Payment by Results and Social Impact Bonds

As austerity measures have led to greater struggles over limited governmental funding, there has in recent years been increasing interest in Payment by Results, or Payment for Success, as a model for commissioning social services. A Social Impact Bond, or Pay for Success Bond, is a type of social service contract where the financing is provided by private entities, with the idea that this will unlock new capital investment and advance social good by limiting funding to projects that are needed and likely to succeed. This book looks at that assumption and evaluates the relatively limited current research on the effectiveness of the approach, making the case that more study is needed if investment of this sort is going to continue to grow.