Life Chances Fund Evaluation: reports launch

Join us for the official launch of the final evaluation reports from the Life Chances Fund.

1. Transforming Public Services: Key Findings from the Evaluation of the Life Chances Fund
2. Achieving Outcomes: Life Chances Fund Final Report

This session will present the headline findings and practical insights emerging from the UK’s largest outcomes fund - exploring the outcomes achieved, key lessons, and what this means for the future of outcomes-based contracting. We will also reflect on the implications for the design and delivery of future initiatives, including successor programmes such as the Better Futures Fund, and consider how government, commissioners, providers and investors can build on the Life Chance Fund’s legacy to achieve lasting social impact.

Who is this event for?

This session is open to all and will be co-hosted with the Government Outcomes (University of Oxford) and the Department for Culture Media and Sport. It will be of particular interest to those working on outcomes contracting, the impact economy, public sector reform, or those interested in the Better Futures Fund.

The Life Chances Fund:

The Department for Culture, Media, and Sport delivered the Life Chances Fund between 2016-2025. The Fund aimed to help those people in society who face the most significant barriers to leading happy and productive lives. The £70m fund contributed to outcome payments for locally commissioned social outcomes contracts which involve socially-minded investors. The Government Outcomes Lab (University of Oxford) was DCMS’ knowledge and learning partner for the duration of the fund.

Achieving Outcomes: Life Chances Fund Final Report

This report covers all 29 projects that successfully received funding from the Life Chances Fund. It is a project-level evaluation, which studies projects’ characteristics and performance across the portfolio focusing on outcome achievements and payments.

The evaluation found:

• 54,000+ beneficiaries were engaged
• Projects achieved an average of 88% of their primary outcome targets
• 90% of engaged participants achieved at least one positive outcome

Transforming Public Services: Key findings from the evaluation of the Life Chances Fund Synthesis Report

The evaluation of the Life Chances Fund has generated one of the most extensive bodies of evidence on outcomes-based cross-sector partnerships in recent years - twelve evaluation reports, eight case studies, seven comprehensive technical guides, thirteen peer-reviewed publications, and an open-access dataset with granular outcomes data. We are mindful, however, that drawing conclusions from this complex, nuanced - and at times quite technical
- evidence can be challenging. This is why, through this report, we have distilled nearly a decade of data and research into one single document. We hope that this will make it easier for policymakers and practitioners in the UK and across the world to understand the lessons and legacy of this pioneering programme and build on the experience of the Life Chances Fund when developing new programmes designed to improve the life outcomes of people who face disadvantage in our communities.