US social care initiatives set to launch in England

One of the schemes – known as Treatment Foster Care Oregon – is due to be run by Evidence-Based Social Investments (EBSI) alongside Southwark Council as a social investment bond over an eight-year period.

It will support around 65 young people in care aged between 11 and 17. The young people will be temporarily placed with trained foster carers who provide therapeutic support. It is designed to build young people’s social and life skills "within a caring family foster placement".

It has been awarded £880,000 and has been asked to raise a further £2m of investment prior to launch. Investors will receive payments from the council and the Big Lottery Fund based on eventual reductions in days spent in residential care.

The other US initiative – called Family Functional Therapy Child Welfare – which is originally from Seattle, Washington – will also be run by EBSI alongside Medway Council, in Kent. It has been allocated £810,000 to will work with children and their families over an eight-year period with the aim to reduce the need for care placements. Investment of £1.5m is now being sought to fund start-up costs.

In addition, up to £293,250 has been earmarked for North Somerset Council for a four-year social impact bond to support 240 local young people aged between 10 and 17 who are at risk of going into care.

Support will be provided to children and families, as well as to those already in care so they can return home safely and quickly. Outcomes payments will be made where a child is settled in, reunited with, or remains in the family home and where their wellbeing measurably improves. The therapeutic intervention that will be used is yet to be decided. A further £350,000 investment is required prior to launch.

Roger Bullen, chief executive of EBSI, said: "We are working with the councils because they are interested in using a social impact bond model to really commission preventative services on an outcomes basis.

"They want to deploy a particular service and they see the social impact bonds as an opportunity to do that.

"We are working with investors to get social investment to fund services and that is complemented by the Big Lottery Award in terms of a contribution to outcome payments. The lottery is supporting the payment of outcomes related to those two groups of young people."

Geeta Gopalan, vice chair of Big Lottery Fund England, added: “The Big Lottery Fund believes in supporting multiple ways of funding innovative schemes to tackle social problems.

?“This can lessen the burden of these problems on the voluntary and community sector, society and the public purse, freeing up more funding for people and communities in need of support.”?