Lost Peatlands of South Wales – Consultancy Services for Monitoring and Evaluation

Tender description

An award has been made by Neath Port Talbot Council (the Council) for administrating a landscape-scale partnership project – Lost Peatlands of South Wales. The project intends to restore the upland landscape of the Upper Afan Valley in Neath Port Talbot and the Upper Rhondda Fawr in Rhondda Cynon Taf whilst engaging and encouraging local communities and school children to get outside in their landscape to get healthier and learn about their local heritage. The main focus of the project is peatland restoration and a number of areas have been identified within the Welsh Government Woodland Estate as suitable for such works. This is a partnership project, with the Council working alongside Natural Resources Wales, Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council, Coed Lleol and Swansea University. The project is funded by National Lottery Heritage Funding (NLHF), Neath Port Talbot Council, Natural Resources Wales, Swansea University and Rhondda Cynon Taf Council. The Countryside & Wildlife Team of Neath Port Talbot Council is therefore seeking to appoint the services of a consultant or consultancy company, to carry out an independent evaluation of the Lost Peatlands Project of South Wales. The consultant / consultancy company will complete a programme of work made up of three main elements: 1. A preliminary review of the project at the start of the delivery phase. This will include analysing information and methods outlined in the grant application and development stage, formalising the type of information and feedback gathered by the LP Team throughout the project and communicating any early recommendations via a preliminary evaluation report. 2. A mid-term evaluation and report, detailing progress to date and making informed recommendations for the remainder of the project. (Estimated start: March 2023*). 3. A detailed final project evaluation that will analyse all aspects of the project, to include an assessment of how the project responded to any recommendations made in the mid-term evaluation. The final evaluation will establish if the project has been completed in accordance with the initial funding application and budget; and how well it has achieved the Heritage Fund Outcomes (To be completed by February 2025*). The consultant / consultancy company will be required to evaluate, report and where appropriate make recommendations for improvement on the following aspects: • Effectiveness of the delivery of the project. • Implementation, operation and as far as possible, the impact of the project. • Added value benefits, including how the project performed against the delivery of project aims, objectives and heritage outcomes, lessons learned and how they were addressed. • Assess the governance and project management, including the effectiveness of restoration and management techniques, to what extent the evidence research gaps have been filled and best practice recommendations and information sharing. • Key lessons relevant to this and future projects. In addition: • The reports will identify the wider benefits of the project achieved through NLHF investment. • The mid-term evaluation will be used to inform the project delivery team on progress of the project, from an external source. This will enable the project manager to implement any changes as appropriate. • The final evaluation report will be used to inform future peatland restoration, community focused projects and policy for the region. • The evaluation will be disseminated to relevant stakeholders including funders by reports and electronic media. The above project will be delivered by the successful bidder over the period September 2021 until February 2025.