Background

The Inclusive Economy Partnership (IEP) is a Government initiative with the goal of changing the way that government, business and civil society work together to address some of society's toughest challenges.

The original hypothesis for the programme was that business, civil society and government could do more together through a coordinated vision for change. Through the power of partnership, collaboration, innovation and a shared determination to make the UK a better place to live and thrive, we can solve age-old problems with new ways of thinking.

An innovation programme was established to test which areas of partnership would be most successful in placing the UK as a world leader in building an inclusive economy and supporting social innovators to scale their impact. The result was the Inclusive Economy Partnership (IEP).

Supported by the Cabinet Office and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) in partnership with Nesta, the big challenges to be tackled were:

1. Financial inclusion and capability
2. Transition to work for young people
3. Mental health in the workplace

The following report highlights the success and impact of the Inclusive Economy Partnership Accelerator, led by Nesta; a vital component of the IEP, delivered between August 2017 and September 2018. The report showcases how Nesta supported 18 IEP grant winners (social innovators) across three challenge areas to scale through meaningful partnerships with business, civil society and government, as well as a grant of £20,000.

The partnership accelerator model

Nesta is an experienced innovation funder, and we applied what we knew about the key components of any R&D accelerator to create a new model – which emphasises connections with corporates and civil society organisations as part of testing and growing new ideas, rather than exclusively working with the venture itself. We focused our energy on two components of support for the social innovators: support for scaling – provided directly from Nesta (and through procured specialist support) and support for development of partnerships - with delivery group members and others.

"Introductions to potential partners have been invaluable......some, including Landsec, Federation of Small Businesses, Anglian Water, Jaguar Land Rover and the Civil Service, have got potential to make a real impact and to reach millions of employees and hundreds of businesses (including in new sectors and regions) with our mental health campaign."

Rose Grissell, The Lord Mayor's Appeal

Successful scaling support

In addition to each receiving a grant of £20,000 funded by the DCMS, Nesta delivered a comprehensive programme of events and activities to design scaling plans and begin to implement them. The programme, and specifically the support, was universally well received by all stakeholders.

The scaling support was tailored – some delivered to all and some delivered to specific social innovators. For example, an investment workshop was open to all but ensured that a variety of social innovators who were trying to close an investment round had the opportunity to access bespoke support from our investment team – Nesta Impact Investments.

Where required, Nesta involved third party experts to provide expert advice such as MetaValue who provided marketing, sales and business modelling expertise – and specifically to eight social innovators who were helped based on a 'support needs' assessment.

The social innovators were measured and tracked against their scaling plans. Eighty-nine per cent surveyed indicated that they were 'extremely' or 'very well progressed' relative to their scaling plans by September 2018 – see below.

"The networking opportunities have been tremendous and resulted in enhancing our impact and organisational confidence in our mission and vision."

Carolyn Parry, Careers Advice for Parents

Comprehensive partnership development

The social innovators have developed 100 confirmed partnerships to date, far exceeding the original programme target of nine partnerships.

Over the programme, Nesta engaged with 150 corporate partners who offered varying levels of support.

Nesta made 230 introductions between social innovators and delivery partners from which the 100 partnerships have been established.

Reflections on partnership support include:

Partnership and scaling highlights

Toolshed

Toolshed has secured an £80,500 social loan through UnLtd, which has enabled the organisation to start its construction service at least six months earlier than planned, improve the sustainability of the centre, and recruit additional staff to grow the team. This investment will allow Toolshed to treble the size of the operation to serve hundreds of new participants. Barclays has also provided a £25,000 grant to support expansion into Cambridge.

Settle

Settle secured £200k of grant funding from JP Morgan. This will allow the organisation to achieve its scaling plan by hiring three new staff members and growing the programme reach to work with 500 vulnerable young people over the next three years.

"The Nesta Partnership Accelerator programme has had a big impact on Settle. We've been introduced to organisations we would never have thought to reach out to as a result of the programme – particularly in the private and public sector. As a result, we've formed a number of solid partnerships which will help us scale our operations across London."

Rich Grahame, Settle

Founders4Schools

Founders4Schools has partnered with CIPD, which has committed to providing a pool of 6,000 HR professionals as volunteers in Scotland for the Founders4Schools programme. Rolls Royce and O2 have also committed to directing 600 young people a year through Workfinder, Founders4Schools' platform helping young people discover work experience opportunities, and Barclays has provided in kind support. They estimate that the six-month IEP programme has been worth £880,000 of 'in kind' value to their organisation over the next two years.

My Kinda Future

My Kinda Future worked with Marks and Spencer to support the transition of 3,000 young people from work experience into full-time employment, providing support through its Connectr app. Additional revenue from the IEP is estimated to be worth £102,000, with several new partnerships in the pipeline. In kind support is estimated to be worth £5,000.

Applied

Applied reported that it was struggling to scale due to a number of technical integration issues with large employers. The organisation's grant and non-financial support focused on solving that problem, and Applied can now reach thousands of candidates. This work with Virgin Money, New Philanthropy Capital, Royal Academy of Engineering and others saved approximately £30,000 in development costs and generated over £160,000 in new revenue.

Exceptional Individuals

Exceptional Individuals has piloted and now launched the Dyslexia Academy. The organisation now has the capacity to deliver to 1,000 new beneficiaries in the neurodiverse community, equipping job seekers with the skills, tools and the knowledge needed for a number of vital employability related areas. The feedback from the pilot has been excellent and consequently the organisation has now launched the academy – the first of its kind in the UK. Exceptional Individuals has received £30,000 of in kind support from Accenture for its work through the programme.

Money A+E

Money A+E worked with several partners to increase its reach. The organisation estimates that it will reach another 15,000 people through these partnerships with Grant Thornton, Money Advice Service, Fair Finance, WhatsApp and others. Money A+E was able to leverage the IEP name to support its Big Lottery Fund application for £250,000 and estimates that the IEP partnerships could generate significant revenue into the future.

Credit Kudos

Credit Kudos worked on a pilot with Nationwide new affordability models and was introduced to Michael Sheen and the End High-Cost Credit Alliance, with whom it is working on a pilot to demonstrate the capability of over-indebted individuals and facilitate appropriate consolidation loans.

"Kate Sutton and her team have all been incredibly proactive in facilitating introductions and ensuring we have access to the resources we need."

Freddy Kelly, Credit Kudos

Careers Advice for Parents

Careers Advice for Parents was introduced to EY through the IEP and was invited to present at the EY 'parentaship' programme workshops across the country. This significantly increased Careers Advice for Parents' profile through 30,000 Facebook views, presenting at workshops and webinars. The organisation delivered the programme to at least 600 new parents, is currently completing user research and is ready to launch new online units. Through the relationship with JP Morgan, the organisation has received mentoring and advice worth thousands.

Just Finance Foundation

Just Finance Foundation has a well-researched and polished growth plan for its financial capability programme that will give it a strong foundation for funding applications and recruitment. This was achieved through the capacity building provided by Nesta.

We Are Digital

We Are Digital had very promising meetings with Nationwide, Lloyd's and MasterCard, all of whom are interested in supporting and using We Are Digital's Financial Inclusion training. Whilst the organisation has not formally signed anything yet, being on the programme has helped secure inroads with Nesta ventures and other investors which will help it close its £1-1.4m funding round.

Talk4Health

Talk4Health has developed and is now piloting its Talk for Workplace Health service, which was funded through the IEP grant. Landsec is supporting a roll-out to 600 people and is supporting the development of a case study on the programme. Talk4Health is also in ongoing discussions with the Prince's Trust about delivering a version of Talk4Health that will support its frontline support workers' wellbeing and effectiveness. Estimated worth of over £10,000.

This is me

This is me was connected with several groups through the IEP including the civil service and the Federation of Small Businesses. The IEP grant has supported the launch in the northwest and the organisation's impending launch in Scotland, where Nesta has helped secure high-level political support for the event and roll out. The IEP has led to acceleration in scaling the campaign.

The Money and Mental Health Policy Institute

The Money and Mental Health Policy Institute has engaged with 24 individual firms to help shape its accessibility standards, launching in spring 2019 and developed with IEP grant funding. The Institute is in discussions with a large energy supplier that is part of the IEP and wishes to be the first to adopt the new standards to support its 1.9 million customers with disclosed mental health problems. They estimate the value of this in-kind support to be approximately £7,000.

Thrive

Thrive has successfully launched its counselling and coaching service through support of the IEP grant and introductions to many more potential clients who are interested in the service. The IEP has also contributed to increasing engagement among existing users. Through a confirmed pilot with Telefonica, Thrive expects to generate revenue of £50,000 – £100,000 and has secured £200,000 in new clients based on leveraging the DCMS grant.

UK Youth

UK Youth's most significant impact has been exposing its work to new audiences – both fellow grant winners, delivery partners and DCMS. The IEP has provided an opportunity to reassess the organisation's scaling plan, the viability of the current 'Towards Employability Toolkit', how to deliver it in future and what the strengths, limitations and opportunities of this work are.

PSYT

PSYT has pursued 12 partnerships (in various stages of the sales pipeline) with medium and large corporates, which should translate into a sustainable revenue stream and improved wellbeing for thousands of people.

Neyber

Neyber has completed its research into financial wellbeing and capability, covering 10,000 employees and 500 employers. Neyber has now released two of four reports to the public.

Impact and success factors

Each social innovator was asked to estimate the financial impact of the IEP. Although it was less than six months of activity, Nesta is proud to report the following figures:

In 2018/2019 financial year, 50,000 additional people will now benefit from: fairer and more informed access to financial services; access to services that support their mental health, and tools to improve young people's access to the job market.

At the end of September 2018, social innovators estimate that they have generated £650,000 in grant support and income over the six-month programme – above and beyond what they would normally generate in that period.

Social innovators further estimate £1.2m of savings and 'in-kind' support from IEP partners. Forecast revenue for the social innovators is £3.2m over the next 12 months as a result of their engagement with the IEP.

Eighty-nine per cent of social innovators surveyed indicated that they were extremely or very well progressed relative to their scaling plans by September 2018.

Increased revenue for social innovators in each workstream

Conclusion

The Partnership Accelerator was a key element of the IEP and effectively demonstrated how it could offer financial and significant non-financial support to scale existing interventions.

The accelerator has proved to be a success, and its early impact statistics (reach, financial gain, partnerships made) are very promising. The overarching take-away from those involved is encouraging: the programme was highly valued by social innovators (95 per cent of social innovators interviewed would recommend taking part in the programme to others), delivery group partners and champions; it made a real difference to the social innovators involved by supporting them to scale, which meant that they were able to have a greater impact in their challenge area.

As such the programme offers a promising blueprint as a new operating model for Government to create change on high impact issues as the convenor of partnerships between high potential ventures, corporates and national reach civil society organisations. Nesta is delighted to have played such a core role in developing the design and ways of working.

There is clearly appetite to continue and extend the programme. Much of what Nesta has done has worked, but there is always room for improvement in a second iteration.

Eighteen social innovators

Financial inclusion and capability

We Are Digital

An earning-over-saving focused financial inclusion programme delivered in person one-to-one, and over the phone, through the Citizens Advice Bureau in seven regions.

Money A+E

Providing money advice and education to black, Asian, minority ethnic and hard to reach populations in London through advice, workshops, mentoring and training.

Neyber

Alternative lending platform enabling employers to offer a valuable financial service to employees at no cost or credit risk to themselves with repayments taken directly from their salary.

Settle Support

A programme of one-to-one mentor sessions to break the cycle of youth homelessness by training first-time tenants with the skills and confidence to live independently and avoid money problems.

Credit Kudos

A fintech solution using financial behaviour data to measure creditworthiness, meaning lenders will be able to accept applications from currently overlooked borrowers at more competitive rates of interest.

Just Finance Foundation

A modular financial capability programme introducing all aspects of money management. Resources and training are provided to organisations whose frontline staff work with target groups to deliver the programme.

Mental health

Thrive Therapeutic Software Limited

Mobile app combining interventions to improve resilience and enable users to self-manage mild anxiety and depression.

me@mybest, Psychological Technologies

Mobile app focused on understanding and improving mental health in the workplace for construction workers by alerting users to short questions at random intervals and providing anonymous feedback to their organisations.

This is Me, Lord Mayor's Appeal

Creating mentally healthy workplaces and inclusive cultures through storytelling to reduce stigma, dispel myths and improve wellbeing for good, with a package of support including toolkits, workshops and mentors.

Talk for Health

A peer counselling programme in workplace communities to make therapeutic talk accessible to many for whom cost or stigma is a barrier to mental health treatment.

The Money and Mental Health Policy Institute

Developing widely-applicable 'accessibility standards for mental health', helping to give customers with mental health problems equal access to services.

Transition to work

Exceptional Individuals

Aiming to inspire dyslexic people not in employment, education or training (NEET) by celebrating their strengths and giving employers solutions to access 250,000 NEET dyslexics.

Toolshed

Supporting young people aged 16 to 24 in their self-development, construction training, education and employment so that they are able to become positive role models in the community and inspire other young people to take charge of their lives.

Applied

A tech platform that uses behavioural and data science to make hiring smarter, faster and easier.

Workfinder, Founders4Schools

A mobile platform that enables young people aged 16 to 24 to search and apply for work experience placements in growing businesses.

Connectr, MyKindaFuture

Supporting disadvantaged young people into work and beyond via a mobile platform that provides employer digital mentoring and a peer-to-peer forum.

Towards Employability, UK Youth

The Towards Employability training programme supports NEET young people to identify their strengths, develop motivation and build capability to find and sustain work, and deliver at scale across the UK.

INSPIRED Teenager Programme, Careers Advice for Parents

Self-paced career coaching toolkit for parents and carers to transform teenagers' career prospects for the better, using video, ebooks and companion facilitator guides.

About Nesta

Nesta is a global innovation foundation. We back new ideas to tackle the big challenges of our time.

We use our knowledge, networks, funding and skills – working in partnership with others, including governments, businesses and charities. We are a UK charity but work all over the world, supported by a financial endowment.

To find out more visit www.nesta.org.uk

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Nesta is a registered charity in England and Wales with company number 7706036 and charity number 1144091. Registered as a charity in Scotland number SCO42833. Registered office: 58 Victoria Embankment, London, EC4Y ODS.

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