Ways to Wellness Social Impact Bond: Final in-depth review

The Commissioning Better Outcomes (CBO) Fund is a programme funded by The National Lottery Community Fund, which aims to support the development of more social impact bonds (SIBs) and other outcomes-based commissioning models in England. The National Lottery Community Fund commissioned Ecorys and ATQ Consultants to evaluate the programme. A key element of the evaluation is nine in-depth reviews of projects developed with support from the programme, and this review of the Ways to Wellness (WtW) project is one of these.

WtW funded social prescribing for patients in the west of Newcastle with two overall aims:

• to improve the heath and wellbeing of people living with long-term conditions.
• to reduce NHS costs related to their care.

A further key objective was also to provide a stronger evidence base for the effectiveness of social prescription at scale.

This report provides an overview of how the project worked, including the SIB mechanism, describes major developments and changes in the project since its launch, and discusses the successes, challenges and impacts brought about by the SIB mechanism, including an assessment of the Value for Money of the SIB mechanism.