Cambridge City Council - Research into tackling social issues

Cambridge City Council, working together with the It Takes a City Community Land Trust (ITAC CLT), would like to procure research, to explore how certain social issues in Cambridge could be tackled through creating a placed based social impact investment and blended finance organisation or fund. The research will outline the options available and what organisational funding models and processes need to be in place to enable this. We want to understand how to build capability and resilience with partners and in local communities to achieve these social outcomes and show the impact of investment. The findings will help inform the direction and scope for the council's future organisation design and how it works with partners and communities to deliver services in the future.

The ITAC CLT, part of the broader It Takes a City Initiative that brings the wider community together to address homelessness, is seeking to provide and manage housing, relieve financial hardship and promote regeneration, with an initial focus on small modular housing schemes for rough sleepers: this work, that brings many partners together, requires a sustainable financial platform blending social and commercial finance.

The research will be delivered in phases. The first phase outlined above will take not more than 4 months, it will be jointly commissioned by Cambridge City Council and ITAC CLT. Based on the outcome and findings in the first phase, a second more detailed phase may be commissioned to understand how to develop funding models and options identified in more detail.