Investment and Contract Readiness Fund pays dividends

A grant scheme aiming to better equip social ventures to win public service contracts and secure repayable investment has led to a significant improvement in their success rates. The £13.2m Investment and Contract Readiness Fund (ICRF), established by the Cabinet Office and part-funded by Arts Council England, supported 155 ventures from 2012-15, with an average grant of £85k. Figures published in a report by Ecorys reveal that this intervention led to 84 contracts and investments worth a total of £233m being secured by 78 of the 155 who received the support. The evaluators describe the Fund as having “pioneered an important model for improving the contract and investment readiness of social ventures”.

The social enterprises that benefited from the scheme were seeking to raise at least £100k in repayable investment or secure a public service contract of £1m or more. They came from a wide range of sectors, including criminal justice, health, education and the environment, as well as the arts. The most common types of help and advice given were in financial modelling, preparing social impact reports, investment structuring, tendering and bid writing.

As well as raising new funds from commissions and investment, many of the organisations reported longer-term and non-financial benefits from the support they received. They felt the fund had led to sustained changes that will enable them to continue to be ‘investment and contract ready’ due to their improved skills and knowledge, increasing confidence and wider networks. Some have already secured further deals after the ICRF support came to an end and others commented on how the support had led to a cultural shift further towards a social enterprise/business outlook.

Looking to the future, the report notes that this type of support needs to be flexible and tailored to the specific needs of organisations, whose investment and contract readiness vary across a spectrum. It points out that requiring organisations to make some level of financial contribution towards their own support could increase the number of ventures that could be helped and improve the ‘buy-in’ of ventures, especially if Boards fail to engage with the process.

The Cultural Commissioning Programme, a three-year Arts Council England funded programme which runs to June 2016, is continuing to deliver a range of support to give arts organisations the skills and capacity to bid for public service contracts and to influence commissioners of the benefits of working with the arts and cultural sector. Programme Manager Jessica Harris told AP: “Helping cultural organisations to develop skills and capacity to engage in cultural commissioning is an important part of the picture, but there is also work to do in other areas to ensure that commissioners are aware of and know how to commission arts and cultural organisations to deliver public service outcomes. Encouraging relationships between cultural providers and commissioners, influencing policy makers and raising the profile of this area of work is also critical if the sector is to make the most of opportunities in this area.”