Published date: 6 February 2019

Last edited date: 6 February 2019

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.


Closing: 11 March 2019

Contract summary

Industry

  • Design and execution of research and development - 73300000

Location of contract

Any region

Value of contract

£40,000 to £50,000

Procurement reference

TREVAL_190205

Published date

6 February 2019

Closing date

11 March 2019

Contract start date

1 April 2019

Contract end date

31 October 2020

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

Private procurement rules

Supply chain notices are business-to-business transactions and are not bound by the same rules and restrictions as public sector contracts. The UK government is not responsible for the conduct of such procurement.

Description

The Reader is a dynamic national charity and social enterprise, head quartered in Liverpool. The Reader builds stronger and more supportive communities through the unique model of Shared Reading. Shared Reading improves psychological wellbeing, social connectivity and builds a sense of purpose for thousands of people across the UK. ---

Alongside our internal evaluation processes, externally-conducted evaluation projects have a vital role to play in enabling the in-depth insights that snapshot evaluations alone just can't give. Together with our snapshot data, they help us to build a picture of our impact that has both breadth and depth, showing both our general overall indicative impact and the detail that helps with finer-grained learning and the generation of a more compelling evidence base. ---

We have recently completed a process evaluation looking at how we can support our volunteer Reader Leaders to continue to deliver high quality Shared Reading groups sustainably into the future. We now feel that we are in the right place to evaluate the output of these groups, specifically within a community, Public Health context. ---

We wish to work with an evaluator who can plan and conduct a longitudinal evaluation/research project to take us to Level 3 in the NESTA Standards of Evidence - that is we want to use a methodology that enables us to have a higher degree of confidence about causality on the outcomes. We foresee this project being a focused, specially recruited project involving a control group comparison, although would be open to other suggestions from an evaluator as to the best approach to have greater confidence in the impact data, and a stronger understanding of causality. It is important to us that the findings give us genuine insights into the effectiveness of our work rather than simply tell us the answers we want to hear. The project should therefore have a rigorous methodology and a large enough population to provide strong and reliable findings. ---

The evaluation may have a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods but there should be a focus on quantitative data that could demonstrate a measurable difference between Shared Reading and control/comparison participants. ---

The evaluation should be based from our Theory of Change, placing particular importance on evidencing: reductions in social isolation, improvements in well-being, increased sense of purpose in life. ---

Where possible we would like to use leading standardised tools that are well respected and translatable to the commissioning audience. The evaluation may use bespoke quantitative measures to reflect the particular impacts of Shared Reading but should also contain standardized items to ensure translatability to a broad commissioning audience. ---

We foresee that candidates may include early career researchers, academic teams or independent evaluation bodies. ---

For details of how to apply, please see the attached Invitation to Tender.

More information

Attachments

Links

About the buyer

Contact name

Jennifer Jarman

Address

Calderstones Park
LIVERPOOL
L183JB
England

Telephone

0151 729 2200

Email

jenniferjarman@thereader.org.uk

Website

https://www.thereader.org.uk/