Authors: Neil Stanworth
Location: United Kingdom
The Commissioning Better Outcomes (CBO) Fund is a social impact bond (SIB) programme funded by The National Lottery Community Fund, which aims to support the development of more SIBs and other outcomes-based commissioning (OBC) models in England. The National Lottery Community Fund has commissioned Ecorys and ATQ Consultants to evaluate the programme. A key element of the CBO evaluation is nine in-depth reviews, and this review of the HCT Independent Travel Training SIB is one of these.
This SIB was devised and designed by HCT Group, a major social enterprise providing a range of transport services from community and social services transport to conventional London red buses. The aim was to use a SIB model to fund travel and support to young people with Special Educational Needs or Disabilities (SEND) so that they can travel from home to school independently and use public transport, rather than relying on specialist transport, usually in a taxi or minibus.
It is the final review of this project and aims to draw overall conclusions about the success of the project, its value for money, and the lessons that we think can be learned from it for other projects. The main aim of the in-depth reviews, and of the evaluation as a whole, is to assess whether there is a ‘SIB effect’ – that is whether the key elements of the project that are unique to or have greater emphasis in a SIB model – notably the use of payment by results (PbR), capital from social investors, and enhanced performance management – had an effect on the way that the project was designed and implemented, and the impact that it achieved.