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Prince of Wales explores social impact bonds for homelessness

Finance | Jonathan Last | 12 Apr 2012

HRH the Prince of Wales hosted a meeting last month with some of his charities to discuss the future of social impact bonds, including measures to expand the model in the homelessness sector.  

The meeting was held on 15 March at the Prince’s Clarence House base in London, where HRH convened representatives and key stakeholders from his charities and patronages, alongside those from government and the public sector. Attendees included Big Society Capital, Big Lottery Fund, the Prince's Charitable Foundation, the Prince’s Regeneration Trust, and Age UK.

Social impact bonds (SIBs) allow partners to provide upfront funding to purchase positive outcomes, an approach pioneered at Peterborough prison, with the goal of reducing reoffending.

Dame Julia Cleverdon, one of HRH’s charity advisers as well as current vice-president and former chief executive of one of the organisations under his patronage, Business in the Community, told civilsociety.co.uk that the Prince has been monitoring the development of SIBs closely.

“HRH’s interest in this area dates back to the late 1980s, when he developed local investment funds – one of the first innovative vehicles which supported community entrepreneurs with loans instead of grants,” said Dame Julia, who attended the meeting.

“He has had briefings from Sir Ronald Cohen [businessman and social investment pioneer] and others and has been encouraging initiatives within his charities to see whether SIBs could be implemented, looking to build on the inspiring work at Peterborough prison.

“At the meeting in March we were looking at the ways in which social impact could be encouraged through SIBs. The Prince was very interested to talk about findings from Liverpool and Birmingham, where a Cabinet office team has been researching into the impact that SIBs could have.”

Anne Willmot, director of business action on homelessness at Business in the Community, said that its SIB project was still in the early stages but was “very exciting”.

“Our mission is to get 4,000 people into work by 2016,” she said. “Sadly, the number of homeless people in the UK is going up by up 17 per cent each year. We are one of the most successful groups in getting people into work in the UK, and are always looking to broaden our approach. We have been disillusioned with the Work Programme and so have been looking into alternative methods.

“Social impact bonds strike us as an interesting option, as we estimate that there more than 20,000 skilled homeless in the UK who are ready to return to work – given the right assistance. So we’re exploring a variety of different funding opportunities, SIBs being one of them, and discussions with the Cabinet Office are ongoing.”

In January, Business in the Community – alongside Triodos Bank and Greater Merseyside Connexions Partnership – won a £4.5m contract from the DWP Innovation Fund on a payment-by-results basis to help support young people in Merseyside who are unemployed or at risk of unemployment.

The three-year 'New Horizons’ programme aims to improve educational, training and ultimately employment outcomes for Merseyside's young people, including young offenders, those with learning disabilities, and those living in or leaving care.

Directory: Age UK | Big Lottery Fund