EVALUATION OF CONTAMINATION HIT SQUAD DEMONSTRATION PROJECT

Tender description

Resource London, in partnership with the London Environment Directors Network (LEDNet), is delivering the Contamination Hit Squad (CHS) project with four London local authorities - Brent, Greenwich, Haringey and Lewisham. The project involves the employment of a group of contamination officers to help deliver the participating councils' contamination policy. The officers will inspect recycling kerbside containers from selected rounds ahead of the crews (on collection day) and identify those which are contaminated. The contaminated containers will not be emptied as recycling and the householders will be contacted to advise them that their bin was contaminated. A series of follow up letters will be used, depending on the frequency of contamination. More detailed information can be provided to the successful Service Provider. Keep Britain Tidy (KBT) has been contracted by LWARB to deliver the "hit squad" element of the project. The objective of the CHS project is to try to determine whether the employment of a specific group of officers who solely focus on tackling contamination, will help to decrease contamination at the kerbside, compared to relying on the crews to implement the contamination policy. Resource London requires a Service Provider (henceforth 'the M&E Contractor') to carry out an evaluation of the project. The evaluation will involve using monitoring data collected by the Contamination Hit Squad, the participating councils and the M&E Contractor to: • ascertain the impact of the CHS project in reducing contamination at the kerbside; • understand any behavioural changes; and • estimate whether there are potential financial savings to other London local authorities, should they buy into a permanent London-wide Hit Squad programme. The aim of the evaluation is to provide information on which Resource London and the London local authorities can make a decision whether to support the introduction of a permanent, London-wide Contamination Hit Squad. An evaluation plan has been prepared for the project and is attached to this ITT. The objective of this work is to implement that plan, including: • Developing one or more dashboards that can be used by KBT and the participating councils to monitor week on week progress; • Finalising the approach and then working with the councils to obtain data for the difference-in-difference impact evaluation; • Developing a plan for delivering the qualitative research, including a sampling strategy and two semi-structured questionnaires, then deliver that plan; • Working with Resource London and the councils to devise a credible method to estimate potential costs and savings; • Analysing and collating the required data; • Preparing a technical report; and • Preparing a summary report suitable for the participating London authorities