Evaluation Coordinator for the Children's Social Care Innovation Programme / Partners in Practice

Tender description

The Department for Education (DfE) proposes to tender for an evaluation coordinator for the Children's Social Care Innovation Programme (IP). The evaluation coordinator will oversee programme wide evaluation including: coordination and management of the individual evaluation teams (a separate PIN will be published for this work), and bringing together data from themes and projects to provide an overall assessment across the whole programme. This work will also include oversight of evaluation related to the Partners in Practice (PiP) programme. We intend to publish this opportunity through the Education & Children's Social Care Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) via the Redimo 2 e-procurement system on Monday 5 December 2016. See below for more information regarding the e-procurement system. Background The Innovation Programme was launched in October 2013 to act as a catalyst for developing more effective ways of supporting vulnerable children. In its first two years the IP has supported 53 projects with £110m, operating across 59% of all top tier local authorities and involving over 120 public, private and voluntary sector organisations. Partners in Practice initiative, initially agreed by the child protection taskforce, and announced by the Prime Minister in December 2015 will model excellence and innovation in the delivery of children's social care services. Evaluation Evaluation is a core component of the IP. We need to undertake high quality evaluations and produce compelling and accessible outputs for practitioners. The evaluation strategy consists of: - individual evaluation organisations allocated to themes and ready to work with funded LAs and organisations to evaluate what works, why, and in what circumstances. - an evaluation coordinator responsible for setting and assuring high evaluation standards, overseeing evaluations, and bringing together data across themes to demonstrate progress towards the Innovation Programme objectives. We expect to appoint the evaluation coordinator on a two-year contract, to run from January 2017 to January 2019 with flexibility to extend for a further two years, both with yearly break clauses. Estimated Total Value (exl VAT) Up to £0.5m over 2 years with the possibility to extend to £1m over 4 years.