Authors: Andreea Anastasiu, Eleanor Carter, Mara Airoldi
Organisation: Government Outcomes Lab (GO Lab)
Location: United Kingdom
The world’s first social impact bond was launched in 2010 at the Peterborough prison in England. Since then this partnership model has been stretched and flexed to fund a growing array of social programmes in health, employment, education, social care and beyond. This publication provides a comprehensive yet accessible anthology that can help both those new to social impact bonds / social outcomes partnerships as well as those more familiar with this approach to navigate the evidence that has emerged from the practice in the UK in the past fifteen years.
Part I of this report draws heavily on the global Impact Bond Dataset curated by the GO Lab team to offer a snapshot of the state of play with social outcomes partnerships and outcomes funds in the UK. Part II of the report brings together a collection of essays, capturing learning from a diverse set of leading experts from across academia, policy and practice. Part III sheds light on some of the most common misconceptions related to the use of social outcomes partnerships.