Published date: 19 February 2018

Last edited date: 19 February 2018

This notice was replaced on 19 February 2018

This notice does not contain the most up-to-date information about this procurement. The most recent notice is:

Awarded contract (published 1 May 2018, last edited 1 May 2018)

Closed opportunity - This means that the contract is currently closed. The buying department may be considering suppliers that have already applied, or no suitable offers were made.


Contract summary

Industry

  • Research and development consultancy services - 73200000

Location of contract

Any region

Value of contract

£0

Procurement reference

DFERPPU/2017/043

Published date

19 February 2018

Closing date

9 October 2017

Contract start date

1 January 2018

Contract end date

31 March 2018

Contract type

Service contract

Procedure type

Open procedure (below threshold)

Any interested supplier may submit a tender in response to an opportunity notice.

This procedure can be used for procurements below the relevant contract value threshold.

Contract is suitable for SMEs?

Yes

Contract is suitable for VCSEs?

Yes

Description

See 'Attachments' for a full description.

Expressions of interest are sought for a two year, real time, formative study to evaluate the delivery of the National Assessment and Accreditation System (NAAS) for social workers - Alpha and Beta phases.

As part of our wider reforms of children's social care, the Department for Education has committed to roll out a new National Assessment and Accreditation System (NAAS) for social workers, which will provide a consistent way of ensuring that child and family social workers, supervisors and leaders have the knowledge and skills for effective practice. Following a consultation, which drew in a broad range of views from across the sector, the Department has decided to operate an Alpha- and Beta-phased approach, supported by in-depth analysis and evaluation, before progressing with a full national rollout. The Alpha phase (involving 5 or 6 LAs) is expected to run for eight months from July 2018 to March 2019 and the Beta phase (involving 12 or 13 LAs) to run for seven months following completion of the Alpha phase - ending in January 2020.

Using an agile, iterative and collaborative way of working, the evaluator will work closely with the delivery partner and the Department, allowing us to make phased adjustments as the final assessment system develops.

The aim of the project is to:

1. Carry out a formative process evaluation to assess the service design and operational delivery of the assessment and the initial impact during the Alpha/ Beta phases on key users including social workers, heads of service/ Directors and service users - including an analysis of fixed and marginal costs of delivering the assessment

2. Provide, real time recommendations on the delivery model to allow the Department to continuously improve the service design and operational delivery on an iterative basis both within the Alpha and Beta phases and for the national roll-out

3. Identify data that can be used over the longer term to examine the impact of NAAS on individual social workers, local authority employers, the wider child and family social worker workforce and outcomes for children and families.
We propose a mixed methods approach of qualitative and quantitative data collection. This will be carried out alongside, and where required embedded within, the service to assess delivery of the system.

More information

Attachments

About the buyer

Contact name

Jessica Dunn

Address

5th Floor
St Paul's Place
Sheffield
S1 2FJ
England

Email

jessica.dunn@education.gov.uk