We have been appointed to deliver the Better Futures Fund Learning and Development Programme on behalf of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, working with delivery partner Dartington Service Design Lab.
The Better Futures Fund is a £500 million programme designed to improve the life chances and long-term outcomes for children, young people and their families through social outcomes partnerships over the next ten years. The Fund will bring together national, regional and local government, charities, social enterprises, social investors and philanthropists, to deliver place-based solutions to tackle structural issues and impacts of poverty and disadvantage across England.
As Learning and Development partner for the Fund, the GO Lab will draw on its decade-long expertise in outcomes-based partnerships to help organisations develop the understanding, skills and confidence needed to design and deliver effective social outcomes partnerships. Working alongside Dartington Service Design Lab, who bring rich experience in equitable and locally contextualised learning and systemic change work, we will support a learning and development programme that connects practitioners with evidence and enables them to learn from one another. This will include open-access guidance and practical resources, workshops and tailored capacity building activities, responsive expert advice and peer learning opportunities.
Through these activities, we will work with both experienced practitioners and organisations newer to social outcomes partnerships, to enable them to apply evidence and best practice in ways that respond to local needs and circumstances. By connecting evidence, practitioner experience and emerging learning, the Learning and Development Programme will help organisations to increase their capability, knowledge and confidence to effectively design and manage high-quality social outcomes partnerships projects within the Better Futures Fund.
Dr Eleanor Carter, Academic Director, Government Oucomes Lab said:
'Ten years ago, when the Government Outcomes Lab was established, social outcomes partnerships were still an emerging approach to addressing complex social challenges. Since then, we have built a substantial body of evidence and practical knowledge about their potential, their limitations, and the conditions needed for success.
The Better Futures Fund gives us an opportunity to put that learning to work at scale. As learning partners to the Fund, our mission is to help ensure that the next generation of social outcomes partnerships is ambitious, firmly grounded in evidence and practical learning, and equipped to deliver meaningful improvements to people's lives.'
Tim Hobbs, CEO of Dartington Service Design Lab, said:
'The Better Futures Fund is a significant commitment to addressing the impacts of systemic disadvantage for children and young people. We think that the next generation of Social Outcome Partnerships have significant potential to focus systemic change efforts on the outcomes that matter, and to embed and sustain innovative and impactful practice.
We look forward to bringing our research and co-design experience to this work to support places to build partnerships that are rooted in local context, shaped by the experiences of children, young people and families, and alert to the inequities that hold poverty and other structural issues in place.'
The Learning and Development Programme is open to any organisations and stakeholders exploring, developing and delivering projects through the Better Futures Fund. The focus of the programme is to strengthen understanding of social outcomes partnerships and build capability and confidence in the design, commissioning, delivery and management of these partnerships through the BFF.
As such, support and guidance will be available to organisations across local and regional government, voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations, philanthropy and social investment.
Alongside the Learning and Development Programme, DCMS is setting up a dedicated technical assistance programme. The technical assistance service will provide direct, tailored 1-2-1, technical support to BFF applicants during the application and post-award stages, including developing outcomes frameworks, advising on investor interaction, and drafting contracts. DCMS will provide more information on the Technical Assistance Service in early 2027.
The Learning and Development programme will offer a diverse range of knowledge resources and activities. We'll be working with Mayoral Strategic Authorities, Local Authorities and VCSE organisations to understand what their evidence and learning needs are, so we co-produce learning and support resources that are tailored to specific needs. Open-access resources and opportunities for learning such as workshops, training sessions, webinars will be available via GO Lab’s Knowledge Hub.
If you are new to social outcomes partnerships, as a first step we would encourage you to read some of the introductory guidance on the Knowledge Hub. The INDIGO dataset, which includes information on all the social outcomes partnerships launched to date across the world, will give you a good overview of the state of play and an understanding of the type of initiatives supported through social outcomes partnerships and the organisations involved.
If you have more specific questions and/or are looking for some guidance for a social outcomes partnership proposal for the Better Futures Fund, you can book an Advice Session with the GO Lab team.
If you are an experienced social outcomes partnerships practitioner and would like to share your insights and expertise to help inform new initiatives, we would love to hear from you. Further opportunities for connection and peer learning will be shared on the Knowledge Hub in due course. In the meantime, sign up to the dedicated mailing list to receive updates about the programme.
The £500 million Better Futures Fund is a 10-year programme designed to break down barriers to opportunity for up to 200,000 vulnerable children, young people, and their families. The programme will deliver targeted support to children and families with multiple, overlapping needs that fall through the gaps of universal services. It aims to foster person-centred, tailored care focused on early prevention and backed by innovative funding models.
The funding will support the commissioning of social outcomes partnerships, with payments tied to the achievement of measurable improvements in people’s lives, such as school attainment, improved youth employment, and reduced youth reoffending. The government will provide 50% top-up funding for agreed outcomes, with an ambition to secure co-funding on a 1:1 basis from local and regional government commissioners and, where appropriate, philanthropists and other outcome payers. The programme will target areas of England that have high levels of child poverty, high deprivation and low social capital.
Round 1 launched in September 2026 to support a small number of demonstrator ‘pathfinder’ projects with existing experience delivering social outcome partnerships. Round 2 will distribute the majority of the funding from 2027 onwards, and will be open to all applicants, whether or not they have experience of social outcomes partnerships delivery. More information is available on the gov.uk website.
Dartington Service Design Lab uses the power of evidence, experience and design to tackle complex challenges with and for children and young people. Dartington works to address the root drivers and shift the underlying conditions that hold children and young people back.
Recognising that the burden of the challenges facing children and young people falls unequally in our society, with the poorest and those from racially and ethnically minoritised backgrounds amongst those bearing the heaviest loads, Dartington is particularly focused on viewing research and design work through an anti-racist lens and ensuring that systemic change efforts are equitable and inclusive.
The Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, is a global school committed to improving the quality of government and public policymaking worldwide. The School undertakes research, teaching and engagement that is led by the needs of governments and the people they serve.