Financing the Big Society: Financiers

About this seminar series

We ran a four-part series of breakfast seminars in November and December 2010 on Financing the Big Society.

The Spending Review signaled two clear trends for the provision of public services in the future:

1. an increasing emphasis on the use of outcomes-based commissioning
2. a desire to diversify provision to include more civil society organisations and SMEs.

When combined with the wider cuts agenda, these trends will require a revolution in how 'Big Society' providers finance themselves, in particular the requirement to access more risk-based capital.

• How should providers, commissioners and financiers respond to this agenda?
• What role will the Big Society Bank play?
• What new financing models are likely to emerge?

About this event: Financiers

Financiers have long struggled to develop commercial financing models for the CSO market except in relatively low-risk areas such as asset backed loans.

For the Big Society vision to become reality, new instruments will need to be developed that can support higher-risk, growth activity in a commercially sustainable way.

• Are Social Impact Bonds the answer?
• What other models could work?
• Why has so little private finance been attracted to date?