Summative Evaluation of the Essex Multi-Systemic Therapy Social Impact Bond

Report

Essex County Council (ECC) Family Operations Service currently provides access to Multi-Systemic Therapy (MST) to young people who meet the referral criteria. This service is aimed at supporting young people and their families where there is a risk of a young person entering care (which also includes young people remanded into custody), and has the intention of keeping the young person within the family home whenever it is safe to do so. This service is being funded via a Social Impact Bond (SIB) and is being delivered by an external provider.

In 2013 Traverse (under our former name, OPM) were commissioned to deliver a three-year independent evaluation of the MST SIB, using funding from Central Government.

The evaluation generated:

• A replicable methodology for capturing any value added by the SIB
• Recommendations for improving the delivery of MST through a SIB in Essex
• Recommendations for improved future working of SIBs.

The evaluation involved capturing both qualitative and quantitative data. The evaluation ran until March 2016, culminating in a final summative report released in September 2016.

Authors