DN2 Children’s Services Social Impact Bond
Aligned SDGs
- DN2 Children’s Services Social Impact Bond
- General overview
- Location
- Involved organisations
- Outcome metrics
- Results
- Spreadsheet of data
- DN2 Children’s Services Social Impact Bond
- General overview
- Location
- Involved organisations
- Outcome metrics
- Results
- Spreadsheet of data
General overview
Stage of development: Implementation
Policy sector: Child and family welfare
Date outcomes contract signed: Sep 2020
Start date of service provision: Oct 2020
Anticipated completion date: Oct 2026
Capital raised (minimum): GBP 884.83k (USD 1.10m)
Max potential outcome payment: GBP 9.12m
Service users: 304 individuals
Intervention
Intensive support to children at risk of care entry or who recently entered care to help them remain with their families where it is safe to do so, and wraparound specialist support to children in care to help them step down to suitable foster placements.
Target population
Children and Young People aged 10-17 either at risk of entering care or in the care system
Location
Country
- United Kingdom
Service delivery locations
- Nottingham
- Nottinghamshire
- Derby
Involved organisations
Configuration of contracting parties:
- Direct contract between outcome payer and provider
Outcome metrics
- Metric 1: Child/young person steps down from residential care into a familial type environment (Weeks spent out of residential care after intervention)
- Metric 2: Stabilising foster care placements where the child/ young person would, without intervention be likely to enter residential care (Weeks spent in foster carer after intervention)
- Metric 3: Re-unifying children/ young people who have entered care with their family/ primary carer (Weeks out of care with birth parents/ primary carers after intervention)
- Metric 4: Preventing children/ young people on the edge of care - entering the care of the local authority (Weeks out of care with birth parents/ primary carers after intervention)
Results
The DN2 children's services started delivering services in October 2020 and will finish in October 2026. Data was last updated in June 2024. These are interim results.
Outcome achievements
Overall target is based on the high case scenario defined in the Life Chances Fund Final Award Offer or Variation Agreements.
The graph above shows interim results for the project’s outcome achievements. Each bar represents a key participant outcome or metrics. Each metric is detailed above the graph (under the ‘Outcome metrics’ section of this page). Users can hover over the bars to access data on the expectations and achievements for that particular metric. Labels at the top of the bar represent the overall expectations for specific metrics, for the entire life of the project. The coloured section of the bar represents the project’s achievements so far.
Each bar takes the unit of analysis of the metric (if the metric is measured in number of individuals, the bar graph is representing individuals achieving that metric. If the metric is measured in weeks, the bar graph is representing weeks).
A note on targets (or expectations): the graph above shows the latest targets for the project. These targets are based on the best-case scenario expectations for every project. These targets may be different from the targets set at the start, as projects adapt to unexpected challenges or changes in circumstances. In addition, these targets could also work as a ‘cap’ for payments. We offer these parameters as a reference on outcome achievement projections. If projects are under implementation, they are not expected to have achieved any of these targets yet.
The service provider's comment on this graph:
'DN2 have sought to commission evidence informed services that support children and young people in local authority care and on the edge of care to achieve stability within their planned family-based placement. It has one of the most diverse scopes of the UK child welfare SIBs, with the service simultaneously operating across four main scenarios: transition from residential care to therapeutic foster care; stabilisation of foster placements and avoidance of entry into residential care; reunification from care with birth family / primary carers; and, diversion at the edge of care to remain safely with birth families / primary carers. The service delivery uses a suit of evidence-based and informed systemic interventions that are structured to the circumstances of each of the four scenarios, and within this tailored to the needs of each child and carer/parent.
The main outcome, and only payment outcome for each of the four cohorts, is placement stability. This is based on the number of weeks in the planned family-based placement. The interventions' impact on developing the resilience and the child and the carer / parent is captured through the distance travelled on the Outcomes Star framework - My Star for the children and young people and Family Star Plus for the carers / parents. The "number" of outcomes achieved for individual outcome metric represents "number of weeks in placement" for this project.'
Outcome payments
The graph above shows interim outcome payment results. The x-axis displays the years since the start date of the project to the anticipated completion date. The y-axis represents the value of the payments for outcomes realised by participants in the programme. The aim of this graph is to enable users to compare the initial expectations of the project against the actual value of the outcomes that were achieved.
The dotted lines represent the different plans that projects had at different moments- labelled as ‘Plans’ in the key. The data for these dotted lines (or single dotted line) comes from the outcome payment profiles that projects shared with the commissioners and their values represent expectations according to 'best-case scenarios' (if projects achieved as many outcomes as possible). There are different dotted lines as projects can renegotiate their payment plans as they face changes that affect delivery (such as the COVID pandemic) or adjust their expectations during the life of the project. Each dotted line is made of a set of points. Each point represents a quarter. Users can hover over those points and access data on the expectations for that quarter.
The solid line shows the outcome payments that the project already claimed and received- labelled as ‘Actual’ in the key. Squared points on the 'Actual' line indicate that the payment for that quarter was a COVID-19 medium-scenario grant. This was one of the temporary funding options offered to projects during the COVID-19 pandemic (this included activity payments based on projected medium-case performance scenarios). On the top-right corner, the ‘Plans’ and ‘Actual’ lines can be selected and deselected to change which lines appear in the graph.
A note on the representation of different payment profiles (or plans): when Life Chances Fund projects reprofile their payment plans, they use a template provided by the National Lottery Fund. When they complete data for the past quarters, some projects preferred to leave those cells blank, other preferred to repeat the previous expectations and other decided to complete those cells with data from actual payments. To avoid confusions around these different criteria, we start representing a plan from the moment when the plan is valid.
The service provider's comment on this graph:
'The impact of the COVID 19 pandemic has had a knock on effect for the foster carer community, with lack of availability and capacity being widely acknowledged and referrals for children and young people stepping down from residential care is therefore lower than planned. As we are only coming to the end of year 3 of our SIB model, DN2 haven’t as yet come to a decision as to the future of the programme post the SIB contract.'
Spreadsheet of data
Important Notice and Disclaimer on INDIGO Data
INDIGO data are shared for research and policy analysis purposes. INDIGO data can be used to support a range of insights, for example, to understand the social outcomes that projects aim to improve, the network of organisations across projects, trends, scales, timelines and summary information. The collaborative system by which we collect, process, and share data is designed to advance data-sharing norms, harmonise data definitions and improve data use. These data are NOT shared for auditing, investment, or legal purposes. Please independently verify any data that you might use in decision making. We provide no guarantees or assurances as to the quality of these data. Data may be inaccurate, incomplete, inconsistent, and/or not current for various reasons: INDIGO is a collaborative and iterative initiative that mostly relies on projects all over the world volunteering to share their data. We have a system for processing information and try to attribute data to named sources, but we do not audit, cross-check, or verify all information provided to us. It takes time and resources to share data, which may not have been included in a project’s budget. Many of the projects are ongoing and timely updates may not be available. Different people may have different interpretations of data items and definitions. Even when data are high quality, interpretation or generalisation to different contexts may not be possible and/or requires additional information and/or expertise. Help us improve our data quality: email us at indigo@bsg.ox.ac.uk if you have data on new projects, changes or performance updates on current projects, clarifications or corrections on our data, and/or confidentiality or sensitivity notices. Please also give input via the INDIGO Data Definitions Improvement Tool and INDIGO Feedback Questionnaire.