DLEARN-Childcare Early Adopter Communities – Process, Impact & Spend Evaluation

Concepts

• edinburgh
• social research
• economic impact assessment
• school age childcare
• childcare
• different communities
• selected communities
• funded early learning
• wider local and national childcare policy
• an early impact evaluation

Location

United Kingdom:

Description

The Scottish Government, on behalf of the Scottish Ministers, wishes to commission a process, impact and spend evaluation of six ‘early adopter communities’ who are testing out local, place-based approaches to childcare from the very early years up to the end of primary school.

Total Quantity or Scope

The Scottish Government has committed to building a system of school age childcare that provides care before and after school, all year round, to support parents and carers – particularly on low incomes – to access secure and stable employment. The School Age Childcare Transformational Change Programme was established to deliver this commitment. The Programme is taking a phased approach to policy design in order to test and refine what an effective system will look like in different communities, and to adapt and scale different approaches. This includes work within six ‘early adopter communities’ (EACs) to understand how to co-design local systems of childcare which will meet the needs of families living within those communities. This work is targeted at families most at risk of living in poverty, as set out in Best Start, Bright Futures, the Scottish Government’s tackling child poverty delivery plan. In the 2023 Programme for Government, Scottish Government also made a commitment to expand the EACs to include families with younger children for the first time. This will mainly focus on children up to age three, given that all three- and four-year-olds (and eligible two-year-olds) are already entitled to 1140 hours of funded early learning and childcare. In the coming year the EACs will conduct engagement work with families to better understand their needs in relation to childcare for younger children. Some limited delivery will also begin for families in selected communities where this engagement work has already taken place. The Scottish Government, on behalf of the Scottish Ministers, wishes to commission a process, impact and spend evaluation of the EACs. The contractor will be required to build on a first phase of evaluation of the EACs (which involved development of a theory of change and a monitoring and evaluation framework, an early process evaluation, and an evaluability assessment) and work with the Scottish Government to meet the aims outlined below. This next phase of work is to provide robust findings on the impact of these community-based childcare projects on children and families, how these changes are enabled, and how the resources put into the EACs have been used. These findings will in turn inform both continuous improvement for local partners and wider local and national childcare policy. The aims of this evaluation are: 1. Scope and refine a detailed evaluation approach, building on a preliminary evaluability assessment. 2. Work with leads and partners in the EACs to refine and improve monitoring and evaluation data, as required 3. Conduct a process evaluation across all 6 EACs 4. Conduct an early impact evaluation across all 6 EACs 5. Conduct a spend evaluation across all 6 EACs.

Renewal Options

Option to extend for a further 3-month period at the sole discretion of the Scottish Government.

Award Criteria

CPV Codes

• 79315000 - Social research services
• 79311410 - Economic impact assessment

Indicators

• This is a one-off contract (no recurrence)
• Renewals are available.
• Financial restrictions apply.
• Staff qualifications are relevant.
• Technical restrictions apply.

Other Information

** PREVIEW NOTICE, please check Find a Tender for full details. ** SPD (SCOTLAND) STAGE . Bidders must respond to each question contained in the SPD (Scotland) (in the Qualification Envelope in PCS-T). . In assessing responses to the SPD (Scotland), a 'Pass'/'Fail' score will be awarded to each question. Only tenders that achieve a ‘Pass’ for all questions in the SPD (Scotland) will proceed to the Quality and Price analysis. . 2D.1, 2D.1.1 and 2D.1.2 - Bidders must confirm if they intend to subcontract any share of the Contract to third parties, to (in so far as known) list the proposed subcontractors, and to submit a completed 'SPD (Scotland) - Subcontractors - Supplier Response' for each of the subcontractors concerned. AWARD STAGE . The Award Criteria are Quality 70% / Price 30%. . The question scoring methodology for the Award Criteria shall be: . 0 = Unacceptable. Nil or inadequate response. Fails to demonstrate an ability to meet the requirement . 1 = Poor. Response is partially relevant but generally poor. The response addresses some elements of the requirement but contains insufficient/limited detail or explanation to demonstrate how the requirement will be fulfilled. . 2 = Acceptable. Response is relevant and acceptable. The response addresses a broad understanding of the requirement but may lack details on how the requirement will be fulfilled in certain areas. . 3 = Good. Response is relevant and good. The response is sufficiently detailed to demonstrate a good understanding and provides details on how the requirements will be fulfilled. . 4 = Excellent. Response is completely relevant and excellent overall. The response is comprehensive, unambiguous and demonstrates a thorough understanding of the requirement and provides details of how the requirement will be met in full. . Bidders must confirm that they will pay staff that are involved in the delivery of services under the contract, at least the real Living Wage. Any tenderer who answers "No" to this question will not be subject to further evaluation. . Bidders must confirm that they will include the standard clause in all contracts used in the delivery of the requirements, ensuring payment of subcontractors at all stages of the supply chain within 30 days and include a point of contact for subcontractors to refer to in the case of payment difficulties. This will require active monitoring of payment performance and provision of evidence and reporting to the Scottish Government on a regular basis. Bidders who fail to answer “Yes” to this question will not have their tender considered further. The buyer is using PCS-Tender to conduct this ITT exercise. The Project code is 27863. For more information see: http://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/info/InfoCentre.aspx?ID=2343 A sub-contract clause has been included in this contract. For more information see: http://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/info/InfoCentre.aspx?ID=2363 Community benefits are included in this requirement. For more information see: https://www.gov.scot/policies/public-sector-procurement/community-benefits-in-pr... A summary of the expected community benefits has been provided as follows: The tenderer must provide a Community Benefits proposal that is relevant to the subject matter of this contract and supports the Scottish Ministers’ commitment to contributing to the social, economic & environmental well-being of the people of Scotland, as described in the specification. (SC Ref:781467)