Riverside’s £1m investment fund to support projects to prevent homelessness

Following the recent allocation of the Government’s Life Chances Fund to tackle social issues, Ali Clintworth, Riverside’s Impact Fund Manager, highlights how organisations can apply for Riverside’s £1m investment fund to run new services to prevent homelessness.

Ali Clintworth, Impact Fund Manager.

The Government recently announced details about the 22 projects who will benefit from the £48 million The Life Chances Fund to help people and communities across the country. I’m aware there will be organisations who were unsuccessful – but these applicants need not despair as Riverside is looking to support commissioners who would like to trial their idea.

As one of the country’s leading providers of homelessness services, we are committed to providing excellent, innovative services focusing on prevention and collaboration to ultimately improve people’s quality of life. Subsequently, as part of this commitment we have ring-fenced £1 million of our own money to invest in services on an outcomes-based commissioning model, or ‘payment-by-results’.

In our model Riverside will be both an investor and service provider and work in partnership with commissioners, who pay only when agreed outcomes are achieved.

The Riverside Impact Fund can help authorities invest in a simpler way to test an outcomes-based commissioning model, with no need for a special purpose vehicle and a reduced financial risk. This approach allows more innovative methods to be explored with greater flexibility around service delivery and focusing on meaningful outcomes, using appropriate measurements and timescales. We believe that by focusing on results and prevention, the approach delivers better outcomes for customers’. This evidence can then be used to show what really works and support commissioning decisions in the future.

We are keen to talk about our Impact Fund with commissioners to develop services that address local challenges such as those outlined in their Life Chances application. These could be to do with homelessness prevention, resettlement, young people, hospital discharge, mental health and refugee support.

We are also looking to support authorities looking to make their first steps into outcomes-based commissioning, instead of using the larger scale social impact bonds. For example, this could be a specialist role or smaller service focusing on a specific group of people. Riverside Impact Fund can be that stepping stone into outcomes-based commissioning and test whether it is something you want to develop further.

I’m keen to talk with any interested parties about our Impact Fund so please feel free to contact me by emailing [email protected] or for more details, visit our website.