Published date: 11 February 2019

Last edited date: 11 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: 4 March 2019

Contract summary

Industry

  • Research services - 73110000

Location of contract

Any region

Value of contract

£33,333

Procurement reference

tender_199908/745809

Published date

11 February 2019

Closing date

4 March 2019

Contract start date

1 April 2019

Contract end date

30 June 2020

Contract type

Service contract

Procedure type

Other: Non OJEU

Contract is suitable for SMEs?

Yes

Contract is suitable for VCSEs?

Yes

Description

Arts and culture can contribute to local economic growth. Arts Council England wants to support this because it adds to the value that arts and culture have within local and national life and because it makes the sector more sustainable through demonstrating that value and by securing a basis for sector growth. We are working with Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) and key strategic bodies supporting local economies to create the Creative Local Growth Fund (CLGF).

The fund seeks to put arts and culture at the heart of growth plans by:
- securing long term partnership between LEPs, the Arts Council and other local partners to support the cultural sector;
- helping to leverage European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIFs) - particularly the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) - investment within the LEP area into the cultural sector; and
- investing in new approaches to achieve these objectives, while at the same time developing learning that can inform policy and practice.

Arts Council England has invested a total of £3.8m into the CLGF (with the total fund value of around £8.6m with match funding) and funded 9 projects across largescale areas (e.g. county or greater city/metropolitan areas). Most projects have a three-year timescale running from April 2016 to March 2019, with a couple of projects due to finish in March 2020. Many projects have had a delayed start due to the result of the referendum on UK membership of the European Union.

Arts Council England are commissioning an external evaluation of CLGF to assess the fund against the 3 main aims of the programme as mentioned above. We expect the evaluation to additionally explore whether the fund has:
- Met its aims to deliver and support local economic priorities through arts & cultural investment
- Established new partnerships locally and nationally

We would also expect the evaluation to explore barriers to and support for change, observable differences between rural and urban places and lessons learnt about place-based investment and economic outcomes.

An evaluation framework for the programme-level evaluation was developed in June 2018 and we expect the evaluator to respond to this framework in their approach. As two projects don't finish until March 2020, we are asking for an interim report in December 2019 and for the final report to be completed by June 2020. We would expect the interim findings to be a substantial part of the final report, with a focus on support for and barriers to change and learning about place-based investment.

More information

Links

About the buyer

Contact name

Zobair Mehmood

Address

21 Bloomsbury St, Bloomsbury,
London
WC1B 3HF
England

Telephone

+441619344317

Email

procurement.services@artscouncil.org.uk

Website

www.artscouncil.org.uk