Call for Evidence: Independent Quadrennial Review

The Oversight Trust has set up a panel to carry out the second independent review of Better Society Capital. We are inviting stakeholders who are interested in contributing to get in touch with the panel and share their views. 

Background

The Oversight Trust is responsible for overseeing the companies that have received funding under the English allocation of Dormant Asset monies including: Better Society Capital (BSC), Access – the Foundation for Social Investment, Fair4All Finance and Youth Futures Foundation. Each year we commission a review and report on one of the four Operating Companies (in turn) with a view to assessing how effective they are in achieving the mission they were set up to deliver.

This year we are launching the second Quadrennial Review of BSC, and we want to hear what you think. The first Quadrennial Review of BSC can be found here: oversighttrust.org

Reviewers

The Panel set up to perform the review comprises:

• Keith Leslie, Chair of Trustes at Samaritans
• Claire Brown, Chair of Audit Committee of the Nuffield Foundation
• Magdalene Bayim-Adomako, Chair of the Youth Delivery Committee of the Youth Investment Fund

Secretariat for the Review will be provided by Fiona Young Priest, Independent Charity Consultant specialising in finance and governance projects.

The Review Process

Over the coming weeks the Review Panel will look at BSC’s key achievements and consider strategic issues where it believes further attention may be required for sustained success.

The Review Panel will approach many stakeholders directly, and all interested parties are invited to respond by providing input to the process in writing. Responses received and any subsequent interviews with participants will be treated in confidence and not shared with BSC.

The Panel would be interested in hearing your experience of working with the organisation and/or your views on how successful BSC has been in beginning to address some of the key areas that it has identified as its strategic priorities.

BSC Strategy

In 2020, BSC launched its strategy to 2025 with the aim of at least doubling the UK social impact investing market from £5.2bn at the end of 2019, and helping it grow to £10-15bn by 2025.

The 2020-25 strategy concentrates on BSC learnings since its creation in 2012 and putting this into action. It focuses on building four market systems where BSC believes it can make the biggest difference by increasing the quantity and quality of capital flowing to social enterprises, charities and social purpose organisations.

• Build a social lending market that meets the needs of a diverse range of social enterprises, charities, small businesses, and investors alike
• Build a housing market that creates more safe, secure and affordable homes for everyone to access, regardless of their circumstances, particularly for the most vulnerable people
• Build a venture market that nurtures and scales innovative ways of tackling social problems
• Build a market for social outcomes contracts that improves public service delivery for people with complex needs, while creating better value in public services 

BSC’s Mission and Achievements

BSC’s mission is to grow the amount of money invested in tackling social issues and inequalities in the UK.

Founded in 2012, BSC was established with £625m of committed capital (including £200m from the major high street banks) to develop the social impact investment market in the UK.

BSC summarises its key achievements to date to include:

• £9.4bn estimated total size of UK social impact investment market (2022), 11 -fold increase since BSC was established in 2012
• Committed £927m of investments since BSC’s launch, from £425m of dormant assets, supporting over 3,500 enterprises across the UK
• £2.8bn of co-investment from more than 200 institutional investors
• Social property - over 6,000 homes completed, projected to house more than 15,000 people
• Social lending - 2,500 enterprises taking on social lending with 60% of borrowers in the 40% most economically disadvantaged areas
• Impact venture – more than 120 start-ups receiving investment with a focus on helping people with health and financial inclusion
• Social outcomes – more than 220 social purpose organisations have used the outcomes funding approach to deliver a range of public services

Any responses will be seen only by the Panel and the Secretariat and not shared with Better Society Capital or the Oversight Trust. Any materials or quotes included in the report will be checked and approved for publication with the contributor concerned. All materials will be held in a third-party secure Data Room and deleted after the publication of the final report.