News round-up 23/11: Essex announces £3m 'troubled teenagers' bond

Social investment

Essex CC will today launch a £3m payment-by-results bond designed to keep 100 troubled teenagers out of the care system and living with their parents, the Times reports. Private investors will receive a 12% annual return on their investments if 100 teenagers out of a group of 380 selected for the project, stay out of care for the next five years. Achieving this would save the council as much as £17m, much more than the original £3m plus the 12% return.

Meanwhile, Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude is to launch a £20m “Social Outcomes Fund” in an attempt to channel private investment into public sector projects using the payment by results model. The Financial Times says 10 social impact bond schemes already exist with two more launched today, including the one in Essex.

Pay

Public sector pay rose by slightly more than private sector remuneration despite the government’s two-year pay freeze, the Financial Times reports. Figures from the Office for National Statistics showed public sector pay increased by 1.6% last year compared with 1.5% in the private sector.

Outsourcing

Capita has won the lion’s share of a project dubbed “easyCouncil” to privatise a range of public services at Barnet LBC, the Times reports. The firm fought off BT to win preferred bidder status on a £320m contract to provide 70% of its activities including almost all administrative functions.

Refuse collection

Council leaders have said people do not want weekly bin collections, the Daily Telegraph reports. It says Mike Jones, chair of the LGA’s environment board, insisted that many residents are “happy” to have non-recyclable waste collected fortnightly. The newspaper says the comments “escalated the running row between councils and ministers, who are threatening to cut funding for councils unless they return to weekly collections”.

Child protection

Ofsted have highlighted a “worrying” increase in the number of children going missing from care placements, the Independent reports. The number of children missing from foster homes had increased by 19%, the report said, and the watchdog is to examine the issue “in depth”.

PCCs

Colin Port, chief constable of Avon and Somerset police force has resigned after being told by the newly elected police and crime commissioner that he would have to reapply for his own job, the Times reports. Sue Mountstevens (Ind) had wanted a chief constable to serve the length of her three-and-a-half year contract while Mr Port’s length of service meant he could only be reappointed annually.