Invitation to Tender for Evaluation Consultancies

Invitation to tender for evaluation consultancies

June 2014

1.  Background

Media Trust is the UK’s leading communications charity. We work in partnership with the media industry to enable young people, charities and communities to find their voice and make it heard. Our corporate members include some of UK’s top media and communications companies includingA+E Networks, AMV BBDO, Arqiva, BBC, Camelot, Channel 4, Dentsu Aegis network, Discovery Networks Europe, dmg media, Google,Guardian Media Group, ITV, Just::Health Communications, MTV Networks UK & Ireland, NBCUniversal, News UK, Sky, Time Warner, Trinity Mirror,

Weber Shandwick and WPP.

Media Trust is a creative and passionate charity, with over 20 years’ experience of creating innovative communications solutions for charities and communities. We offer a broad range of marketing and communication resources and training, free professional support from media volunteers and mentors, film and content production, creative media projects, and the national digital TV and online channel, Community Channel.

Wecreate and deliver innovative youth media projects and campaigns thatempower young people to have a voice. Theydevelop a wide range of skills that enable them to reach their potential throughtraining, mentoring, networking and work experience opportunities. Through our strong partnerships with the media industry, content made by young people is distributed to reach local and national audiences. We have supported young people to produce content for platforms including Community Channel,MTV, Channel 4, BBC, ITV News, The Guardian, The Sun, The Times and Sky News.

We have been awarded a grant through the Office for Civil Society's Youth Social Action Journey Fund to encourage young people to create positive change through social action and a grant through theOffice for Civil Society'sVulnerable and Disengaged Young People Fund to deliver our national youth mentoring scheme.

2.  Youth Media overview:

We would like the consultancy to provide evaluation of the following:

·  Youth Mentoring: Media Trust’s Youth mentoring programme for vulnerable and disengaged young people aged 13-24, funded by the Cabinet Office’s Vulnerable and Disengaged Young People Fund;

·  Digital Storytelling: Media Trust’s social action programme for 13-20 year olds, funded by the Cabinet Office’s Youth Social Action Journey Fund.

1. Youth Mentoring (Vulnerable and Disengaged Young People Fund)

We are scaling up our youth mentoring programme to reach 700 vulnerable and disengaged young people aged 13-24 between January 2014 and March 2015, to ultimately improve their work-readiness.

This programme will support a range of vulnerable and disengaged 13-24 year olds including those young people:

·  not in, or at risk of falling out of education, employment or training

·  known to police, wider criminal justice system or at risk of offending

·  special educational needs or disabled

·  experiencing homelessness

·  from a low-economic background

·  in or leaving care.

The ultimate goal of the programme is to have more young people from disadvantaged backgrounds with increased skills, confidence, motivation and aspirations so that they become more work-ready and able to gain employment.

Activities

We bring together volunteer mentors with vulnerable and disengaged 13-24 year olds to enable them to become more work ready and bring about social change.

We support a range of young people and meet their needs through three strands of mentoring. Young people can access any combination of strands.

·  Group (13-24 year olds): practical media projects;

·  Masterclasses (13-24 year olds): hosted by media companies, young people complete practical, creative tasks and gain insight from mentors into a professional world;

·  One-to-one (18-24 year olds): supported by a mentor from a professional discipline that matches their career interests.

Outputs

·  600 vulnerable and disengaged 13-24 year olds access group mentoring

·  120 vulnerable and disengaged 13-24 year olds access mentoring via masterclasses

·  80 vulnerable and disengaged 18-24 year olds access one-to-one mentoring support

·  Young people can access more than one service – overall 700 vulnerable and disengaged 13-24 year olds access at least one of our strands of mentoring

·  200 volunteers mentor a young person

Outcomes

·  Improved confidence and self-esteem

·  Increased knowledge and employability skills

·  Improved motivation and aspirations

·  Improved well-being including feeling part of the community, feeling valued, having a positive outlook

·  Increased ability to engage in positive opportunities including work experience, volunteering, training and involvement in community activities

·  Improved ability to make positive life choices and engage in positive networks.

Ultimate Goal

·  Improve work readiness and increase numbers into employment.

See appendix one for the theory of change.

2. Digital Storytelling (Youth Social Action Journey Fund)

We are scaling up our social action activity to reach 700 young people aged 13-20 between January 2014 and March 2015. The aim of the programme is to improve the young people’s confidence, skills, motivation and aspirations and ultimately make them feel more engaged with and part of their communities.

Activities

Through intensive training and mentoring we will equip 13-20 year olds with the skills they need to create, shoot and edit short films using only their smart phone. The young people will learn how to tell compelling stories about their community, empowering them to highlight issues that are important to them, tell impactful stories and create positive change.

Outputs

·  140 social action courses delivered

·  72 NCS taster sessions delivered

·  300 13-17 year olds (pre-NCS) receive training and mentoring to produce social action content.

·  150 13-17 year olds (pre-NCS) sign up to NCS

·  400 16-20 year olds (NCS graduates) receive training and mentoring to produce social action content.

·  140 pieces of social action content created

·  140 social action stories distributed or showcased

·  40 partners secured to deliver courses

Outcomes

·  Improved confidence and self-esteem

·  Increased communication and creativity skills

·  Improved planning and problem solving skills

·  Improved motivation and aspirations

·  Improved well-being

·  Increased ability to engage in positive civic participation opportunities

·  Improved ability to make positive life choices and engage in positive networks.

Ultimate Goal

·  Feel more engaged with and part of community

See appendix two for theory of change.

3.  Approach

We have an established organisational impact framework and in-house impact team. We have started developing the methodology and updating research tools in line with Cabinet Office’s requirements. We will oversee the collection of baseline and follow up data. We would like to appoint external evaluators to contribute to the methodology, carry out in-depth interviews, case studies, data analysis and reporting.

We would like the consultancy to provide for each of the projects:

·  Primary and secondary research (i.e. conducting surveys, in-depth interviews and focus groups as well as a consideration to randomised control trial);

·  Analyses and evaluation of large quantitative and qualitative data sets from monthly, pre and post survey questionnaires, interviews and focus groups as well as possibly randomised control trial data;

·  Delivering case studies, using qualitative/quantitative data and multimedia content submitted by consumers to illustrate the examples.

Proposals should outline the methodological approach considered most suited to determining success against outputs and outcomes as outlined above as well as the impacts on young people, youth organisations, media professionals and media companies. This is expected to be both qualitative and quantitative in nature. Creative and innovative approaches to methodology are encouraged.

4.  Reporting requirements

We require quarterly progress meeting and reports that will include progress of analysis of quantitative and qualitative data.

An interim report will be required in December 2014 and a final evaluation report will be required in April 2015.

Suggested timetable:

23rd June 2014 / Deadline for applications
26th & 27th June 2014 / Interview with selected evaluators
27th June 2014 / Appointment of external evaluators
3rd July 2014 / Inception meeting
11th July 2014 / Inception report
10th October 2014 / Interim impact report delivered
March 2015 / Draft final impact report to be delivered
April 2015 / Final impact report to be delivered

5.  Budget

Approximately £35,000 is available for the delivery of the requirements set out in this invitation to tender and includes all expenses (inclusive of VAT).

6.  Evaluator’s specification

Media Trust is looking for a consultancy with the following attributes, experience and skills:

·  experience of and delivering social research and evaluation, ideally demonstrating youth social action and social change;

·  experience with working with young people in research projects;

·  experience of monitoring, evaluation, information management and carrying out qualitative and quantitative research;

·  experience in advanced qualitative and quantitative data analysis (including experience with social research applications i.e. SPSS or STATA and NVivio);

·  experience of preparing case studies and best practice examples;

·  experience in writing concise evaluation reports;

·  experience of working with or in the creative industries and/or voluntary and charity sector would be an advantage.

7.  Selection criteria:

Media Trust will use the following weighting criteria in the selection process:

·  Credentials - experience of delivering social research projects: 15%

·  Team - bio/CV's: 5%

·  Evaluation methodology including the approach to qualitative and quantitative data analysis: 35%

·  Approach to presentation of research findings and case studies: 10%

·  Budget: 25%

·  Data Protection/Ethics/Quality Assurance: 10%

8.  Submitting your proposal

Media Trust is offering this as a commissioned piece of work. If you are interested in tendering for the evaluation please complete the forms in appendices three and four, outlining your approach and costings.

Send your completed forms, along with the names of two references to no later than midday on 23rd June 2014. Shortlisted candidates/organisations will be invited to an interview at Media Trust’s offices in London on either 26th or 27th June 2014.

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Appendix one

Youth Mentoring (Vulnerable and Disengaged Young People Fund)

Theory of change

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Appendix two

Digital Storytelling (Youth Social Action Journey Fund)

Theory of change

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Appendix three

Proposal

Applicant:
Evaluation supplier
/ Who will be carrying out the evaluation?
What are their credentials and experience?
Objectives / Please detail the research question(s) your evaluation is aiming to answer, and the outcomes measures that will be tracked (including whether short- or long-term)
e.g. Is programme X successful in improving outcomes for young people taking part?
In short-term (i.e. 6 months post-intervention) evaluation will track levels of confidence, leadership skills, communication).
In mid-long term (i.e. 1 year post-intervention) evaluation will track attitudes to and engagement with education (e.g. exam results)
Methodology / Data collection
Please detail the type of data you will be using/collecting (e.g. existing administrative data, survey data, interview data).
What research methods will you use throughout the evaluation? (Qualitative - e.g. focus groups, case studies, ethnography; Quantitative – e.g. paper surveys, online survey, telephone interviews).
What sample size are you proposing for each method? (e.g. Case studies with 8 participants, survey of all 200 participants)
If you are using a sample, how will you ensure a representative sample? (e.g. random probability, selective sampling different ethnic/age groups)
Will a control group be included?
How will you encourage participation in the research? If appropriate to your research design, what are the expected response rates?
Data analysis
How will you measure the impact of your programme?(e.g. comparison of pre- and post-project data, comparison with a control group)
What methods will you use to analyse the data? (e.g. descriptive statistics, content analysis, regression)
What, if any, sub-groups will you analyse?(e.g. females/males, white/BME)
Data protection / ethics
What procedures are in place for managing, storing and transferring data in line with the Data Protection Act?
Are there any ethical issues/vulnerable participants and, if so, how will you ensure the research meets ethical standards?
Project management / General
Please provide detail on project management for the evaluation including who the lead project manager will be, how progress will be reported to CO, the use of any expert advisors / Advisory group.
Timings
Please outline proposed timelines for each stage of the evaluation (e.g. scoping, data collection, data analysis, reporting). You should also note key milestones / deliverables.
Risk management
Please list any risks identified and proposed mitigating actions.

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Appendix four

Costing template

Project:
Evaluation Supplier:
Core requirements / Manpower costs / Fixed non-manpower costs (e.g. to cover any fiedlwork materials, equipment, transport etc)
Grade 1 (Director) / Grade 2 (Project manager) / Grade 3 (Senior researcher) / Grade 4 (Junior researcher) / Total manpower
Days / Cost / Days / Cost / Days / Cost / Days / Cost / Days / Cost
Research stage / (A) / (B) / (C) / (D) / (E = A+B+C+D) / (F)
Planning / Scoping (e.g. costs for drafting and finalising fieldwork materials)
Data collection (e.g. costs for recruitment, fieldwork, data entry, prep for analysis)
Data analysis (e.g. costs for main analysis, any sub-group analysis)
Reporting (e.g. costs for producing final report, presentations of headline findings)
Project management (e.g. costs to cover any meetings with CO, Advisory groups, progress reports)
Total

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