Breakdown of social impact bond investors in Australia

February 27, 2014October 27, 2014 Emma Tomkinson Australian Social Benefit Bonds, Social Impact Bonds, Social Investment & Finance Benevolent Society, Newpin, NSW Government, SBB, Social Benefit Bond, social finance, social impact bonds, social investment, social investors, UnitingCare Burnside

There are two social impact bonds in Australia that have raised investment and are delivering services. They have been called “Social Benefit Bonds (SBBs)” by the New South Wales Government, the state government that initiated them. They are the Newpin SBB and the Benevolent Society SBB and both of them work to strengthen families to ultimately reduce the need for children to be placed in care outside their homes. Investment for both deals was open to wholesale investors upon application. One parcel of investment in the Newpin SBB was transferred to a retail investor in August 2014, so is not shown on the chart. Also interesting to note is that the Benevolent Society, the charity delivering services for one SBB, has invested in the Newpin SBB, as well as in their own. A breakdown of investor types for each SBB is below.

(Source: Presentation by Ian Learmonth, 2013, p.14)

(Source: KPMG Evaluation of the Joint Development Phase of the NSW Social Benefit Bonds Trial, 2014, p.30)

NSW Government ICT strategy – first mention of open data and open government in NSW – Yay!

July 16, 2012April 27, 2013 Emma Tomkinson Evidence-based policy, Open project/source/data/government NSW Government, open data, open government

The Department of Finance and Service ICT Policy unit has led the move into open government and open data for the NSW public service with the development and publication of their ICT Strategy. Let’s hope this heralds much greater access to NSW public data! The Strategy will be driven by the ICT Board, with seven Directors General including Premier and Cabinet and Treasury. The idea of open data is pretty radical for the NSW Government at this point, so there’s huge potential for impact!

NSW Government ICT Strategy 2012

Information and communications technology is an everyday tool for almost all our daily transactions and information needs. It allows for innovative approaches to government service delivery and community and industry engagement. The NSW Government ICT Strategy 2012 sets out the first steps to support the public sector to drive better service delivery, greater transparency and better value from investment in ICT.

Download the full NSW Government ICT Strategy 2012 pdf (23 MB) or the overview document pdf (2.7 MB).

Better Evidence Network article published in Public Administration Today

July 14, 2012July 14, 2012 Emma Tomkinson Evidence-based policy Better Evidence Network, Evidence-Based Policy, IPAA, Networks, NSW Government, Public Policy, Young Professionals

Claudine Lyons and I have published an article, Building a case for better evidence in the Institute of Public Administration Australia’s Public Administration Today (vol 31, July 2012). Hoping for a digital copy soon, but here’s the PDF till then.

The article tell the story of the problem of being unable to find technical expertise in the silos of Government, and how I established an informal network of experts across the sector in response.