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Big Lottery Fund appoints contractor to support social investment programme

28 Aug 2013 03:08 PM

Big Lottery Fund has appointed Social Finance in partnership with the Local Government Association (LGA) to offer a support package for those developing Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) and other Payment by Results (PbR) based social investments as part of Commissioning Better Outcomes*.

Social Finance and LGA, who bring a wealth of experience to this area, will work to engage and encourage the development of SIB proposals that could then benefit from the £40million Big Lottery Fund’s Commissioning Better Outcomes fund or the Cabinet Office’s £20 million Social Outcomes Fund.

Social Finance and LGA will provide a range of support, including the publication of technical guides, development of online tools, holding webinars and production of podcasts, as well as offering workshops, one-to-one surgeries and diagnosis of further development needs. This will support proposals that could then go on to access technical development grants from Commissioning Better Outcomes, leading to a possible contribution to outcomes payments from either or both of the outcomes funds.

Nat Sloane, Big Lottery Fund England Chair said: “The overall purpose of the contract is to ensure commissioners are supported in their understanding and development of robust SIB proposals so that better outcomes are commissioned for people and communities most in need.

“We also want to encourage the engagement of VCSE delivery providers and potential investors. The contract is therefore an essential piece of architecture that will ultimately contribute to the Big Lottery Fund’s goal to develop the social investment market in a way that supports charities and social enterprises to become more sustainable and grow so they can better serve those most in need.”

David Hutchison, CEO Social Finance said: “We are delighted to have been appointed as the Big Lottery Fund’s contractor on the Commissioning Better Outcomes. The new fund, alongside the Cabinet Office’s Social Outcomes Fund, represents a great opportunity to grow the Social Impact Bond market. We look forward to working with commissioners as they explore the potential Social Impact Bonds have to provide support and deliver better outcomes for the most vulnerable members of our society.”

Cllr Sharon Taylor, Chair of the LGA’s Finance Panel said: “Local government has always been a leader in finding new and better ways of delivering services to improve lives and save public money. Our members are keen to look at how Social Impact Bonds can be used to tackle issues of concern to residents, such as truancy, criminal reoffending and antisocial behaviour. The injection of money from the Big Lottery Fund provides the impetus to get the Social Impact Bond market off the ground. We are looking forward to working with our partners to deliver on this project’s significant potential.”

For more information about the two funds, and to submit an expression of interest, visit www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/sioutcomesfunds

Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 020 7211 1888

Out of hours media contact: 07867 500 572

Full details of the Big Lottery Fund programmes and grant awards are available on the website: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk

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Notes to editors

  • The Big Lottery Fund, the largest distributor of National Lottery good cause funding, is responsible for giving out 40% of the money raised for good causes by the National Lottery.
  • The Fund is committed to bringing real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need and has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK. Since its inception in June 2004 the Big Lottery Fund has awarded close to £6 bn.
  • The Fund was formally established by Parliament on 1 December 2006.
  • Since the National Lottery began in 1994, 28p from every pound spent by the public has gone to good causes. As a result, over £30 billion has now been raised and more than 400,000 grants awarded across arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.
  • The Cabinet Office’s Social Outcomes Fund is an innovative top-up fund that will create many more social impact bonds that make a difference to people’s lives. It will attract new money by bringing in investment to help finance early, preventative programmes on some of the most complex and expensive social problems. The fund will be used to provide a ‘top-up’ contribution to PbR or SIB contracts that are designed to deal with complex and expensive social issues. It will catalyse innovative new projects in areas where the wider benefits mean that a SIB is value for money, but where no single commissioner can justify making all of the outcomes payments. The fund encourages active engagement from the Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector to enable service redesign and will accept expressions of interest by any interested party such as a commissioner, service provider, intermediary or investor. It operates only in England, with funding available to government departments, local councils, and other commissioning bodies like police forces or clinical commissioning groups. The Fund will only top up a minority proportion of outcomes payments and the average across the Fund is expected to be 20% of the total outcomes payments.
  • We expect full applications to be from a commissioning organisation, typically a public sector organisation. In exceptional circumstances we would consider full applications from other organisations as detailed in our guidance.