PLY: Third sector rightly aims for a revolution in funding albeit the public sector unions may find it hard to discern service delivery being more important than their tenured self interest. In the UK it’s budget week so expect a lot of breathy hype as the highly political finance minister endeavours to cover up his lack of vision as his own reputation is on the rocks over his spendthrift ways.
Charities Need To Prepare For A Local Government Funding Revolution
Andrew O’Brien – Third Sector
Every quarter CFG, with the support of Kingston Smith and James Hambro & Partners, compiles a free Economic Outlook Briefing for charities that analyses how the latest data impacts our sector. We also try and delve into a particular topic that affects charities and provide expert analysis. For our most recent edition, we’ve been looking at local government which remains the most important source of government income for the sector.
Head of Social Sector Engagement at Big Society Capital, Geetha Rabindrakumar, points out local authorities are getting much more innovative when it comes to using their limited resources. Social Impact Bonds, loans for asset purchases, using pension funds to public service reform and working capital to deliver preventative services are just some of the ideas.
Cabinet Office Unveils Strategy To Make UK A Global Hub For Social Investment
Liam Kay – Third Sector
The government wants to make the UK a “global hub” for social investment, according to two strategy documents.
The documents, one of which is focused on the domestic social investment market and the other on international opportunities for the UK, consider how social investment can transform public services and how the UK can both attract overseas social investment and export UK social investment businesses.
The domestic strategy document explains how the government will stimulate demand for social investment and grow the social economy over the next five years.
This will include partnering with a UK university to create a centre of research and technical excellence in outcomes-based commissioning, and increasing the take-up of social impact bonds through an £80m Life Chances Fund to tackle difficult and costly social challenges.
An additional £25m is being committed to SIBs that focus on homelessness, mental health and employment, the strategy says.
The £105m of funds were announced in the joint Autumn Statement and Spending Review in November.
The international strategy, called Social Investment: The UK as a Global Hub, has been drawn up by the Cabinet Office, the British Council, UK Trade & Investment, the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development.