Life Chances Fund (LCF) Evaluation
We are the UK Government’s evaluation partner for the Life Chances Fund (LCF). Through our engaged research, we are conducting multiple, longitudinal evaluations across the portfolio of 29 projects offered funding by the LCF.
Quickfacts
The Life Chances Fund (LCF) is an £70m fund, committed by central government to help people in society who face the most significant barriers to leading happy and productive lives. It provides top up contributions to outcomes-based contracts involving social investment, referred to as Social impact Bonds (SIBs).
What is the Life Chances Fund?
Life Chances Fund in detail
The Life Chances Fund (LCF) is a £70 million fund from the UK Government’s Civil Society directorate, designed to help people in society who face the most significant barriers to leading happy and productive lives. The Fund is dedicated to supporting the growth and development of outcomes-based commissioning through the use of social impact bonds (SIBs), by providing a top-up payment to local government commissioners in England. By increasing the number and scale of SIBs in England, LCF aspires to make it easier and quicker to set up future SIBs, and to build evidence on what works. Following three application rounds, funding was made available for multi-year SIB projects as the LCF runs for nine years from July 2016 to March 2025.
LCF projects are aimed at tackling complex social problems across policy areas like child and family welfare, homelessness, health and wellbeing, employment and training, criminal justice, and education and early years. They involve an investment commitment of more than £30 million and aim to reach more than 53,000 service users across England. The first LCF projects began service delivery in 2018, with the bulk of projects launching between 2019 and 2020. All funded projects are now in implementation, and many are halfway through their delivery timeline. Most projects are expected to complete provision under the LCF by 2025 – 2026, with the potential for re-commissioning through other funding sources.
The Government Outcomes Lab is conducting multiple evaluations across a portfolio of 29 projects offered funding by the LCF. Undertaking research work in partnership with projects offers a great opportunity for improving our collective understanding of the SIB model as a commissioning tool.
Life Chances Fund project data
The Government Outcomes Lab hosts a variety of data and data visualizations on the projects under the Life Chances Fund.
Life Chances Fund Projects by policy sector
Life Chances Fund data visualisation tool and project list
At the Government Outcomes Lab, we host a global impact bond dataset, where users can explore data on impact bonds projects in their various stages of development and policy areas around the world. You can browse the LCF data using the INDIGO visualisation tool.
Life Chances Fund case studies
23 May 2023
The Skill Mill is a social enterprise which employs young ex-offenders, working on environmental projects across the UK.
Read the case study here: The Skill Mill
09 December 2022
The DN2 Children’s Services Social Impact Bond aims to provide children and young people aged between 10 and 17 with a stable and nurturing environment that is conducive to their well-being and improved educational outcomes.
Read the case study here: DN2 Children’s Services Social Impact Bond
02 September 2022
MHEP involves five place-based outcomes contracts (i.e., five SIB projects) that support people experiencing mental health issues or learning disabilities to find and remain in competitive, paid work in the UK.
Read the case study here: Mental Health and Employment Partnership (MHEP)
03 August 2023
The Kirklees Better Outcomes Partnership (KBOP) impact bond aims to secure better outcomes for disadvantaged Kirklees residents. This project is funded by the UK Government Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport's (DCMS) Life Chances Fund (LCF) and by Kirklees Council.
Read the case study here: Kirklees Better Outcomes Partnership (KBOP)
22 June 2022
The Future Impact social impact bond (SIB) is funded under the UK Government Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport's (DCMS) Life Chances Fund (LCF). The SIB aims to support young people aged 15 to 24 with special educational needs in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire through education and training programmes to ultimately move into and sustain employment or voluntary work.
Read the case study here: Future Impact
31 May 2022
The Chances Programme social impact bond (SIB) is funded under the UK Government Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport's (DCMS) Life Chances Fund (LCF). The SIB aims to use sport and physical activity to provide new opportunities and alternative life pathways for children and young people in disadvantaged areas whilst improving their health and wellbeing.
Read the case study here: Chances
01 October 2019
WLZ designed a Collective Impact approach to leverage the local “social assets” around a shared vision. WLZ actively supports each partner and provides a Link Worker for each child, who builds a trusted, lasting relationship with the child and their family, helping them set their own goals for the future and working with charity partners on the ground to ensure that delivery is consistent and tailored to each individual.
Read the case study here: West London Zone Collective Impact Bond
Evaluation strategy
A key contribution of the LCF evaluation is to clarify whether, where, and how SIBs add value when compared to more conventional public service provision. Although a series of SIB evaluations have been carried out previously, most of these evaluations have focussed on the implementation or efficacy of specific interventions (i.e. the particular service funded by the SIB), often without robust quantitative impact evaluation. As part of a unique partnership between DCMS and GO Lab, the LCF is an opportunity to undertake collaborative, robust evaluation to help improve future policy and practice.
The Government Outcomes Lab is responsible for the project-level strand of the LCF evaluation, which evaluates the impact, process and value for money of LCF SIBs and compares the SIB model to alternative commissioning approaches. Our research aims to respond to current gaps in research by focusing specifically on SIBs as a tool for public service delivery and reform rather than centring only on the intervention effect. The ambition is to assess ‘the SIB effect’ – that is the influence of this commissioning model on social outcomes. In pursuing this research, the GO Lab and Centre for SIBs hope to offer crucial thought leadership in the outcomes-based-commissioning landscape.
We currently have multiple, longitudinal evaluation studies in progress which focus on different aspects of the LCF. Our primary evaluation looks across a portfolio of the 29 LCF funded projects to explore project characteristics and projects’ performance against specified social outcomes. Meanwhile the supplementary evaluation takes a more in-depth look at project sites that provide an opportunity to compare services delivered under the SIB to similar projects commissioned in other ways.
We hope that our innovative evaluation of the LCF will break new ground in policy evaluation to show how a "way of working" can meaningfully affect social outcomes. In parallel, we continue to collaborate with LCF projects and partner organisations to develop practical knowledge resources such as technical guides and case studies.
Ongoing evaluation projects
The primary evaluation
The primary evaluation covers all projects which successfully received funding from the Life Chances Fund. This is a project-level evaluation, which studies project characteristics, the LCF application process, and project performance across the portfolio. It utilises information collected as part of the Fund administration process, complemented by a longitudinal survey conducted during set up, delivery, and at the end of the project.
Following the onset of Covid-19 restrictions in March 2020, the primary evaluation also captured the impact of the pandemic on LCF projects, including adaptations made to service delivery and funding decisions. This was the focus of the first interim report (published by DCMS on gov.uk in February 2022) which also led to an academic paper on organisational resilience during Covid-19. The paper, published in Public Management Review, was presented by GO Lab Research Fellow Dr Ruth Dixon at the International Research Society for Public Management annual conference.
The supplementary evaluation
The supplementary evaluation takes a more in-depth look at particular project sites that provide an opportunity to compare services delivered under the SIB to similar projects commissioned in other ways.
Kirklees Better Outcomes Partnership
The Kirklees Better Outcomes Partnership (KBOP) SIB seeks to improve a range of outcomes for vulnerable adults in need of support to live independently. The project offers an exciting evaluation opportunity as it was preceded by similar provision of ‘floating support’ under fee-for-service contracting arrangements. The first report from the Kirklees supplementary evaluation, focusing on the legacy fee-for-service contracting arrangements and the potential of the SIB model, was published in July 2021. The current phase of research seeks to investigate KBOP’s switch to the SIB model, with the next evaluation report expected in Summer 2022.
Children’s Social Care
Between 2019 and 2020, the team undertook cross-sectional research to explore the business cases lying behind seven Life Chances Fund projects related to the state care of vulnerable children. The research worked closely with local government stakeholders to investigate justifications for using an impact bond model when supporting children in or on the ‘edge’ of care. Theories of change were built for each of the projects alongside procurement and economic analyses. The study also explored facilitators and challenges within the development processes, as well as design considerations and standardisation across the seven projects. The LCF Children’s Social Care report was published in July 2021 and the findings will feed into the UK government’s recently launched Care Review.
Mental Health and Employment Partnership
The five Mental Health and Employment Partnership (MHEP) SIBs commissioned through the LCF form the most recent supplementary evaluation project. The evaluation aims to answer whether and how MHEP Social Impact Bonds – specifically the outcomes contracts and/or performance management function – make a difference to the social outcomes achieved, compared to alternative commissioning approaches. It also allows investigation of the mechanism by which a SIB model (e.g., adaptive performance management) influences outcomes alongside established, evidence-based interventions (e.g., the Individual Placement Support intervention). This research project is a collaboration involving the Government Outcomes Lab, Prof Adam Whitworth (an IPS specialist at the University of Strathclyde) and Social Finance UK. The first of three evaluation reports is expected in Summer 2022.
Life Chances Fund Reports
Life Chances Fund Evaluation Reports
An introduction to Life Chances Fund projects and their early adaptations to Covid-19
11 February 2022
Authors: C. FitzGerald, T. Hameed , F.Rosenbach, J.R. Macdonald, J. Outes Velarde. & R. Dixon
We are delighted to share our interim report from the primary evaluation of the Life Chances Fund (LCF).
As the evaluation partner of the LCF, The Government Outcomes Lab is conducting evaluation across the portfolio of 31 projects offered funding by the LCF. The fund is dedicated to supporting the growth and development of outcomes-based commissioning through the use of social impact bonds (SIBs), by providing a top-up payment to local government commissioners.
While the research initially focused on investigating the characteristics of LCF projects, the research pivoted in March 2020. Following the onset of Covid-19 restrictions, our researchers sought to capture the impact of the pandemic on LCF projects, and the projects’ subsequent adaptations.
Read the report here: An introduction to Life Chances Fund projects and their early adaptations to Covid-19
The use of social impact bonds in children’s social care: A comparative analysis of project justifications and design considerations in the Life Chances Fund
12 May 2021
Authors: T. Hameed, E. Carter, J. R. Macdonald, M. Shiva, C. Baker
This Government Outcomes Lab report provides findings on seven children’s social care projects commissioned through Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) that are part of the Department for Digital, Media, Culture & Sport (DCMS)’s Life Chances Fund (LCF). The research investigates the justifications and alternative SIB design approaches adopted by local authority commissioners to support children and families ‘on the edge’ of (or already within) the statutory care system. It used qualitative methods, including analysis of key documents, workshops and semi-structured interviews with relevant stakeholders.
Read the report here: The use of social impact bonds in children’s social care: A comparative analysis of project justifications and design considerations in the Life Chances Fund
Mental Health and Employment Partnership evaluation for the Life Chances Fund: First interim report
23 March 2023
Authors: E. Hulse, M. Shiva, , T. Hameed & E. Carter
This is the first of three planned reports within a longitudinal evaluation of the Mental Health and Employment Partnership (MHEP).
MHEP is part-funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) under the Life Chances Fund (LCF). The LCF was launched in 2016 as a locally-led SIB fund to tackle entrenched social issues across England. The LCF contributes to SIB projects through payments by results contracts. These contracts involve social investors and are locally commissioned.
DCMS is working in partnership with the Government Outcomes Lab (GO Lab) to evaluate the LCF and the use of SIBs in local commissioning. MHEP was selected for specific longitudinal study because of the existence of comparable projects using traditional commissioning routes. Its findings are based on qualitative interview data and aggregate performance data across the five SIBs
The first interim report of the MHEP evaluation provides information on the project’s theory of change including facilitators, barriers and mediating mechanisms, as well as presenting early quantitative analysis on outcome performance.
View the resource here: Mental Health and Employment Partnership evaluation for the Life Chances Fund: First interim report
Kirklees Integrated Support Service and Better Outcomes Partnership: The first report from a longitudinal evaluation of a Life Chances Fund impact bond
01 December 2020
Authors: Rosenbach, F. and Carter, E.
This is the first Government Outcomes Lab report from our supplementary evaluation of the UK Government’s Life Chances Fund (LCF) which focuses on The Kirklees Integrated Support Service (KISS) Social Impact Bond (SIB). The KISS SIB seeks to improve a range of social outcomes for vulnerable adults who are understood to need support to live independently. The outcomes contract is held by a special purpose vehicle (Kirklees Better Outcomes Partnership, KBOP), which in turn manages individual service delivery contracts with independent provider organisations.
This SIB is a particularly promising evaluation site, as it was preceded by similar provision of ‘Floating Support’ under bilateral fee-for-service arrangements between the Council and the same providers. Analysis of this changed contractual arrangement may help to disentangle the effect of the SIB model from that of the intervention. A range of primary data collection methods were used, including in-depth interviews, documentary analysis and qualitative analysis.
The report identifies four broad challenges faced under the pre-existing fee-for-service arrangements and commissioning environment prior to the adoption of the SIB model in September 2019. These challenges provide hypotheses for future waves of research, which will explore the adoption of the new SIB model.
View the resource here: Kirklees Integrated Support Service and Better Outcomes Partnership: The first report from a longitudinal evaluation of a Life Chances Fund impact bond
Life Chances Fund Second Stage Evaluation Report: Kirklees
31 August 2023
Authors: Franziska Rosenbach, Felix van Lier, Fernando Domingo, Eleanor Carter
This is the second of three planned reports within a longitudinal evaluation of the Kirklees Better Outcomes Partnership (KBOP). KBOP seeks to improve accommodation, employment, stability and wellbeing outcomes for vulnerable adults who are in need of support to live independently.
KBOP is part-funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) under the Life Chances Fund (LCF). The LCF was launched in 2016 to tackle entrenched social issues across England through locally-led social impact bonds (SIBs) - also known as social outcomes partnerships. The LCF contributes to SIB projects through payments-by-results contracts. These contracts involve social investors and are locally commissioned.
DCMS is working in partnership with the Government Outcomes Lab (GO Lab) to evaluate the LCF and the use of SIBs in local commissioning. KBOP was selected for specific longitudinal study because it was preceded by a similar service provided under bilateral fee-for-service arrangements between the Council and the same providers. Analysis of this changed contractual arrangement may help to isolate the effect of the SIB model on service delivery. The analysis is based on a range of primary data collection methods involving 38 in-depth interviews and documentary analysis, including contract terms of the fee-for-service contract and the SIB
This second interim report examines four hypotheses developed in the first interim evaluation of the KBOP SIB. These suggested that the SIB mechanism might lead to enhanced:
- practice of market stewardship
- performance management
- collaboration
- flexibility and personalisation of the service
The report also reviews KBOPs contractual framework and governance processes, and concludes with a series of key learnings from the process evaluation.
View the resource here: Life Chances Fund Second Stage Evaluation Report: Kirklees
Life Chances Fund intermediate evaluation: data release
31 August 2023
This data release presents interim findings from the primary evaluation of the Life Chances Fund (LCF). Specifically, the report provides analysis of two waves of a longitudinal survey of LCF providers, commissioners, investors and intermediaries.
The survey analysis explores four aspects of the LCF’s development and delivery, namely: project development; implementation and delivery; trust and collaboration; and performance management.
View the resource here: Life Chances Fund intermediate evaluation: data release
GO Lab Research Reports
Life Chances Fund - Functional Guidance
05 March 2019
Authors: Government Outcomes Lab, DCMS, National Lottery Community Fund
This functional guidance is created for Life Chances Fund projects to support them to upload their information to the DCMS platform. There are four main steps to take and each will be broken down into instructions and screen shots.
- Offer letter baseline
- Payment profile
- Outcome achievement and payment claim
- Annual monitoring form
You can view extra support from the GO lab for Life Chances Fund projects through following the link below, and you can also view the PDF to see the functional guidance.
View the resource here: Life Chances Fund - Functional Guidance
Resilience in public service partnerships: evidence from the UK Life Chances Fund
16 December 2021
Authors: C. FitzGerald, T. Hameed, F. Rosenbach, J. R. Macdonald & R. Dixon
This paper explores functional and structural resilience in outcomes-based public service partnerships. Using a theoretical framework informed by socio-ecological and health fields, and data from all thirty-one social impact bonds (SIBs) funded through the UK government’s Life Chances Fund, we explore how SIBs adapted service delivery and funding mechanisms in response to Covid-19.
View the resource here: Resilience in public service partnerships: evidence from the UK Life Chances Fund
External Reports
Chances. Year 2 Interim Evaluation Report
01 July 2022
The Home Office Positive Futures programme, shifted the use of sport as a diversionary activity and used it to facilitate a 'relationship strategy' through engagement which aimed to 'provide cultural gateways, to alternative lifestyles/'
Chances seeks to build upon these principles and enable young people to benefit from opportunities and support, improve their life chances and avoid pathways into offending. Chances is an evidence-based approach, built upon a wealth of action research evidence developed over twenty years by Substance and their partners.
On one level Chances is a Social Impact Bond (SIB), a payment by results model, and is primarily concerned with if Chances works and can be evidenced to achieve payments. However, in order to further the business case, ensure replicability and secure future models of investment, accompanying evidence needs to describe not just if Chances works but if so how and why. A number of research questions are being considered by the Evaluation Team to explore this:
- What is Chances? – How have the providers interpreted this? What is actually happening on the ground?
- Who for? – Who are chances participants? How have the providers identified, attracted and retained participants?
- What elements of the model achieve the desired outcomes?
- Does sport itself have any unique ability to influence the non-sporting outcomes or is the engagement and relationship strategy paramount to this?
View the resource here: Chances. Year 2 Interim Evaluation Report
Evaluation of the Life Chances Fund Interim report
12 February 2020
Authors: ICF Consulting
ICF were commissioned in July 2017 by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to undertake an independent programme-level evaluation of the Life Chances Fund (LCF). After a scoping stage used to refine the evaluation approach, this interim evaluation report examines stakeholder perspectives and insights from the first six launched projects. A final report will follow in 2020. A second evaluation strand, examining the SIB mechanism, will continue to produce evaluation reports until the projects will have completed service delivery in 2025.
View the resource here: Evaluation of the Life Chances Fund Interim report
Evaluation of Parent Child+ in England, 2019-2025. Interim Report
01 July 2022
Authors: Dr Samantha Flynn, Daniel Sutherland
This is the interim report from the evaluation of the Parent Child+ programme’s delivery in England. The programme runs for about 15 months and consists of 46 weeks of twice-weekly visits (92 visits).
The quantitative data reported is from four outcome measures; two completed by the Parent Child+ home visitors (Parent and Child Together [PACT], Child Behaviour Traits [CBT]), one completed by Health Visitors (Ages and Stages questionnaire [ASQ]), and one completed by the parents (Being a Parent [BAP] questionnaire).
Qualitative data comprised interviews with one area coordinator, five home visitors, ten parents, and three Early Years managers or staff. The qualitative data provide rich, contextualised information about the delivery of the programme which is a useful basis for learning, and these data will be augmented by the quantitative data.
It is important to note that some of the data presented in this report was collected during the COVID-19 pandemic. Parent Child+ continued to be delivered to families throughout the pandemic, but delivery moved online during the lockdowns, with some sessions in between being undertaken in open public spaces (e.g., local parks). The pandemic may, therefore, have impacted on elements of the data collection process (e.g., fewer returned questionnaires), as well as the way families received and responded to the programme delivery.
View resource here: Evaluation of Parent Child+ in England, 2019-2025. Interim Report
Interim Evaluation of The Skill Mill SIB
07 June 2022
Authors: Susan Baines, Harry Armitage
Skill Mill offers an intensive six-month work experience programme designed to help vulnerable young people break the cycle of re-offending. Its unique combination of environmental services, real work opportunities, and youth justice is highly innovative. A new four-year outcomes contract in the form of a Social Impact Bond (SIB) has funded Skill Mill in eight sites for four years from 2020. This report is an interim evaluation of the Skill Mill SIB.
View the resource here: Interim Evaluation of The Skill Mill SIB
Promoting Independence: Interim Evaluation Report
31 October 2021
Authors: Steven Ariss, Anna Brook & Phil Joddrell
This report presents the interim findings of an independent evaluation of the Promoting Independence programme. The University of Sheffield has prepared it, under contract to Sheffield City Council (SCC). The findings and interpretations in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the services or organisations involved in the delivery of the programme.
Intellectual property rights belong to SCC. However, the authors and their organisations retain licence to use this report, its contents and any other intellectual property arising from the evaluation activities for academic teaching and research purposes, including but not limited to publications and other dissemination activities.
The authors have taken all reasonable care to ensure the accuracy and completeness of information used in the production of this report. However, they do not accept responsibility for any legal commercial or other consequences that might result from the use of any inaccurate or incomplete information supplied to them during the preparation of this report.
View the resource here: Promoting Independence: Interim Evaluation Report