PFS programme feasibility funding in the Pacific Northwest (call me old fashioned but I am not quite convinced we aren’t in danger of jumping through hoops of preliminaries here as opposed to solving problems) while Saskatchewan Premier is keen on SIBs and the UK’s reformist outgoing Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Iain Duncan Smith has been on the hustings both in terms of the General Election and indeed SIBs too.
As the Easter holidays are upon us, we’re taking Good Friday and Easter Monday off. Then we’re also observing Orthodox Easter too for the following Monday so the next few weeks will see 4 SIB news editions per week. Happy Easter everybody!
USA – Oregon, Washington Programs Win Funds To Study Pay For Success
Nicole Neroulias Gupte – Philanthropy Northwest
Three programs in the Pacific Northwest have won funding to study the feasibility of using Pay for Success to expand services for vulnerable populations in Oregon and Washington state.
Pay for Success projects, sometimes called social impact bonds, are an emerging model of bringing governments, nonprofits and investors together to finance preventive services and other programs aimed at providing long-term taxpayer savings. The Pacific Northwest programs were chosen through a national competition run by Third Sector Capital Partners, Inc., supported by a grant from the Corporation for National and Community Service’s Social Innovation Fund.
Washington state’s Department of Early Learning and Thrive Washington, a nonprofit public-private partnership focused on early childhood development, will study the feasibilty of using Pay for Success to expand the state’s home visiting program.
Home visiting programs are proven to curb abuse and neglect, support school readiness, and give children and families a great start. Since the account was created in 2010, it has grown from funding four grantees serving 120 children to 36 grantees with the capacity to serve 2,000 children statewide. In Washington state, there are currently as many as 30,000 families who are eligible for home visiting services but can’t get them.
In addition to the funding and technical assistance from Third Sector, DEL and Thrive’s study will be supported by the Giddens Foundation, Foundation for Healthy Generations, Philanthropy Northwest and Mission Investors Exchange.
Canada – Premier Brad Wall Keen On ‘Social Impact Bonds’
CBC
Premier Brad Wall has put a Sask. Party MLA in charge of social impact bonds — a type of financial instrument that lets investors support social services.
On Wednesday, former social services minister June Draude was named legislative secretary in charge of the bonds.
The government first used a social impact bond last year to raise $1 million to let Egadz open a supported living home in Saskatoon for at-risk single moms and their children.
Under the social impact bond system, the government sets a social outcome for a project, gets investors to provide the money, and pays them back a pre-determined sum if the outcome is met.
In the case of the Egadz centre, the investors included a credit union and a home-building company.
UK – Minister Visits Project For Vulnerable
Sarah Bunt – Newquai Voice
THE former leader of the Conservative party was in Newquay on Monday to learn more about services in place to help those with varying social needs.
Iain Duncan Smith, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, was given a tour by lead minister Mike Robins of NCC Newquay’s Oasis House where he met some of the clients, the Turnaround Project and the Source Cafe.
During a brief meeting, Mr Duncan-Smith was able to tell Rev Mike more about Social Impact Bonds which help disadvantaged young people in care and those with long-term health conditions and mental illness.
Social Impact Bond investment schemes aim to support social entrepreneurs and help reform public services. They see investment where private investors provide the capital to address complex social problems and is a ‘payment by results’ system. Investors fund innovative interventions and the Government only pays if these interventions succeed in, for example, helping young people get back into the education system.