Payment by Results and Social Impact Bonds

As public services budgets are cut, the ‘Payment by Results’ (or Pay for Success) model has become a popular choice in public sector commissioning. Social Impact Bonds are a variant of Payment by Results also promoted by proponents of social (or impact) investing. But how effective are these approaches?

This short book asks whether the Payment by Results model is an efficient way to unlock new capital investment, help new providers to enter the ‘market’ and foster innovation, or whether the extension of ‘neoliberal’ thinking, complexity and the effects of managerialism undermine the effective delivery of social outcomes.

Synthesising lessons from the UK and US for the first time, the book draws on published work in both countries together with insights from the authors’ own research and consultancy experience to offer a balanced and bipartisan overview of a field where the evidence has been weak and there are strong ideological agendas in play.

“"Provides an interesting...perspective on the use of outcomesbased funding mechanisms in the delivery of public services, in both the United Kingdom and the United States." Wiley Online Library”

“This book represents both a timely and accessible stocktake of the bubble surrounding Payment by Results and Social Impact Bonds. This group of researchers, who are closely involved with the issues at hand, offer significant insight into the current situation, including limitations and potential future directions of these approaches.” Professor Rob Wilson, Newcastle University, UK

Kevin Albertson is Professor of Economics at Manchester Metropolitan University. Chris Fox is Professor of Evaluation and Policy Analysis at Manchester Metropolitan University. Christopher O’Leary is Senior Lecturer in the Policy Evaluation and Research Unit at Manchester Metropolitan University.

As public services budgets are cut, the 'Payment by Results' (or Pay for Success) model has become a popular choice in public sector commissioning. Social Impact Bonds are a variant of Payment by Results also promoted by proponents of social (or impact) investing. But how effective are these approaches? This short book asks whether the Payment by Results model is an efficient way to unlock new capital investment, help new providers to enter the 'market' and foster innovation, or whether the extension of 'neoliberal' thinking, complexity and the effects of managerialism undermine the effective delivery of social outcomes. Synthesising lessons from the UK and US for the first time, the book draws on published work in both countries together with insights from the authors' own research and consultancy experience to offer a balanced and bipartisan overview of a field where the evidence has been weak and there are strong ideological agendas in play.

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