Australia’s first social impact bond, the Uniting Newpin Social Benefit Bond (Newpin SBB) has reported positive results for the fourth year in a row, having now helped restore 203 children in care to their families and supported 55 families to prevent their children from entering the out-of-home care system. The rate of restoration has increased steadily since the inception of the SBB, reaching an overall restoration rate of 63% by 30 June 2017. As a result the Newpin SBB has now delivered a 13.16% pa financial return to investors.
The Newpin SBB is a financial partnership between the NSW Government, Uniting, and Social Ventures Australia (SVA) that has funded the expansion of Uniting Newpin. The highly successful program works with parents to create safe and nurturing family environments so children can be restored from out-of-home care, or prevented from entering care in the first place. As at 30 June 2017, there were five Uniting Newpin centres in NSW, with planning underway for an additional four centres to open over the coming financial year.
Elyse Sainty, Director of Impact Investing at SVA, said , “We are delighted that the Uniting Newpin program has delivered positive outcomes for families for four years now, with more and more families being supported each year. If the success of the program was replicated throughout the child protection system the positive impact on kids, families and the community would be considerable.”
“We’re also pleased that other promising social programs in the areas of mental health, homelessness and supporting vulnerable young people have now been funded through social impact bonds in NSW, South Australia and Queensland,” she said.
Bob Mulcahy, Director Resilient Families at Uniting said, “We’re proud of Uniting Newpin. It’s a program that aims to reunite families and address the challenges they may face in the future. The commitment and dedication of our Newpin families is inspiring. Working together with our team, the hard work that is put in by the parents to see their children restored is reflected in this year’s results.”
“Over a period of around 18 months, parents and their children attend a centre between two and four times a week for therapy and training to help inspire good parenting, encourage the value of positive parent-child relationships and raise the self-esteem of individual parents who are struggling,” he said.
“These are fabulous results which will reap long-term rewards for them personally, as well as for their communities, and I congratulate them wholeheartedly.”