Organisations working on projects to support young people and early years development can now apply for top-up funding from an £80m fund to support social impact bonds and payment-by-results.
The Life Chances Fund was launched in July, and will support local public sector organisations to commission social impact bonds and other payment-by-results contracts involving "socially-minded investors".
Social impact bonds involve public sector bodies agreeing a payment-by-results contract to deliver social outcomes with a charity or other social sector body. Delivery of the service is then funded by a social investor, who takes a cut of any payout, but loses out if the delivery is unsuccessful.
The Life Chances Fund will commit additional money alongside the public sector contractor. It is designed to help where a SIB can deliver savings to many public bodies, but no one agency can realise enough savings to make a PbR contract worthwhile.
The Life Chances Fund covers six themes. Two - young people and early years - are open for expressions of interest today. Two more - drug and alcohol dependency and children’s services - have now closed to expressions of interest. They were open between July and September last year.
Call outs for the remaining two themes - healthy lives and older people's services - are expected in June this year.
Some £30m was earmarked for tackling drug and alcohol dependency. The remaining £50m has been split across the other themes.
Applicants need to submit an expression of interest and will be invited to make a full application if successful. Expressions of interest need to be made by 28 February.
More details are available here.
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