Three excellent articles today. A new SIB fund from the big lottery fund which must be very welcome as well as two supportive articles pertaining to the model…
UK – The Big Lottery Fund Launches £40m Social Impact Bond Fund
Civil Society
The Big Lottery Fund has announced a new £40m fund which will support public bodies to pay social investors a return on outcomes met through social impact bonds.
The fund, Commissioning Better Outcomes, is being launched to complement the Cabinet Office’s £20m social outcomes fund. Both funds offer top ups to public bodies to pay a social investor a return for successful delivery within a social impact bond.
BIG’s Commissioning Better Outcomes fund will only help finance social impact bonds that have a emphasis on improving outcomes for those most in need and that ensure charities and social enterprises have the chance to be involved. The fund will also only support social impact bonds that do not replicate or replace services that a public body has a statutory duty to provide.
The Cabinet Office’s Social Outcomes Fund has a different focus, aiming to fund social impact bonds that lead to new and innovative approaches to public services, which address complex issues using outcomes based commissioning.
Capitalism With A Conscience: How Social Impact Bonds Can Fund Public Services
urbantimes.co
Governments have always been the primary funder of services that seek to combat the chronic problems in society. Whether it is affordable housing for the homeless or healthcare for the sick, it has traditionally been public money that pays for it, either through local agencies or funneled through non-profit organizations.
However, these complex problems are only treated, and rarely prevented.
To borrow the oft-quoted analogy, money is being spent on the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, leaving no fence at the top. The issuing of social impact bonds (SIB) is an innovative new approach which aims to rethink this equation, and could potentially change the way we tackle tough problems.
Canada – Will Social Impact Bonds Lead To “Skimming”?
socialfinance.ca
Few social finance tools have spread as rapidly as the Social Impact Bond (SIB), the outcomes-financing model that mobilizes private funds for preventive social services. The first SIB was launched in 2010, in Peterborough, UK. Today, nearly 20 SIBs are operating in three countries. Tens more are under development in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. Just last month, the Harvard Kennedy School of Government SIB Technical Assistance lab announced it would be providing assistance to six U.S. states for the development of SIBs (28 states had applied for such support).
While much enthusiasm has surrounded the establishment of SIBs around the world, their development has not been without controversy. In this post, I will explore one of the most frequently cited critiques of the social impact bond, the claim that SIBs will lead to “cream skimming” of service populations.