Services for the public sector

PbR involves working in partnerships. Payment by Results (PbR) contracting brings opportunities, but also challenges. It is not uncommon for commissioners to try to use familiar processes for traditional commissioning when embarking on a PbR contract, but this can lead to results that are unduly burdensome or expensive.

We offer training, workshops and technical assistance on PbR contracting and Social Impact Bonds.

We can help you:

  • Structure a PbR tendering process to attract social enterprises.
  • Understand what makes outcome metrics successful.
  • Learn how organisations tendering to a PbR contract will price their services and hence the trade-offs between risks and costs.
  • Put in place contracts that will avoid “creaming” (delivering services only to the easiest to help) and “parking” (delivering essentially no services to the hardest to help).
  • Work with other public bodies to co-finance PbR contracts.
  • Reduce expensive back-and-forths with your lawyers on the actual PbR contracts.
  • Understand the differences between a direct PbR contract and one funded by a Social Impact Bond.
  • Understand the role of social investment, mutual spin outs other forms of partnerships in this context..

We seek to offer insight and analysis not only on commissioning with PbR and social impact bonds, but a more strategic look at the risks and rewards of utilising social investment.

iforchange would be happy to discuss any of these with you.

Getting funding for Social Impact Bonds and other forms of outcome finance

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, you can ask for between £10,000 and £150,000 of development funding to purchase technical support to develop your 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 your outcomes and ensuring they are the right outcomes for the social issue you are trying to address; refining or changing outcome metrics where relevant.
  • Financial modelling: understanding how different payment structures could impact you 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 you with submitting your Expression of Interest, please do feel free to contact us beforehand for an independent point of view without obligation.