Defining and optimising the economic and social return on investment of telephone cancer information and support services: a research protocol

Abstract Background Over 50% of people affected by cancer report unmet support needs. To address unmet information and psychological needs, non-government organisations such as Macmillan Support (UK) and Cancer Councils (Australia) have developed state-based cancer information and support services, including telephone support. Due to competing demands, evidence on the value of telephone support services is needed to ensure that future investment makes the best use of scarce resources. This research aims to determine the costs and broader economic and social value of a telephone support service, to inform future funding and service provision models. Methods A co-designed, evaluative social return on investment analysis (SROI) will be conducted to estimate and compare the costs and monetised benefits of Cancer Council Victoria’s (CCV) telephone support line, 13 11 20, over one- and three-year benefit periods. Nine studies will empirically estimate the parameters to inform the SROI and calculate the ratio (economic and social value to value invested): Step 1 mapping outcomes (in-depth analysis of CCV’s 13 11 20 recorded call data; focus groups and interviews); Step 2 providing evidence of outcomes (comparative survey of people affected by cancer who do and do not call CCV’s 13 11 20; general public survey); Step 3 valuing the outcomes (financial proxies, value games); Step 4 establishing the impact (Delphi); Step 5 calculating the net benefit; and Step 6 service improvement (discrete choice experiment (DCE), “what if” analysis). Alternative ways of delivering, promoting, and targeting CCV’s 13 11 20 to optimise the SROI ratio of inputs (costs and resources) to monetised benefits will be explored. Qualitative (focus groups, interviews) and quantitative studies (natural language processing, cross-sectional studies, Delphi) and economic techniques (willingness-to-pay, financial proxies, value games, DCE) will be applied. Discussion This SROI applies a comprehensive and rigorous program of research using mixed-methods to generate robust evidence for identifying, measuring, and reporting the broader benefits and outcomes, and economic and social value of a telephone support line. The protocol describes the program methods and provides a potential guide for evaluating telephone support services and similar programs in other health and social care settings, advancing SROI methodology.