Backing what works? Social Impact Bonds and evidence-informed policy and practice

Figures & data

Table 1. Description of SIB Trailblazer interventions, their evidence base and evaluations.

Project	Aim of project	Type of services	Outcome metrics	Strength of evidence behind the intervention	Local counter—factual data collected	Local qualitative evaluation	Status as of January 2020
Manchester Foster Care	Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care Oregon for Adolescents™ programme (TFCO-A™) providing behavioural interventions for 95 children aged 11 to 14 years	Specialized foster care services providing behavioural interventions for foster children in family-based settings	Number of children moved from residential care to foster placements. ‘Bonus’ outcome metrics: improved school attendance, better behaviour, and wider wellbeing	Medium evidence base	No	No	Active since 2014
London Thames Reach Homelessness	Personalized service pathway for a cohort of 415 entrenched rough sleepers	Navigators monitor cohort closely. Personalized approach tailored to individuals (for example assist to find housing)	Reduction in rough sleeping, move to stable accommodation, sustained reconnection, reduced emergency admissions, progress to employment, education, or volunteering	Medium evidence base	Yes	Yes	Completed (2012–2015)
Newcastle Ways to Wellness	Better self-management of long-term conditions through social prescribing for 14248 people with long term conditions (LTC) living in West Newcastle	Social prescribing (through Link workers) (i.e. non-medical interventions in the local community to foster sustained healthy behaviours)	Achieved improvement of the outcomes on the Wellbeing Star and savings for secondary care acute usage	Medium evidence base	Yes	Yes	Active since 2015
Shared Lives	Provide an alternative to care homes for approximately 150 people in need of intensive support in two sites over 3 years	An alternative to home care and care homes for people in need of support, with support instead provided through living with a host family	Number of new Shared Lives care placements established	Weak evidence base	No	No	Completed (2015–2018)
Worcester Reconnections	Reduce social isolation among older people through one-to-one tailored support to engage with local community. 3000 people identified as lonely aged 50+ years; reduced to 1800 people after contract renegotiation in Spring 2016	Personalized service packages to engage individuals in local community activities (for example befriending services, gardening club)	Reduction in self-reported loneliness (using R-UCLA 12 scale)	Weak evidence base	No	Yes	Completed (2015–2019)
Cornwall	Improve wellbeing and health outcomes for older people	Early interventions for a cohort of 1000 frail older people at risk of emergency admission	Reduced emergency admissions, improved wellbeing (Edinburgh and Warwick mental wellbeing scale)	Weak evidence base	N/A	N/A	Not commissioned
East Lancashire	Improve wellbeing and health outcomes for identified cohort	Provision of patient-specific tailored health and social care interventions to reduce isolation, unemployment, and poor quality of life	Not confirmed. Outcomes would have likely included reducing isolation and returning to work or education	Weak evidence base	N/A	N/A	Not commissioned
Leeds	Improved specialist neuro-rehabilitation nursing services	Setting up a 75-bed nursing facility and creating a community of care delivering nursing care to a mix of high-needs people	Not specified in detail. ‘Complex metrics’ used, many outcomes, including money saved for the government by the interventions	Weak evidence base	N/A	N/A	Not commissioned
Sandwell and Birmingham	Improved end-of-life care services	Integrated community end-of-life care services	Increase in proportion of patients dying in their usual place of residence; decrease in unplanned emergency admission rate in final month of life	Weak evidence base	N/A	N/A	Not commissioned