How Confidence Creates Lasting Social Value: Jai’s Story and the Power of Measuring What Matters
- cbarrowman4
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
In Scotland’s evolving employability landscape, confidence is often underestimated. Traditional measures tend to focus on “hard outcomes” such as job starts or sustainment. Yet the lived experiences of clients show a different reality: soft outcomes such as confidence, mental wellbeing and resilience are often the earliest and strongest drivers of long-term progress.
Jai’s journey with Routes to Work captures this truth powerfully. Her experience not only demonstrates the impact of high-quality, person-centred employability support, but also highlights why social value and robust social value measurement must sit at the heart of employability services.
Through Routes to Work’s Routes to Impact evaluation framework, outcomes like confidence, wellbeing and financial stability are not only recognised — they are systematically measured, valued and used to guide service improvement.
Jai's Story: A Case Study in Confidence and Change
When Jai first approached Routes to Work, she was carrying years of emotional strain. Her confidence had deteriorated, her mental wellbeing had been affected and she felt increasingly disconnected from the world around her. Like many people navigating complex circumstances, Jai needed more than employment advice — she needed space, empathy and structured support to rebuild trust in herself.
With personalised one-to-one guidance, encouragement and the consistent support of her advisor, Jai began to rediscover her strengths. Her story, featured in the Annual Report, offers a deeply human picture of transformation:
“I feel part of my community again.”
“For me, it was life-changing. I was the person that didn’t have self-esteem, didn’t have confidence, didn’t feel good about themself.”
“To see me now making others feel good about themselves, making people smile and making people happy.”
This wasn’t a small shift. It represented the return of identity, agency and hope. The change in Jai’s confidence, self-esteem and community belonging became the foundation for re-engagement, renewed motivation and the ability to plan her future.
Jai’s experience reflects a wider truth across Scotland: confidence is not a secondary outcome; it is a prerequisite for effective progression.
Why Confidence Matters in Social Value Terms
According to Social Value UK, social value is created when services generate meaningful changes that people themselves value — including improved wellbeing, increased resilience and stronger community connection. These outcomes are sometimes labelled “soft,” yet they deeply influence a person’s ability to move towards sustainable employment.
Improved confidence enables people to:
• Engage fully with employability support
• Make healthier and more informed decisions
• Cope effectively with setbacks
• Rebuild community connections
• Sustain progress towards work, learning and financial stability
For Jai, improved confidence was the turning point that helped her move from isolation to empowerment. These are not incidental changes — they are core social impact outcomes that contribute directly to Scotland’s broader public value priorities, including improving mental health, reducing inequalities and enabling inclusive economic participation.
Confidence as community value
Jai’s new-found sense of belonging — “part of my community again” — exemplifies the type of relational, preventative and life-shaping change that true social value measurement must capture.
Measuring What Matters: The Routes to Impact Framework
The Routes to Impact framework was developed to ensure that outcomes like confidence, wellbeing and resilience are captured with rigour, structure and meaning.
How we evaluate soft outcomes like confidence and wellbeing
Routes to Impact uses:
Indicators aligned with the Principles of Social Value
Structured qualitative evidence
Quantitative scoring across core domains
Financial proxies through SROI methodology
Strong stakeholder engagement
Alignment with SROI and best practice
This approach aligns with internationally recognised standards from Social Value UK and Social Value International — including the core principle that stakeholders define value.
By embedding these principles, Routes to Work strengthens its accountability to clients, partners and Scotland’s broader public service outcomes.
Jai's Story as Evidence of Preventative Public Value
Jai’s transformation did more than increase her confidence — it reduced barriers that previously prevented her from participating in work, community life and support services. These improvements contribute directly to preventative public value, helping to:
Reduce reliance on crisis-based support
Improve early engagement
Strengthen health and wellbeing outcomes
Enhance long-term employability readiness
Support community resilience
Her caseworker Jade also captured this shift powerfully:
“To see the person that we first met… now to see her come in and look absolutely fantastic. She’s got a glow about her, she’s absolutely buzzing about her new job now as well…”
These improvements align with Scotland’s national focus on early intervention, outcome-driven service design and public investment that generates genuine social value.
When measured properly, stories like Jai’s illustrate not only personal progress — but system-wide impact.
Conclusion: Confidence as Social Value, and Social Value as Change
Jai’s journey is a powerful reminder that confidence is far more than a soft outcome — it is the catalyst that enables every other form of progress. Through the Routes to Impact framework, Routes to Work ensures that these human-centred outcomes are captured, valued and used to shape better decision-making across services and systems.
By investing in and measuring what truly matters — confidence, wellbeing, resilience and community connection — Scotland moves closer to an employability system rooted in dignity, evidence and meaningful impact.
For more on our commitment to measuring meaningful change and our Full Social Value Report, visit our Routes to Impact webpage.
If you would like to get in touch with us to discuss, you can contact us on generalenquiries@routestowork.co.uk
