Bridges Outcomes Partnerships
One highly impactful way in which Bridges is able to help build a more inclusive and sustainable future is through the work of Bridges Outcomes Partnerships (BOP), our specialist not-for-profit platform.
Outcomes partnerships are a transformative way to tackle some of our biggest social and environmental challenges, from homelessness, to family breakdown, to chronic illness, to plastic waste. The traditional public services delivery model – with its top-down, one-size-fits-all approach – is just not well suited to these multi-faceted challenges. The state ends up trying to tackle the different elements piecemeal, which rarely leads to sustained change in people's lives.
For the last 15 years, BOP has worked with pioneers across government and the impact sector to develop a different approach. Outcomes partnerships switch the focus away from inputs (i.e. paying for services) to the outcomes we want to achieve: measurable improvements in people’s lives. Government commissioners, communities, philanthropists and impact-driven organisations come together to agree shared goals and target outcomes, and co-design delivery. But critically, the delivery teams have the flexibility to adapt and improve as they go along, using person-centred data and feedback to better understand what works. So instead of paying for services – regardless of results – the Government only pays if the target outcomes are achieved.
DIRECT AND SYSTEMIC IMPACT
BOP’s role ranges from helping commissioners to build these ‘people-powered partnerships’, to pooling social investment and coordinating the working capital necessary for delivery, to creating and supporting the delivery consortium with tools and data in order to achieve better outcomes and better value.
We have now worked on 86 outcomes partnerships – more than anyone else in the world – which have collectively achieved over £200m of outcomes. In the UK, our partnerships have supported over 72,000 people, delivering over £1.5bn of public value (according to an independent analysis). In recent years, through SDG Outcomes (in partnership with the UBS Optimus Foundation), we have expanded this approach to low-and middle-income countries around the world: these projects have already helped over 1m people in countries like Kenya, Rwanda and Sierra Leone.
This year, the most significant development for outcomes-focused commissioning has been the UK Government’s launch of the Better Futures Fund. This fund – the largest of its kind in the world – is specifically intended to commission and fund outcomes partnerships, with the goal of supporting 200,000 children, young people and their families. This is a strong endorsement of the ability of outcomes partnerships to deliver better outcomes for people, at better value for money. It is also a significant step forward for Bridges' system change efforts, and BOP's mission to create a world where funders partner based on impact.
CASE STUDY
Supporting young people at risk of homelessness in the Greater Manchester area
THESIS
Since Greater Manchester set out to become a national leader in tackling its growing homelessness problem in 2015, initiatives like ‘A Bed Every Night’ and the GM Homes Partnership (also supported by BOP) have helped to get hundreds of people off the streets: according to the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, rough sleeping fell by 57% between 2017 and 2021. However, the housing problem in the area remains acute, exacerbated by rising rents and other living costs. Last December, Shelter suggested 16,500 people in the region were homeless, about half of whom were children and young people.
PROGRAMME
Following the huge success of the GM Homes Partnership, Bridges worked with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority to design and develop a follow-on project. Pathfinder, GMBOP’s three-year homelessness prevention programme, helps young adults in Greater Manchester to secure alternative accommodation, or stabilise their current accommodation, through a tailored programme. The programme then supports participants to address other needs, including mental health and financial stability, and to engage in meaningful activity, such as education, social clubs or employment, to build their confidence and resilience.
The outcomes-based approach has facilitated a number of significant delivery innovations, including:
Access to local authority case management systems to facilitate earlier intervention
Specialist mental health support
A focus on longer-term housing sustainment
OUTCOMES
GMBOP’s Pathfinder programme has supported more than 2,000 young people with tailored, person-centred support to prevent homelessness. About one-third of these have already sustained appropriate accommodation for six months, while the programme has achieved £7m of outcomes to date.
Improving the quality and accessibility of children’s education, to improve learning outcomes
In Sierra Leone, children on average complete just 8.9 years of school (or 4.5 years when adjusted for learning). In a 2014 study, 87% of Grade 2 students (~6-7 years old) were unable to read a single word, while almost two-thirds of Primary 4 students (~8-9 years old) received zero marks in their reading and comprehension assessment. Teacher training and retention is often a challenge, so many communities rely on community volunteer teachers where turnover can be high and teaching skills inconsistent.
The Sierra Leone Education Innovation Challenge (SLEIC) is a US$18m programme that aims to improve learning outcomes in literacy and numeracy for hard-to-reach students, especially girls. BOP partnered with three organisations – Rising Academy Network, Street Child and EducAid – to deliver this programme across 190 primary schools, which received support for nine school terms – from September 2022 to August 2025 – to improve children’s access to and quality of education. The outcomes-focused model enabled a much more collaborative, flexible approach to this challenge – from targeting teacher professionalisation and coaching, to providing supplementary curriculum materials, to engaging with communities to minimise barriers to attendance. Data collection and analysis was also key in helping teachers, coaches, and school leaders adapt the support they provide.
The programme has completed delivery. 48,740 learners were enrolled in our schools at the end of the programme, of whom 20,000+ were girls. In Year 3 learning assessments, our three cohorts achieved the strongest learning gains in numeracy across all delivery organisations; while two of them also achieved the stretch target in Maths minimum competencies and the strongest learning gains in literacy. Our delivery partners also implemented sustainability plans with schools to support the continuation of learning and further capacity-building beyond the scope of the programme.
No. of people supported; social outcomes achieved (£m)
