The UK government has founded the Inclusive Economy Partnership (IEP), bringing together dozens of leaders from business and civil society to find and scale the most effective solutions to difficult social and economic issues.

The IEP is led by an advisory group of 14 CEOs who champion the cause in their own organisations, including National Grid, Nationwide, O2, TechUK, NCVO and Big Lottery Fund. On the government side, the Cabinet Office and Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport are leading the way.

“The Inclusive Economy Partnership represents a new way for government, business and civil society to work together to try and tackle complex social issues. It leverages the convening power of government to focus the energy and networks of business and civil society,” said Shevaun Haviland, Deputy Director of Business Partnerships at the Cabinet Office.

The group will address three issues that hit low- to middle-income people especially hard: financial inclusion and capability, mental health, and the transition into work.

In the UK, 10 million working people are struggling financially. Every year, one in four people suffer from a mental health problem. And young people in the UK are 2.5 times less likely to be employed than the average working age population.

These are systemic issues that perpetuate themselves. The longer it takes someone to get into work, the harder it becomes. Someone struggling with their finances is more likely to get into a bad debt situation. And mental health problems, left alone, can become mental illness.

But by bringing together the sectors, the IEP will be able to make multiple concerted interventions at different points in the cycle – and hopefully break it.

“By finding solutions that have impact, and working together to help get those to scale, we hope that we will be able to help more lower to middle-income families in the UK,” Haviland said.

There are three rounds of workshops, and the first was held in September 2017. Each session drew on the partners’ collective expertise to diagnose the highest priority problems and to landscape what solutions are already out there making a difference.

“The first set of workshops were focused on aligning members around the challenges we’re working together to address, and discussing the types of solutions that exist,” said Haviland.

Those solutions come in many forms. They could be products, services, programs or standards of practice, and could be delivered by many types of organisation, from businesses and social enterprises to charities and community groups.

Crucially, though, they must be solutions that do not require changes to government policy in order to scale.

The UK government, along with their partners from Nesta, an innovation foundation, have launched an open call that organisations with solutions can apply for by 3rd November 2017.

The organisations whose solutions were raised in the workshops will be encouraged to apply, but the process is open to all—and the partners have been asked to spread the word through their networks.

Two more workshops are scheduled for this year. In these, the organisations chosen from the open call will be brought in to discuss their solution and how they can work with the partners to expand it.

The partners will help by offering access to their networks, helping them access new markets, and sharing the strategic, marketing and operational expertise that they possess.

Following a testing phase from January to March 2018, the scaling plans will be executed and outcomes will be monitoring over the years to come. The IEP will meet at least twice a year over a three- to five-year period.

(Picture credit: Pexels/Uncoated)