Published date: 15 April 2021

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: 10 May 2021, 12pm

Contract summary

Industry

  • Research and development services and related consultancy services - 73000000

Location of contract

Any region

Value of contract

£25,000 to £50,000

Procurement reference

BIP586219082

Published date

15 April 2021

Closing date

10 May 2021

Closing time

12pm

Contract start date

24 May 2021

Contract end date

17 June 2022

Contract type

Service contract

Procedure type

Open procedure

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

Contract is suitable for SMEs?

Yes

Contract is suitable for VCSEs?

No


Description

Arts Council England, the National Academy for Social Prescribing and our partners are seeking to commission an external programme-level evaluation of the Thriving Communities Fund, to assess this programme against its intended aims and outcomes; and to develop a framework to collate the evaluation evidence of individual projects supported by the fund.

The Thriving Community Fund is a £1.8m initiative being administered by Arts Council England on behalf of the National Academy for Social Prescribing and fellow funding partners Historic England and Natural England, plus wider strategic partners NHS England and NHS Improvement, Sport England, the Office for Civil Society, the Money & Pensions Service and NHS Charities Together.

The Fund will support local voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise projects which bring together place-based partnerships to improve and increase the range and reach of available social prescribing community activities - especially for those people and communities most impacted by COVID19.

The Fund also aims to support and test a range of approaches to ensure social prescribing is sustainable and embedded in working practice beyond the 12 months of activity enabled by grants made through the programme. This will support the continued growth and long-term sustainability of social prescribing, and inform sector research, policy and development.

We require an experienced partner to deliver a programme-level evaluation to assess the fund against its main aims to:

•Strengthen the range of social prescribing activities offered locally;
•Enhance collaboration and networking between local organisations; and
•Enable social prescribing link workers to connect people to more creative community activities and services.

37 Thriving Communities projects have been funded for a one-year period between March 2021 and March 2022.

Each project will be undertaking their own evaluation and monitoring, and we expect the programme-level evaluation to develop a framework to collate and make use of this data along with conducting their own primary research.

We expect the evaluation to deliver interim findings and a final report. It is expected the final report will be published and will clearly communicate the key findings to a range of audiences.

Please note: to access the tender documentation and to bid for the opportunity you must log-in to the e-Sourcing portal.


More information

Links

Additional text

The contracting authority considers that this contract may be suitable for economic operators that are small or medium enterprises (SMEs). However, any selection of tenderers will be based solely on the criteria set out for the procurement.


About the buyer

Contact name

Procurement

Address

Bloomsbury Street
Bloomsbury
London
WC1B 3HF
UK

Telephone

01619344317

Email

procurement.services@artscouncil.org.uk