Published date: 19 March 2021

Awarded contract - This means that the contract has been awarded to a supplier.


Closing: 17 August 2020, 5pm

Contract summary

Industry

  • Research and development services and related consultancy services - 73000000

Location of contract

United Kingdom

Value of contract

£200,000

Procurement reference

DFERPPU 20-21/012

Published date

19 March 2021

Closing date

17 August 2020

Closing time

5pm

Contract start date

28 September 2020

Contract end date

31 March 2022

Contract type

Supply 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?

No

Description

Expressions of Interest (EOIs) are being sought to deliver a qualitative evaluation of the Opportunity Areas Programme. This evaluation will principally involve qualitative research across the 12 Opportunity Areas that focuses on programme beneficiaries as well as delivery partners.

It will build the evidence base on the extent to which location/place, (e.g. rural, coastal or urban regions) affects the implementation, deliverability of local interventions. The final research findings will help inform the programme, department, and others, in tackling similar educational priorities in different areas or regions.

An EOI and tender exercise was originally carried out for this project in the summer of 2019. We are now looking to re-procure the project with a reduced scope and budget of maximum £200,000.

The research design should allow for research/ data collection to be conducted in all 12 OAs -although the level of depth in understanding may differ across areas. Research should aim to engage beneficiaries of the programme and explore their experiences. It should also explore perspectives of delivery staff and partners to gain a good understanding of delivery in different contexts.

The fieldwork will be expected to run from shortly after the project initiation to Autumn 2021 - with interim findings shared with DfE at suitable points. We expect suppliers to need to conduct at least two waves of data collection. We expect potential bidders to provide a rationale for fieldwork timings.
If two waves of data collection were used, we envision that the first wave of fieldwork is likely to focus on reflecting back on years 1-3 of the programme, Covid-19 and set-up of delivery changes in year 4. Whilst the second wave of fieldwork, could build on this and additionally explore how these delivery changes in year 4 have been operationalised and provide some early indication on potential benefits from this.
Potential bidders are invited to suggest innovative and agile methodological approaches that would meet the research objectives of this project.
This research will build on published outputs from the OA programme and other existing qualitative data captured during the previous evaluation opportunities. Data from these waves will be made available to the successful bidder. We also expect the contractor to draw on the monitoring data where necessary and to liaise with analysts working on other areas of the evaluation

The contractor will be expected to produce an overarching research report combining all fieldwork, data collection and analysis. This should, where possible, be supplemented with previous data collected as well as relevant monitoring data. We will also ask for interim reporting to ensure we are capturing learning and feeding this back into the programme at required stages (frequency and format, but we envisage this will include at least one interim report in the first quarter of 2021).

More information

Previous notice about this procurement

Opportunity Areas (OA) - Place-Based Evaluation

  • Opportunity
  • Published 3 August 2020, last edited 10 August 2020

Attachments

Additional text

email addresses for contact:
Andrew.Zacharia@education.gov.uk
Katharine.Beaney@education.gov.uk
Rebecca.Evans@education.gov.uk

Award information

Awarded date

21 October 2020

Contract start date

28 October 2020

Contract end date

31 January 2022

Total value of contract

£199,311

This contract was awarded to 1 supplier.

NATIONAL CENTRE FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH

Address

35 Northampton Square
LONDON
EC1V 0AX
GB

Reference

Companies House number: 04392418

Value of contract

£199,311

Supplier is SME?

No

Supplier is VCSE?

No

Attachments

About the buyer

Contact name

Katharine Beaney

Address

Sanctuary Buildings
Great Smith Street
London
SW1P 3BT
England

Email

Katharine.Beaney@education.gov.uk