Research services

Tender description

DCMS is looking to select a research partner that will have two main purposes: To monitor the health of the mutuals sector and establish whether the government’s interventions are having a positive impact. This will include the growth in number, size, and turnover of public service mutuals. To gain in-depth qualitative insight, over an extended period of time, of the real challenges and opportunities faced when running a public service mutual. We hope the combination of quantitative and qualitative insight will help us build the case for the mutual model as a viable way of delivering public services. It will also help us to make informed policy decisions about how the government should support these organizations in the future. Public service mutuals are organizations which have spun out of the public sector, deliver public services and have a substantial level of employee involvement in the way they’re run. The Mutuals Team is in the Office for Civil Society (OCS), part of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS). It works across government to support existing public service mutuals to thrive, and new ones to emerge. This research will have two main purposes: 1) To monitor the health of the mutual's sector and establish whether the government’s interventions are having a positive impact. This will include the growth in number, size, and turnover of public service mutual's. 2) To gain in-depth qualitative insight, over an extended period of time, of the real challenges and opportunities faced when running a public service mutual.