Evaluation consultancy services

Tender description

The Government has devolved funding for and commissioning of the Work and Health Programme (WHP) to London. Some of this funding is matched by ESF. The programmes have been commissioned by 4 sub-regions in London, to provide employment support for people who have a health condition or disability who have been unemployed for 2 years or more, or who face specific barriers to gaining employment. The 4 sub-regions are: — Central London Forward, — Local London, — South London Partnership, — West London Alliance. The sub-regions are working together to commission a joint evaluation of the four schemes. DWP are conducting a national evaluation of the WHP across the national contract, the analysis will cover the 4 London devolved areas. The national evaluation will include randomised control cohort to test how the programme works against ‘business as usual’ services. The national evaluation will not provide for any detailed understanding of the drivers of performance at the sub-regional level. The specification for the procurement is currently being developed. The 4 London sub-regions are commissioning their own bespoke evaluation, to provide a richer understanding of the 4 programmes. The evaluation must complete during the period where ESF funding is available hence need to be concluded no later than March 2023. The programme of research will be split into 3 pieces of work, as follows: — Programme design, and participant characteristics. Do the 4 programme models reflect local needs? — The user experience: integration of services, access to relevant support, and health and wellbeing, — The quantitative performance for different participant groups, and how local labour markets and different payment models drive performance. To further explore issues with the evaluation we are holding a Soft Market Testing event on 19th April at 10am atLondon Council's Office at 59½ Southwark Street, London SE1 0AL. The procurement will be run as a restricted procurement.