PLY: A new PFS SIB scheme is launched in the North East of England, very encouraging news…
Chronicle Live
A payment-by-results scheme that will help young homeless people in the region has secured £500,000 of investment to fuel its mission.
Housing provider Home Group is leading the North East pilot of the Fair Chance Fund – a £23m Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) scheme that will help people to find accommodation, gain qualifications and move into work using investment from innovative new social impact bonds.
Working with seven local authorities Home Group attracted the backing of Northstar Ventures, which provided the social impact bond necessary to deliver the scheme – estimated to be worth £2m over three years.
The scheme has so far supported 160 homeless youngsters and plans to increase that number to 240 across Northumberland, Tyneside, Wearside and County Durham.
It is the first time Home Group has used a social impact bond to finance a payment-by-results contract.
Funding has come from the £9m North East Social Investment Fund.
Impact Investing: How Socially Responsible Investing Has Evolved
Trevir Nath – Nasdaq
While socially responsible investments tend to come in the form ETFs and mutual funds, fixed income has begun to embrace this trend in the form of social impact bonds. Like a normal bond, social impact bonds are a mechanism the government or public sector can use to fund critical social programs. In the social impact model, the private sector works with governments and philanthropies to develop programs with measurable social benefits.
In this relationship, investors only attain financial returns if and when improved social outcomes are achieved. At the moment, many large foundations and banks have supported impact investing, including The Rockefeller Foundation, J.P. Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs.