UK PbR is growing
In its 2015 report on payment by results, the National Audit Office identified 52 schemes containing an element of PbR which were worth a total of at least £15 billion of public money. Details are in the graphic below (to enhance readability, click it to make it go full screen or right click it and save it to your computer/tablet/phone).
As you can see, the main schemes are:
- The Work Programme (DWP) worth £3.3bn over 9 years
- Transforming Rehabilitation (MoJ) worth £3.15bn over 7 years
- New Homes (DCLG) £3.4 bn over 5 years
- Troubled Families (DCLG) worth £448m over 3 years (and now extended for a further £200m over 5 years)
- A large number of international aid projects (DFID) worth over £2bn
The proportion of PbR payment varies between schemes. Under MoJ’s Peterborough offender rehabilitation pilot, 100% of payments are outcome-based; whereas the PbR component of DFID’s Rwanda education sector programme is only 9%.
Despite a clear evidence base for its effectiveness, the use of PbR commissioning is growing in the UK. For example, the 2015 DrugScope State of the Sector report found that PbR is becoming increasingly common in the substance misuse field with 12% of non-pilot treatment services being commissioned on a PbR basis with a further 9% anticipating the introduction of PbR before September 2015.
Other schemes are being announced with regularity:
Home Group secured £500,000 funding via a social impact bond for a scheme to help young homeless people in the North-East (17 November 2015)
There are five other sections to this payment by results resource pack:
