Policy Labs
Focused workshops that develop practical, implementable solutions to specific policy challenges, co-designed with government, drawing on the full breadth of the impact economy.
Collaborative Design for Actionable Policy
The Impact Economy Collective supports government through policy labs developed in partnership with our members and hosted by LSE. These collaborative initiatives bring sector leads, together, to help explore the ways in which the impact economy can support government policy.
How a Lab works
Each Policy Lab begins from a policy question identified together with a government department. It brings together policymakers, philanthropists, impact investors, purpose-driven businesses, wider civil society and people with lived experience — for a series of structured sessions over a defined period.
The output is a set of specific, implementable recommendations: funding models, delivery pathways, partnership structures or policy proposals that can move into operation.
Lab participation is open to any organisation that can contribute meaningfully. Participants are proposed by the Secretariat on the basis of contribution, diversity of capability, implementation focus and constructive collaboration, with the final participant list decided by government.
Inclusion is demonstrated through how Labs are designed: actively seeking participants from outside London and major urban centres, ensuring a range of organisation sizes including those closer to communities, and drawing on diverse professional and lived experience relevant to each Lab's focus.
From Lab to implementation
Every lab considers implementation pathways from the outset.
Where a recommendation is taken forward, the Secretariat works with the relevant department, engaging both policy and commercial teams, to bring together the right partners and develop the recommendation into an operational proposition. This typically involves identifying delivery leads, assessing the capital or government support required, and agreeing a named lead to take the work forward.
Our Labs
Since launch, the Collective has run Policy Labs with three government departments across six policy areas.
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Early Years: Best Start in Life
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Health & Growth
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Pride in Place Programme
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Cancer Lab with Macmillan
Working with us
If you are a government department or agency interested in running a Policy Lab on a specific challenge, or an organisation that could contribute to one, we would like to hear from you.