17.11.10: Iain Duncan-Smith issues plea to the City to help fund early intervention

At a roundtable discussion organised by the Graham Allen Early Intervention Review and the Private Equity Foundation on Wednesday, 17th November 2010, the Rt. Hon Iain Duncan-Smith, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions asked social finance experts, City professionals and civil servants to get behind the Government’s drive to focus on early intervention.

Kindly hosted by Kirkland & Ellis International LLP, the event was chaired by Graham Allen MP, Chair of the Government’s Independent Review on Early Intervention. Topics covered included how well existing financial approaches can be adapted and scaled to deliver early intervention programmes, as well as how philanthropic capital can be used to leverage further investment and how to develop an investor market. The Rt. Hon Iain Duncan-Smith said “Repairing our society is about more than just renewing our welfare system. We also have to look at educational failure, family breakdown and issues of addiction and debt. And there is a body of research which shows that we can tackle these problems effectively through early intervention.

“But, the challenge of how we pay for more and better early intervention remains a pressing one. I don’t think that it all needs to come from government. We need the City’s expertise and experience to help us develop a robust and workable model for attracting funding from outside investors." Graham Allen MP added “I welcome the Private Equity Foundation’s involvement, providing a vital link between business and finance and the work we are doing on early intervention. Our aim is to give every child what you expect to give your child and to provide every baby, child and young person with the social and emotional bedrock that is the foundation of all human development.”

Shaks Ghosh, Chief Executive of the Private Equity Foundation, said “We know that a bright, poor child will typically be overtaken by a less able child from an affluent family very early on and the gap widens as children move through each school year. But it doesn’t need to be this way.

“The Private Equity Foundation specialises in establishing partnerships between business and charity to improve the life chances of some of our most deprived children and young people. When we heard Graham Allen’s plea for ideas on new and innovative funding mechanisms for early intervention we knew we could help bring relevant parties together for a constructive discussion.”

The Private Equity Foundation provides a bridge between business and charity with a particular focus on helping disadvantaged 0-18 year olds navigate the difficult journey from birthplace to workplace. It donates both development funding and pro bono expertise from 70 member and supporter firms to effective youth charities to enable them to scale-up to help turn around more young lives.

For further information please contact Rosie Davey at rosie@privateequityfoundation.org or call 020 7749 5129 / 07827 804066