright. “I’ve always been passionate about taking data and translating it to demonstrate outcomes, and I’d known Hugo since 2004, so when we had the chance to come to the iCentrum, and work with other start-ups in digital health, I couldn’t wait to get here. “The day-to-contact has been invaluable, its also a great place to find out about events that relate to our sector, and because of the space for meetings and interviews, with clients, potential recruits or even investors, its put a more professional face on our company. “We’re already working with several branches of Citizens Advice and Age UK, and we believe coming here will help us attract more clients. “Increasingly, we’re also looking to partner with organisations that don’t work directly in healthcare, but whose members, staff or customers could improve their wellbeing outcomes by a simple and effective strategies. “As people live for longer, there is more social isolation, and I think it is becoming the most profound problem facing our society. Being alone and feeling isolated has a massive impact of health, but loneliness is very difficult to tackle. “As we evolve further as a CIC, I’d love to see us become more involved in the creation of place-based communities, and identifying ways of improving health outcomes for different groups.” n
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