Boise to tackle homelessness with PFS project while the UK election raises a conundrum which none of the politicians want to discuss: aka the pork barrel continues to be scraped for more ‘goodies’ while the truth is the next government must spend less to avoid bankruptcy. Lip service is being paid to SIBs as we noted earlier this week.
Boise Gets Grant For ‘Pay for Success’ Project
KTVB
City officials are hoping a grant from the University of Utah’s Policy Innovation Lab will help Boise find new ways to tackle the problem of homelessness.
Director of Community Partnerships Diana Lachiondo:
“An outside investor, like private capital, pays for some type of program and when that is successful and can be proven, government pays the costs on the back end,” she said.
The city of Boise is using its share of the $600,000 grant to hire someone to examine Boise’s current system and put together a new financial model. The money is being split between six government agencies around the West.
Next UK Government Must Link Money To Social Outcomes & Early Action
Matt Robinson – Pioneers Post
The next government must take into account social outcomes when reviewing spending in 2015 argues Matt Robinson, the former deputy director of the prime minister’s strategy unit and current head of strategy and market development at Big Society Capital.
Whatever shade of government is painted on May 7th, it will face two huge challenges – tackling both the deficit and a set of persistently poor social outcomes, such as widespread health inequalities or the poor educational attainment of some deprived children and young people.
These twin challenges are daunting enough, but they are also seemingly in tension with each other. Put simply, tackling the deficit requires spending a lot less public money; tackling thorny social issues means spending a lot more.
Or does it? If government can act early to tackle social problems, can’t it improve outcomes for individuals and families, as well as save taxpayers’ money to boot?