Reading outcomes framework toolkit piloting: Invitation to Tender

Transcription

1 Reading outcomes framework toolkit piloting: Invitation to Tender Introduction The Reading Agency is a leading charity that inspires people of all ages and all backgrounds to read for pleasure and empowerment. Working with our partners, our aim is to make reading accessible to everyone. The Reading Agency has been working in partnership with Arts Council England, Association of Senior Children and Education Librarians (ASCEL), BookTrust, Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP), National Literacy Trust (NLT), Publishers Association and Society of Chief Librarians (SCL) over the last two years to develop a reading outcomes framework. The framework and evaluation toolkit that we have created is published here. The toolkit is freely available and can be used by anyone working to encourage reading for pleasure and empowerment. It aims to help practitioners understand, demonstrate and improve the impact of projects and programmes they run to encourage reading. It outlines existing evidence about the outcomes of reading for pleasure and empowerment and provides guidance about how to evaluate the impact of activity to encourage reading. We have received funding from Arts Council England to pilot the toolkit, putting it into practice to evaluate five projects that encourage reading in different ways and in different settings. Each project will use the reading outcomes framework toolkit to structure their evaluation. The aims are to investigate the difference the projects have made and also to test and improve the toolkit itself. We are commissioning an external evaluation partner to run the project and this invitation to tender sets out the project requirements. Aims This project has two overarching aims; increasing knowledge about the impact of a variety of approaches to encouraging reading, and testing the reading outcomes framework toolkit. The specific aims of the project are to: increase our understanding about the impact of five projects that encourage reading for pleasure and empowerment in different ways provide case studies that will inspire others to improve their reader development and evaluation practice across the sector increase our understanding about how the reading outcomes framework toolkit works in practice, assessing its strengths and weaknesses provide evidence-based recommendations for how to improve the toolkit Project specification We would like to commission a partner to work with us from January 2017 to November 2017 to help us run this project to pilot the reading outcomes framework toolkit. The project will involve supporting five organisations/settings to use the toolkit to each evaluate a project that encourages reading for pleasure and empowerment. The five pilots will be identified by The Reading Agency and our project partners, and

2 will include a range of settings working with different audiences, including adults and children. The projects are likely to be relatively small in scale and will take place over a fixed period (or the evaluation will focus on a fixed period of ongoing activity). The project will focus on organisations at a local level carrying out their own evaluation. They are likely to have limited experience of carrying out evaluation; therefore they will require guidance from the toolkit and support from the commissioned evaluator. The commissioned evaluator will work with each of the projects to run an evaluation to investigate the impact of their activity to encourage reading for pleasure and empowerment. This will likely involve clarifying the intended outcomes of their project, deciding on the focus of the evaluation, agreeing evaluation methodology and providing evaluation support as required, on a flexible basis according to project need. This could include advice on evaluation methods, assisting with survey development, carrying out data analysis or qualitative interviewing. In addition to providing evaluation support, the external evaluator will focus on evaluating how well the toolkit works to support evaluation, developing an expert overview of the strengths and weaknesses of the toolkit when used in different settings. The process of supporting settings to use the framework will provide depth understanding about what element of the toolkit work well and where improvements are required, including where organisations require additional support and what question arise when putting the toolkit into practice. It is likely that interviews or focus groups will be required as well to gain a depth understanding of the experience of using the toolkit. Project partners The project partners alongside The Reading Agency are ASCEL, BookTrust, the National Literacy Trust and SCL. The Reading Agency will be the key point of liaison with the commissioned evaluation partner, with input from steering group partners, for example via steering group meetings. Outputs The key output will be a report outlining the results of the five studies, drawing conclusions about the impact of the different projects and highlighting effective ways to encourage reading for pleasure. The report will also assess the utility of the reading outcomes framework toolkit, review how it has helped to support the evaluations and recommend how it could be improved for the future. Linked to the report and drawing on the same content, we require five short case studies, one about each of the pilot evaluations. These will be used flexibly: by the five organisations involved to communicate about their work and centrally by the project steering group as examples of how the toolkit works in practice. The evaluator will need to provide regular progress updates to the project partners throughout the project and deliver a presentation of the findings to our steering group at the end of the project. Expertise The key things that we are looking for from the partner that we commission are as follows: Expertise in supporting small, front-line organisations to carry out effective evaluation Expertise in developing outcomes frameworks and evaluation toolkits, or similar areas of work

3 Reading and/or library sector knowledge We wish to fully utilise the expertise of the organisation that undertakes this work. Therefore we are interested to hear about alternative approaches to carrying out this piece of work while meeting the same aims. Budget The total maximum budget available for this piece of work is 37,500, inclusive of VAT. Tenders will be evaluated on the basis of best value for money. Project costs should be itemised under the following headings: Salary costs for each project team member to be involved in fulfilling the contract (along with the daily rate and number of days input for each project team member) Other administrative costs Travel and subsistence Overheads (if applicable) Costs should be inclusive of VAT and state whether VAT is chargeable. Full cost details of any proposed sub contracts and how these will be managed should be included. Tenders should set out a payment schedule related to key milestones. Timetable We will select the five projects by the end of 2016, appoint an external evaluator by the end of January 2017 and commence work immediately. The final report will be delivered by the end of November In more detail, the key activities and proposed timeline are as follows: Activity Achieved by Reading Agency and partners recruit organisations to run pilot projects end Dec 2016 Reading Agency and partners recruit an external evaluator to run evaluation end Jan 2017 Commissioned evaluator supports organisations to decide on methods and develop research tools using the toolkit, including piloting of tools where necessary/possible end Feb 2017 Commissioned evaluator supports organisations to recruit research participants March 2017 to and collect data (according to the methodology that has been developed) Sept 2017 Commissioned evaluator and organisations analyse the results and begin report writing Oct 2017 Commissioned evaluator completes final project report, reviewed and agreed by project partners end Nov 2017 The timetable for the tendering process is as follows: Tenders invited: 6 December 2016 Submission deadline: 16 January 2017 Project commissioned: 31 January 2017

4 The closing date for receipt of tenders is at 10am on 16 January. A full electronic copy of the tender including any annexes and supplementary material as part of one document, in MS Word or PDF format, should be ed to laura.venning@readingagency.org.uk. It is requested that tenders do not exceed 20 pages in length in total (this is a maximum rather than a target length). Responses to the invitation to tender will be shortlisted and the relevant organisations will be notified by 5pm on 19 January and invited to interview at the Reading Agency s offices on 25 or 26 January. The contract will be awarded by 31 January and work will commence immediately, with an inception meeting held at the start of February. Your proposal should set out a clear timetable for the project, with the final report delivered by end of November Shortlisting procedure Tenders will be evaluated on best value for money: the budget indicated for the project is the maximum budget available for the work, rather than a target spend. The key criteria for scoring the tenders are: How well the tender responds to the brief The robustness and suitability of the proposal Relevant skills and experience of the team, including track record of producing similar work of a high quality and to deadline The adequacy and quality of proposed project management and risk management arrangements Overall costs Tenders should therefore provide the following details: An elaboration of the project purpose and intended outputs Details of the proposed approach Relevant information about the organisation The names and relevant experience of staff members involved Staff time commitment to the project (in days) Timetable Arrangements for administration and management of the project Detailed project budget It is requested that tenders do not exceed 20 pages in length in total (this is a maximum rather than a target length). Tender requirements Staff: The research team should have a high level of expertise and significant experience in conducting similar pieces of work, ideally with relevant knowledge about programmes to

5 encourage reading. Tenders should briefly describe the skills and experience of each individual and their expected contribution. Risks: Tenders should clearly set out the key risk factors for the success of the project and a proposed risk management approach. Ethics: Tenders should address any anticipated ethical issues and problems and how these will be dealt with. Data protection and informed consent: Contractors shall comply with all the provisions and obligations under the Data Protection Act (1998), including the eight data protection principles and all subordinate legislation.