The report of the meeting held at the end of June on financing social services and economic and social impact measurement is now available to download here. One part of the meeting examined measuring the social and economic value or impact of social services. Representatives from three members presented their experiences with measurement tools and participants discussed the challenges and possibilities offered by such tools and social and economic impact measurement in general. A document will be developed for members on measuring the economic and social value of their services with issues to consider and examples of different models.
Discussions on public and private financing formed the other part of the meeting. The new EU rules on public procurement were discussed with input from the European Commission. A briefing on the rules, which member states have to implement by 2016 can be found here. An update was also given on the 2014-2020 European Social Fund programme. The other main topic of the meeting was on private finance and social services. Participants discussed concepts such as Social Investment Bonds, social impact investing and crowd funding. Background papers on these topics formed the basis of the discussions and revised versions of the papers will be made available to all members.