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Social return on investment key topic for Conservative think-tank

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 8 Feb 2010

Iain Duncan Smith has expressed support for a statutory funding philosophy based on social return on investment that he says could change the culture of national and local government.

Speaking at the latest policy launch of the Centre for Social Justice this morning, the former Conservative Party leader and chairman of the think-tank floated the concept of an independent body that would measure social return on investment (SROI), and advise government on different policies and programmes based on their SROI.

Duncan Smith was inspired by such systems, currently used in Washington State and Colorado, where specialist independent bodies evaluate all programmes proposed by the legislature, visit them in practice and re-visit them to ensure they are being implemented correctly.

“It may have huge implications for the way we [government] invest,” said Duncan Smith, declaring that it could “literally change the culture of national and local government”.

The Centre for Social Justice will explore ways of measuring social return on investment and how the principle can be introduced into government contracts, it was announced at the policy launch today.

Limited scope for tinkering

Duncan Smith said the system being explored by the think-tank would restrict the amount of variation between the way individual programmes are implemented across different regions.

But defending the idea against charges of being “paternalistic”, he said that the system would be more responsive to grassroots organisations and government, with most programmes originating from frontline programmes – although all would need “lots of evidence” that they were effective.

“We will be returning them back locally, but we don’t want to have a reinvention [of the programme at different levels],” he said.

Dr Stephen Brien, who will chair the working group on social return on investment, says that the philosophy could apply to all forms of local commissioning, but that “it would never be completely universal” nor would it “preclude innovation”.

While Duncan Smith emphasised that the Centre is apolitical, it is likely that the outcomes of the policy work from the think-tank will get a hearing within the Conservative Party.

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