Civil Society Strategy: Building a Future that works for everyone – This strategy sets out ‘how government will work with and for civil society in the long term to create a country that works for everyone’. The GO Lab get a mention on p111 under the section ‘Funding the future of public services’ where there is a brief description of the Life Chances Fund and the monitoring and evaluation work that will be carried out by the Centre for SIBs and us.
MHCLG has just launched Rough Sleeping Strategy pledging to end rough sleeping by 2027. The strategy is based around three core pillars: prevention, intervention and recovery. There is also renewed commitment to social investment and social impact bonds on pp.25.
The great SIB debate – The latest GO Lab blog that shares reflections on The Invisible Heart and the place of SIBs in the UK. GO Lab
Idea from Harlem transforms young lives in West London – The charity West London Zone (WLZ) is given coverage in The Guardian this week. WLZ is based on a successful model in America and gives children extra support during their education. The education programme is a social impact bond and the first year has seen excellent results. The Guardian
Environment farming scheme given the green light – The Environment Secretary announced that the payment by results pilot scheme will be the first agri-environment scheme directly funded by the UK. Defra will give £540,000 to pay farmers according to outcomes over the next two years. This will involve Norfolk and Suffolk in the East of England and Wensleydale in Yorkshire. The article quotes, ‘as we leave the EU, there will be further trialling work to reach a model where profitable farm businesses and environmental land management can coexist and complement one another.’ Gov.uk
Using social impact bonds to integrate refugees in Finland – will it work? – Finland has launched Europe’s largest SIB to help integrate refugees, Tanyah looks at whether this is working so far, and whether this can be applied in other contexts. GO Lab
The Village Enterprise DIB – The first ever outcome based DIB for poverty alleviation in Sub Saharan Africa has been in the news recently so I thought I would share their site. The site is really user friendly and explains the structure, partners, and what is expected from this programme.
Financing resilient communities and coastlines – This report has just been released by the Environment Defense Fund (EDF) in the US and looks at how environmental impact bonds can accelerate wetland restoration in Louisiana and beyond. A shorter piece summarises this report and explores the problem and how environmental impact bonds might help here. Next City
Adapt to changing needs, and other lessons from Living Cities’ Pay for Success investments – This piece argues that Pay for Success is not the end in and of itself, it’s a means to the end of giving better outcomes for people. This article is based on different American cities and shares five lessons learned about Pay for Success. Impact Alpha
The lives we want to lead – This green paper by the LGA is about adult social care and wellbeing. Questions are raised about the future of adult social care and support, and the wider changes we need to make to our care and health systems to improve wellbeing. LGA, Future of Adult Social Care
Stop trying to explain away poor performance – A brief article that shares findings from the LGA’s work with Newton Europe about children’s services finds that 1) there is a lack of robust data in the sector, 2) each service needs the same degree of analysis, 3) the sector needs to be more open and honest about the facts. This article encourages more transparency in this sector, similar to GO Lab. The MJ
Council outsourcing falls by nearly £60m in last year, figures show – outsourcing contracts signed by local councils fell by £59m in the first 6 months of this year, compared to the same time period in 2017, new figures reveal Local Gov
The flaws of randomised controlled trials and the reproducibility crisis – Alexander Krauss from the LSA looks at RCTs which are often seen as the golden standard in evaluations. He looks at the biases that may be alter the credibility arguing that ‘science is a complex human process involving many actors making decisions’ the LSE
The institutional work of creating and implementing Social Impact Bonds – This research paper by Toby Lowe, Jonathan Kimmet and more looks at SIBs and how they have influenced the rules, norms and decisions of key actors. European Journal of Politics and Gender