Social Impact Bonds: on the margins– Another feature in the Financial Times about SIBs, this time arguing that the model has struggled to succeed. The article considers the challenge of scaling programmes, but also nods to the new found momentum in development impact bonds.). Financial Times
How investors can help ensure every child is in school– Gordon Brown argues that the financial community is uniquely positioned to bridge the funding gap in the public sector. He refers to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that were a focus at the UN General Assembly, and argues that they cannot be achieved without private investors. He speaks about the potential of social impact bonds in this space and impact investing more generally. Financial Times
Government improves life chances across the country – DCMS have just announced how the final £48 million (from £80 million) Life Chances Fund will be awarded. It will be given to 22 SIB projects across the country. The amount of money granted is included in a PDF link at the bottom of the page (it is easy to miss). DCMS
I have written a news article about this on the GO Lab site. This shares information about each project, where it is based, the cohort that will be supported, as well as how it will work. Many of the projects also highlight the proposed savings that the intervention seeks to make for the local authority.
Risky Business: How private investment could help solve homelessness – This article published on Forbes looks at social impact bonds and homelessness, and discusses how they can reduce risk, offering examples across the US - quite a surface level article, but interesting that SIBs are featured on such a big platform. Forbes
Social Impact Bonds - an Interview with Mara Airoldi - GO Lab Director, Mara Airoldi did an interview about SIBs in Civil Service World. She comments on why SIBs are so polarising, why are they so hard to scale, as well as progress made on understanding the 'SIB effect'. Civil Service World
SIBs may provide components for outcome based contracting, but they are not a panacea – Public service reform can benefit from outcome-focussed approaches to commissioning. However, we should avoid assuming that Social Impact Bonds are likely to have wide application, explain PIRU’s research team. This follows on from their report evaluating SIB trailblazers in health and social care. Stephanie Tan, Alec Fraser, Nicolas Mays
How to design great policy experiments: five lessons from the experts – Worth a read as they speak well to SIBs. GO Lab’s favourite top tip is ‘Finding out what doesn’t work is just as important as understanding what does’ Apolitical
Regulators consider ‘blended’ approach for NHS contracts – NHS regulators are considering a new standard payment mechanism which would involve a ‘blended’ approach between block contracts and activity based tariffs, the latter are known as ‘payment by results’. Contracts would consist of three parts, a fixed element, a variable elements, and a risk share, and would be aimed at incentivising the redesign of services. Discussions are only at an early stage and formal proposals have yet to be made. HSJ
Public Health England calls for payment tariff on public health outcomes - An article in the Health Studies Journal calls for the NHS must do more to stop people smoking. Duncan Selfie argues that the best way to do it is to implement a national tariff for smoking cessation as such outcomes are in the public interest. HSJ
The GO Lab held an international conference on SIBs and outcomes based approaches on 6-7thSeptember. If you didn’t make it to the conference last week or you would like to watch any of the live stream sessions again, here they are:
1. Carolyn J. Heinrich’s Keynote
2. SIBs and Competing Welfare Logics
3. Bridging the Gap between Practice and Research
4. At the Coalface: Practitioner Insights into Developing and Implementing SIBs
5. Global Perspectives on Designing an Outcomes Fund
6. Making Markets in the Welfare System
There are also some interesting comments and questions on our twitter @ukgolab if you would like to have a look at #Outcomes18 and follow the conversations.
Culture Clash - how differing world views shape organisational relationships - GO Lab research fellow, Ruth Dixon, reflects on the third annual international conference at the Blavatnik School of Government last week. She explores the tensions that arise between different places in SIBs, and explains that we perhaps shouldn't be surprised that negotiations take a long time, but that the spoils may be worth it. GO Lab blog
This article has also been posted on the LSE British Politics and Policy blog.
Watch our webinar again – Is there any magic dust in SIBs?– After the conference the GO Lab hosted a webinar to learn from the evidence to date in the UK with Rob Pollock, Director at Social Finance, Val Keen, Head of Centre for SIBs, and Mara Airoldi, Director of the GO Lab. They answered questions such as ‘how can service users be involved in the design of SIBs?’ and ‘how can SIBS be part of the broader goal for partnership and collaborative working, as stated in the Civil Society Strategy?’ You can watch our recording here. GO Lab
Evaluation of the Innovation Fund pilot – The Innovation Fund (IF) was a £30 million programme to support disadvantaged young people between 2012 and 2015 that comprised of 10 SIB projects. This report was a quantitative assessment of impact and social return on investment for all the projects. Whilst there were some data limitations, it was found that overall the IF projects had a negative impact. The full report was published this month and the GO Lab response will be coming soon. Department for Work & Pensions
A tale of two SIBs – and why they matter– Big Lottery Fund have just published two reports on SIBs - West London Zoneand HCT Travel Training. This blog piece takes a look at why are have been both conventional and inventive and why it matters.
Social Impact Bond and Institutional Investors: An empirical analysis of a complicated relationship – Published in Nonprofit and Voluntary sector quarterly, this article looks at SIBs over the past 8 years. They look for the critical success factors of SIB funding and find that institutional investors are more likely to participate in a SIB funding when there are fewer agency problems. Alfonso el Giudice, Milena Migliavacca, Universita Cattloica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy
Review finds ‘insufficient financial controls’ enabled £2m council fraud– A recent reportfound that there was fraud of a former employee of a joint venture set up by Barnet council and Capita. This article quotes shadow communities secretary Andrew Gwynne who argues that this is a ‘textbook example of why outsourcing fails’. LocalGov
A similar article looks more broadly at this issue, asking ‘Has outsourcing had its day’LocalGov
Ministers bail out £335m Liverpool hospital after Carillion collapse– Following the collapse of Carillion, the government will announce this week that it is cancelling the Royal Liverpool Hospital deal that was overseen by Carillion. The government will step in and take temporary charge of the hospital’s construction with new contracts being tendered in the coming months. This article argues that this is likely to refuel the intensifying political debate about the role of private sector outsources in the delivery of essential public services. Sky news
If you’re worried about prison conditions… This article looks at the privatisation of the probation service and the pressure the system is under. An interesting article in the wake of Carillion, I am sure there will be more news on this in the coming weeks The Independent
Shadow Justice Secretary asks about HMP Birmingham – Richard Burgon MP asked an urgent question in parliament on the Government’s plans to take over the running the prison. Rory Stewart, Minister of State for the Ministry of Justice answered by saying 1) the Government has brought in an experienced governor from the public sector, 2) the number of prisoners has been reduced to 300, 3) they brought in an additional 32 highly experienced public sector prison staff to support on the ground.Parliament.uk
Positive Impact Investing: A Sustainable Bridge between Strategy, Innovation, Change and Learning – A new book just released about impact investing that covers many topics related to SIBs. You can view the chapter highlights here to see if they are of interest. The most relevant chapter is perhaps ‘growing social impact finance: implications for the public sector’ Springer publishing
Paving the way for greater impact investing in Asia Pacific– This article sets our three considerations for Asia-Pacific foundations embarking on impact investing journeys. The second consideration is about experimentation and selecting appropriate tools - SIBs are one of these tools that are considered. A quick read if you are interested in impact investing and new developments in Japan, China, Thailand and more. Stanford Social Innovation Review
Innovative Financing for the SDGs– The UNDP have published a speech given by UN Assistant Secretary General that shares his thoughts about the SDGs and the scope for 2030. The speech looks at the role of private finance and philanthropy, and towards the end there is a section on SIBs. It says the ‘UNDP is working on a pipeline of social impact bonds that bear potential for replication and can be turned into large outcomes based facilities’. It is brief but significant given the high profile nature of the speech. United Nations Development Programme
The emergence of development impact bonds– This article in World Finance looks at how governments and NGOs are under more pressure than ever to find new ways of funding international development programmes. It points to development impact bonds as an innovative financial instrument and argues that they are set to change the global financing landscape
British Asian Trust announces 'world's largest impact bond for education' - The British Asian Trust has led the creation of what they say will be the world's largest impact bond for education, potentially worth up to £17m over the next four years. The development impact bond will use money from investors to fund the work of three Indian charities. The aim is to help 300,000 children improve their learning and meet increased targets in numeracy and literacy. Third Sector
A landmark month for impact bonds in education– Two new initiatives have been launched in September: a SIB for education outcomes at scale in India, and a SIB for early childhood development in South Africa. After the success of the Educate Girls DIB, this article looks at the details and the potential for the two new DIBs. Brookings
First early childhood development impact bond is launched in South Africa– As mentioned above, the new South Africa DIB has just been launched. This seeks to improve early childhoods learning and development outcomes in the Western Cape. You can find out more about the different organisations involved and the proposed work that will be done in this press release.