Design and execution of research and development

Tender description

The Department of Children and Youth Affairs is seeking proposals from Tenderers to: 1.) Develop and pilot a measurement instrument(s) and supporting documentation to assess the quality of early years provision in the Irish context; 2.) Undertake a baseline assessment of quality in a representative sample of registered early years settings in Ireland; and 3.) Provide the outputs as specified in the RFT. The Department of Children and Youth Affairs is seeking proposals from Tenderers to: 1) Develop and pilot a measurement instrument(s) and supporting documentation to assess the quality of early years provision in the Irish context; 2) Undertake a baseline assessment of quality in a representative sample of registered early years settings in Ireland; and 3) Provide the outputs as specified in the RFT. Context An assessment of the quality of early years provision in the Irish context was first recommended in ‘Right from the Start: The Report of the Expert Advisory Group on the Early Years Strategy’ (Department of Children and Youth Affairs, 2013) and subsequently in the Report of the Inter-Departmental Group on Future Investment (Department of Children and Youth Affairs, 2015) In Budget 2016, the DCYA secured funding to conduct this assessment of quality and is now requesting proposals from Tenderers to undertake this work. Tenderers are required to submit complete proposals to address all of the requirements of the Study. The Study The successful Tenderer shall also undertake data analysis and finalise a prescribed set of outputs. It shall also manage a range of issues arising throughout the Study. As it is intended to undertake follow-up assessments of quality at regular intervals to assess quality trends over time, the successful Tenderer shall be responsible for ensuring that the measurement instrument(s) is developed and the baseline assessment is carried out in a way that will allow follow-up assessments to be commissioned if such a decision is taken by the DCYA.