Better Futures Fund

Overview

The £500 million Better Futures Fund (BFF) will support up to 200,000 children, young people and their families over the next 10 years. It will do this by bringing together government, local communities, charities, social enterprises, investors and philanthropists, to deliver place-based solutions to complex social problems across England.

The funding will primarily be for the commissioning of Social Outcomes Partnerships (SOPs), with government payments tied to the achievement of measurable improvements in people’s lives, such as school attainment, improved youth employment, and reduced youth reoffending.

The fund will aim to raise funding from local government, philanthropists and other outcome payers on top of the government’s funding on a 1:1 match basis, whilst also leveraging in millions of upfront funding from social investors to support organisations to deliver. This would create potential funding of up to £1 billion. We are committed to a 10-year funding lifecycle, ensuring funding is accessible for the duration of the programme.

The BFF will fund projects which support the government’s ambitions to tackle the structural and root causes of poverty for children, young people and their families - projects that reduce the short or longer term impacts of poverty on the life chances and outcomes for children.  

The UK is a leader in the international SOPs market, with 100 partnerships launched to date. The Better Futures Fund follows the success of other SOP funds, such as the Life Chances Fund (2016 to 2025), which supported more than 50,000 people in areas like youth unemployment, mental health and homelessness. Building on this experience and a comprehensive evaluation exercise, the Better Futures Fund will be the largest outcomes fund of its kind in the world.

Funding timescales

The BFF will be delivered across two rounds:

• Round 1 willlaunched launch in AutumnSeptember 2026 and will support a small number of demonstrator ‘pathfinder’ projects. projects. Round 1 is currently open to applications.
• Round 2 will launch in Summer 2027 and will deploy the majority of the £500 million funding over multiple application windows. It will be open to all applicants, whether or not they have experience of SOP delivery.

Both rounds of funding will facilitate the development of locally-led SOPs by providing grant funding to local areas. Across Round 1 and 2, projects will be able to bid for multi-year commitments up to 31 March 2036. All successful projects will be able to draw down money from the fund during this time, or for the duration of their SOP, if shorter. Projects will be able to run beyond 31 March 2036, but will not be able to claim BFF funding from the government beyond this date.

Outcomes framework

The primary objective of the BFF is to tackle the structural drivers and daily impacts of child poverty. Specific outcomes (with metrics) will be decided in local places, aligned with local needs, but guided by an overarching set of BFF themes that align with evidence on tackling child poverty. 

The BFF themes are:

• early years
• keeping children safe and family security
• every child achieving and thriving
• homelessness and temporary accommodation
• financial stability
• health and wellbeing.

These themes have been chosen to align with the Local Outcomes Framework where possible to ensure BFF outcomes align with local priorities.

DCMS is developing an outcomes framework around these themes in partnership with other government departments and informed by evidence in the Child Poverty Strategy. The framework recognises that child poverty is multidimensional and combines a consistent national approach with the flexibility for local partners to deliver tailored, holistic support. The framework will be published on this page in due course and is intended to be used as guidance to support projects in developing their SOPs; it will not mandate the achievement of specific outcomes.

Capacity and capability building programme

DCMS will launch a dedicated capacity and capability building programme to support the effective delivery of the Better Futures Fund over its ten-year lifespan. This is in recognition of the commitment and time required to establish new SOPs at scale. The programme will be have three strands:

• Learning and development service: To act as an entry point and a central source of expertise for those interested in developing a social outcomes partnership for the BFF. This will include the development of SOP guidance, toolkits and templates, delivery of thematic workshops, helping applicants understand fund outcomes and supporting peer learning networks. DCMS is in the final stages of a grant competition to select a partner to deliver this service. For further information, please visit the BFF learning and development service competition guidance page.
• Technical assistance: To provide direct support to applicants during the application and post-award stages, including developing SOP rate cards, advising on investor interaction, and drafting contracts.
• Market development:  To encourage the wider SOP market to participate in the BFF, with a small budget for targeted, in-depth interventions in specific sub-sectors, such as social investment and philanthropy.

Alongside these externally procured services, DCMS will publish thematic guidance and guideline, template rate cards to support projects, alongside the outcomes framework. 

We will keep this page updated with the latest information on the procurement processes for these services.

Monitoring and evaluation

The first phase of the BFF programme evaluation will be an Implementation and Feasibility Study running over the first year of programme delivery (from September 2026 to December 2027). The Phase 1 evaluation aims to maximise learning from Round 1 projects, providing early stage evidence on programme launch and implementation, and supporting the design of the long-term evaluation of the fund. Phase 1 will be delivered by an evaluation partner commissioned through the Research & Insights DPS, the competition is now closed.  

The full programme evaluation strategy will be informed by the Implementation and Feasibility study, and will be developed over 2027. This will include process, impact and value-for-money evaluation, and monitoring data on delivery and outcome performance. Commissioned elements of the phase 2 evaluation will be advertised through the Research & Insights DPS.

Social Outcomes Partnerships 

There are a range of entrenched social issues, such as homelessness, unemployment and health inequalities which, due to their intersecting nature, are challenging to address through conventional approaches to public service commissioning. Social Outcomes Partnerships (SOPs) create partnerships between the public, private and voluntary sectors to help solve these challenges through a clear focus upon delivering the outcomes and real world impact we want to see. For more information and guidance on the use of SOPs (also known as Social Impact Bonds), visit the Social Outcomes Partnerships page.