The year so far - what the GO Lab have been up to

Now that Spring is here we feel it’s a good time to look back on all we’ve achieved since the start of the year. The GO Lab has grown in the last few months in many different ways and we are keen to share our progress with you. We have hosted events, developed new online tools, recruited new Fellows of Practice and team members, and started an exciting programme of research. 

Events for practitioners

Providing expert practical advice to those working in commissioning is critical to the mission of the GO Lab and we have done this through numerous events. In January we hosted Social Impact Bonds: from Myth to Reality in the East of England. This regional conference brought together over 50 practitioners to tackle some of the key questions around SIBs and learn how to approach development and avoid pitfalls. It was great to foster peer to peer learning and allow people to reflect on their varied experiences. 

We also held a conference to explore How Social Investment makes a SIB a SIB (and why Commissioners should care) as a way to understand social investment, why it is important, what are the costs and what if it goes wrong? We were happy to receive this feedback on Twitter: 

In response to many commissioners asking questions about procurement, we led a Webinar on Procurement for Social Impact Bonds in March. SIBs present a number of challenges to traditional contracting processes and this webinar looked at these issues head on. Julian Blake, a specialist contracting and procurement lawyer discussed the challenges and shared his recommendations.

Our second webinar of the year in April was on Setting and Measuring Outcomes with GO Lab Fellow and Director of ATQ Consultants, Neil Stanworth and Clare FitzGerald, Research Fellow in the GO Lab team. The aim of the session was to support commissioners to make good decisions about setting outcomes and associated measures and metrics. Check out the events page as we have many more exciting events coming up across the country.

Online support

For those who haven’t attended our events, we have developed a comprehensive set of resources for support and advice. This includes five technical guides that offer a ‘how to’ on specific aspects of outcome-based commissioning, as well as our Projects Database that can act as a reference guide for practitioners developing their own SIBs. We are currently updating these and will let you know when new versions are available. Our advice surgeries have been as busy as ever, with questions from commissioners across the country and free advice provided by our expert team. 

Working with our Fellows of Practice

In February, we were pleased to welcome the 21 Fellows of Practice to the GO Lab, growing from 9 last year. This diverse group of leading professionals in their field are supporting the GO Lab with practical advice, thought leadership and different perspectives from the public, private and voluntary sector. Following our launch event, they have been busy leading sessions at our events and webinars as well as writing blogs (the first of which is already published – David Archer offering his thoughts on the Carillion collapse).

We’ll be sharing video profiles of each of our fellows on Twitter throughout May so search #golabfellows2018 to watch them all.

Developing our Research

Soon to be released to the public, our researchers at the GO Lab have conducted a systematic review of evaluation material available on SIBs in the UK, and are producing a synthesis of findings on SIBs to understand the state of play. We have also created a framework to explain the potential for SIBs as a tool for public sector reform. This work has informed government strategy at the top level of UK government and Civil service.

We’ve also kicked off an exploratory piece of work to look into other innovative approaches to organising the delivery of public services to tackle complex social issues. You can read more about the work here. 

The growing GO Lab team 

In addition to the new Fellows, we would like to welcome three new team members to the GO Lab. Grace will be leading on communications and Tanyah and Franziska will be supporting our research programme. We’ll also be taking on interns from the university’s Masters programmes over the summer. It is great to see a growing team at the GO Lab and we are excited about what we can achieve both in research and practice in the months to come.

At the GO Lab we  are always keen to hear your feedback and take it into account. If you would like to comment on any of our online resources please get in touch.