Social Impact Bonds are an innovative way of commissioning public services. Private or philanthropic investors provide the upfront finance, with government only paying them a return if and once social outcomes are achieved. However, the number of Social Impact Bonds currently underway is small, and our analysis finds that they are unlikely to appeal to mainstream investors unless some major hurdles can be overcome.
Figures for the second year of the Government’s flagship Work Programme back-to-work scheme were released this morning. With the vast array of numbers and percentages flying around, it can be hard to know what to conclude about how the programme is doing. Ian Mulheirn outlines some of the things we can and can’t conclude from the numbers.
Ian Mulheirn explores the paradox of the welfare system, whereby unemployment support is simultanously meagre and unpopular, and examines the shortcomings of the orthodox approach to dealing with it. A verson of this essay appeared in the New Statesman on 17 May 2013. This article is extracted from the SMF's Beveridge Rebooted.
