Background On: Harmonization of the Helpline for Children and Families in Jordan

TERMS OF REFERENCE

Consultancy team

Project: Harmonization of the helpline for children and families in Jordan.

Background on: Harmonization of the helpline for children and families in Jordan.

Based on the National Council For Family Affairs role in improving the quality of the family life , strengthening and enabling its role to meet the needs of its members, to ensure their security through participatory work with all the national institutions, to develop programs and projects that aim to improve the protection procedures and empowerment of Jordanian family. child helplines considered as one of the means to respond to family and child protection needs,to provide them with support and advice in case of problems facing children and their families, both at the family level, or in the school,or the surrounding environment,or evenwhen exposed to situations threatening their safetyand espousing them to abuse or neglect. Several institutions has initiated services to provide supporting line services for children and their families, including the line (911) of the Public Security Directorate which receives complaints about emergency situations, including the cases of domestic violence and child abuse. Also there is the line of family support of the Jordan River Foundation and hotline of the Ministry of Education which is responsible for receiving the complaints of schools students,In order to consolidate national experiences in the field of protecting and supporting lines for children and their families, to enhance its role in the provision of family, psychological and social counseling, and to reduce the growing problem of domestic violence in general and violence against children in particular, the National Council for family Affairs in partnership with the United Nations children's Fund (UNICEF),and under the supervision of the national team for family protection from the violencehad a survey onhelplinesin Jordan in order to identify the availability and expansionof helplines and services offered at the national level, the obstacles and challenges faced by these lines at the institutional and national levels, and thus set a future perspective to improve and develop their work to ensure the deployment and sustainability and unite their efforts.

The results of the study showed the lack of a regulatory framework at the national level and at the legislation or policies level, the lack of specific standards that all helplines operators should committo , such as, infrastructure and qualified personnel, procedures for providing the service and documentation and no comprehensive coverageof most of the lines for all Kingdoms’ regions. Also, the lines are not providing a comprehensive package of services, poor coordination and partnership between service providers are there, low sustainability level of some of them and their reliance on funding.A workshop was conducted to present the results of the study and the workshop outputs addressed the importance of working on the following:

• Creating a unified national number to support the child and his family

• Develop a work mechanism for the operation of the line so which can be implemented through collaboration between current lines operators (policies, standards .... etc.)

Based on the functions of the Councilin contributing of settingthe policies and plans related to the family and their children, monitoringthe implementation, providing technical support and assistance to those parties concerned with family affairs, developingthe required human resources and their working methods,, the Council is implementing a project to harmonize thehelplines of the child and his family in Jordan, in partnership with the United Nations Children's Fund mode (UNICEF), and under the supervision of the National Team for Family Protectionthrough the following:

• Work with agencies that manage helplines and hot lines to develop aworkplan to consolidate and organize their efforts under a national one or two-line number.

• Develop standards and workplanfor child helplines and his family at the national level.

• Set a future perspective for childhelplinesat the national level.

Action points for theConsultants(team workmembers):

All deliverables are to be submitted in Arabic and English

• The consultant performs the following tasks which include desk review and field work, and to develop a methodology, a clear work plan, aspecifictimeframe commensurate with the goals, that are addressed in the terms of reference and approved by the National Council for Family Affairs and UNICEF and the Technical Committee.

• Desk review of all standards and past experiences and the documents relevant to the unified protection helplines that provide services to the family and its members, especially children at the national and international level as well as the laws, national legislation and frameworks for unified helplines to protect the child and his family in addition to the survey of lines to support children and their families, and prepare summary presented to the technical Committee.

• Conduct field visits to the authorities concerned with child helplines.

• Work with agencies that manage helplines and hotlines to develop a work plan to consolidate and organize their efforts under a one or two digital national number that includespartner’sroles and responsibilities in addition to time frame.

• Develop specific standards to establish and provide support to the child and family helpline that reflect the international standards and the best relevant international and national practices.

• Develop standard operating procedures in partnership with all relevant service providers for the family and child helplines, for the aim oforganizationand, standardization of referral pathways of educational, health, legal services and other service providers.

• Identify infrastructure and communications structure needed to the installment and unification of the helplines.Develop a database on the incoming calls for child and family helplines documentation methods and the type of regular reports produced.

Facilitating and managing consultative sessions and workshops with partners to discuss the draft on the project outputs (a plan to unify and organize the work of the lines, standards and procedures for work ....) and the amendment in accordance with the workshop outputs, in addition to the preparation of technical reports of workshops and sessions.

Prepare all technical arrangements for meetings and workshops that related with government and non-governmental institution to discuss the roles and responsibilities, and current procedures.

• Include theComments/feedback received from the technical workshops or technical committee in all phases of the project

• Provide the Council with periodic reports on the progress of work in Arabic and English.

• Provide the councilwith a comprehensive report of all work output in Arabic and English (paper and electronic)

Key deliverables:

1. Set a strategy about the regulation mechanism to unify the lines under a line or two helpline.

2. National standards that define the work mechanism of child and family helplines (including details and specifications of the infrastructure and the communications structure required tooperate, unify lines and organize thework)

3. Standard operating procedures of child and family helplines to provide services and to refer cases, the Frameworks required to develop database, including details and components of the databases.

Qualifications of the consultant (working team):

Proposals will be submitted by a working group which includes specialized team members with expertise in all work requirements as follows:

• Experience in the field of helplines and itswork mechanism (provide the council with expertise relevant to the subject of consultation).

• Specialization and expertise in the field of family protection and gender based violence.

• Experience in the field of social policies and strategies

• Knowledge and skill in the field of monitoring and evaluation methodologies, project management and fieldwork.

• Experience in preparations of work plans and mechanisms of its implementation on the ground

• Experience in communications, databases, information technology systems and networks

• Experience in institutional development, including the preparation of organizational structures and its governance

• Experience in the preparation of regulatory measures to provide services

• Experience in the preparation of standards and quality control

• Experience in the field of family and child protection programs

• Communication skills

• Significant writing skills in both Arabic and English.

• Ability to prepare quality reports as per required deadlines.

• Experience in the management of meetings and facilitating workshops and meetings

• Presentation Skills (Presentation Skills)

Estimated duration of the contract and payment schedules

It is expected that project will be implemented during the period from January 2017to April2017. The group of consultants shall propose a timeframe to submit the expected accomplishments, taking into consideration the allocation of necessary and adequate time (at least two weeks) for the purpose of revision of the achievements and quality assurance, which will be conducted by the technical team and the technical Committee.

outputs of the project is also considered the property of the of the National Council for Family Affairs and UNICEF, and it’s not allowed for the expert to use the outputs of the projects after the completion of the task or during the task except after obtaining written approval from the National Council for Family Affairs UNICEF / Jordan Office.

Payment will be conditional based the achievements and it will be in three installments:

•10% upon signing the contract

• 30% of the total value of the contract upon delivery of the first draft of the organizationalmechanism and national standards that define family and child helpline workflow and its standard operating procedures
• 30% of the contract’s total value upon delivery of the final report of the organizational mechanism and national standards that define family and child helpline workflow and its standard operating procedures

•30% of the contract’s total value upon submission of final copies of the required work outputs and perform all the tasks required by the consultant and approving it as final.

60% of the total value of the contract upon submission of finalcopies of the required work outputs and perform all the tasks required by the consultant and approving it as final.

Responsibilities of the Technical Committee:

• Provide technical support and any information needed for the consultant

• Facilitate the tasks of the consultant

• Provide any documents required

• Review documents and drafts of the work and provide feedback to the consultant

• Attend meetings and workshops

Call for proposals:

1. Technical Proposal

Applicants shall prepare a proposal as an overall response to ToR ensuring that the purpose, objectives, scope, criteria and deliverables of the study will be met. The proposal should include a detailed breakdown of the primary methodology, data collection, the approach and mechanism of work, which will be concluded to be used in this project. The proposal should also include a brief explanation of the project phases. An updatedResumes of the consultant (consultants)who will be working within a team,must be attached with the technical proposal, in addition to copies of, or links to other similar projects conducted by theteam in the past.

2. Financialproposal

Offer with cost breakdown: Consultancy fees, the consultant should submit a financial proposal which includes the costsof theconsultants (working team). And it must be submitted in a separate file, clearly named "financial proposal".

3. The total financial proposal score:

The contract will be referred to the applicant that receives the highest total scores of technical proposal and financial together. The offers that have not complied with the terms and reference of the tasks and functions document, including the provision of all required information will be considered non-responsiveand will not be considered for review.

Proposals with all supporting documents should be addressed toBilal Khrisat () by December 15, 2016.

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