Asheem Singh is Director of Strategy and Policy at the Impetus Trust, an organisation that works to break the cycle of poverty by investing in ambitious charities and social enterprises that fight economic disadvantage
Katy Thorpe was a teenager when she escaped from an abusive relationship and went to live with her parents in Derby. She was pregnant at the time; overwhelmed somewhat at the prospect of becoming a young mum. In stepped her local Family Nurse, a member of a scheme run by the local NHS Primary Care Trust. Liz Harman offered Katy simple but crucial advice on how to bond with her baby Tyler, play with him, and show him love and affection.
Originating in the US, Family Nurse Partnerships are an enduring solution to the difficulties faced by young or overwhelmed new mums. In his latest government-commissioned report, Early Intervention: Smart Investment, Massive Savings, Graham Allen identified Family Nurse Partnerships as one of 25 so-called ‘early years interventions’ with a track record of success that can increase child wellbeing and prevent problems in later life. He praises the government’s Early Intervention Grant, which seeks to double the number of Family Nurse Partnership Places and health visitors from 6,000 to 13,000 by 2015.
Greater freedom
The worth of early interventions in general, and family nurse partnerships in particular, is disputed by few; of more controversy is the means by which such partnerships might be replicated. Public investment is obviously at a premium. Katy’s own story emerged after she spoke at an event in which the Derby Family Nurse Partnership changed hands. It ‘spun out’ of the NHS with a £30,000 grant from the Department of Health and formed a social enterprise, RippleZ in January 2011. In April, the nurses involved in the scheme started running it, rather than managers, under the guidance of CEO Chris Tully. The theory is that operating beyond the bureaucratic constraints of the NHS gives RippleZ more freedom to raise funds, operate more effectively and so help more people.
Just three months after RippleZ span out of the NHS, it secured an additional contract that will effectively double its income. And with even more ambitious plans on the table, RippleZ has recognised that it needs not just good intentions but good systems to support those intentions. This is where venture philanthropy, and the work of the Impetus Trust in partnership with The Sutton Trust, can help. Venture philanthropy does not only supply capital to charities and social enterprises who wish to grow and so help more people – it also develops the business fundamentals of these charities and social enterprises to enable them sustain that growth.
Walking the walk
Here is how venture philanthropy answers Allen’s call to the government to, as he puts it, ‘walk the walk’ on early intervention: first, it helps plug the gap between the theory of what works, the evidence of what works and how that evidence is translated in to practical interventions. The Impetus and Sutton Trusts’ Early Years Initiative specifically works with disadvantaged parents and their children aged 0 to 5 with the goal of making those children more ‘school ready’. Organisations will receive, over a period of around five years, a support package comprised of substantial funding in addition to tailored support. To date we have over £1m of funding confirmed and will make the initial three investments later this summer.
Second, it provides intelligence on the risks private investors will take with social projects. Allen’s report is in tune with the approach of the government across several policy areas in seeking to establish payment by results and other social investment mechanisms to fund early intervention services. For policy areas such as, for example, reducing recidivism, the idea of a ‘result’ that creates efficiencies for government is relatively straightforward to conceptualise: the savings come largely from the prisons bill. For early years intervention, however, this exercise is far trickier. The next phase of the government’s work in this space must therefore be in concert with the holders of this intelligence, to work together to ascertain the specific results that government seeks, that can help assure would-be investors and so make, rather than break, this burgeoning market.
It is a cliché to say that success requires long-term planning, but in the case of investing in the support structures that can extend the domain of early intervention, this is most certainly true. Now, as baby Tyler has passed his second birthday, Katy Thorpe is studying to be a nurse at the University of Nottingham. Who knows, maybe one day she will be a Family Nurse herself. Hers is some journey; and if we get the strategy right, there is no reason why she or others in her situation need walk it alone.
