26th September 2013 - £3m grant for Local Authorities Creating SIBs

The Big Lottery Fund has set aside cash for technical assistance in setting up social impact bonds By Russ Bubley

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Nat Sloane, @BigLotteryFund @Big_SI_England : our role is as catalyst; we can look beyond an electoral cycle #sioutcomes

— i for change (@iforchangeUK) September 26, 2013

Nat Sloane @BigLotteryFund : lots of technical elements in structuring deal, social outcomes that need to be achieved http://t.co/nzEpFXNnxf

— i for change (@iforchangeUK) September 26, 2013

The Cabinet Office’s Social Outcomes Fund and the Big Lottery Fund’s Commissioning Better Outcomes fund have a joint mission – and £60m – to support the development of more social impact bonds and similar investments.

The Local Government Association (LGA) and Social Finance have been appointed by the Big Lottery Fund to assist those interested in developing a social impact bond to put together an initial proposal and submit a formal Expression of Interest to these two funds. As part of this, public sector bodies (generally local authorities) - can ask for between £10,000 and £150,000 of development funding to purchase technical support to develop a social impact bond.

iforchange is on the database of suppliers of technical assistance for organisations that successfully pass the Expression of Interest stage. Technical assistance after this stage could include, for example:

• Building the case for outcomes and ensuring they are the right outcomes for the social issue that is being addressed; refining or changing outcome metrics where relevant.
• Financial modelling: understanding how different payment structures could impact both the public sector body and external social investors. How to optimise payment structures to achieve better value for money.
• Legal contract refinement – understand the trade-off between reduced legal risk and cheaper tenders. Entering into contractual negotiations with a clear understanding of these issues can mean that lawyers can be instructed more effectively, and contractual negotiations can be concluded more rapidly, resulting in swifter and cheaper contract negotiations.

Although the LGA and Social Finance will be in place to assist with submitting Expressions of Interest, please do feel free to contact us too for an independent point of view without obligation.