ITT: Evaluation of our Strengthening Social Care Analytics programme

The Strengthening Social Care Analytics programme is funding projects that will demonstrate how data analytics can be used to improve social care and help to catalyse further change in the social care data analytics system by sharing findings and methods with our community of practice.

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed major weaknesses in the social care data system, and these weaknesses made it harder for the country to respond to outbreaks and to support carers to provide care during the pandemic, and ultimately led to avoidable suffering for our most vulnerable people. 

Through our Strengthening Social Care Analytics programme, we are supporting five teams across the UK to help them use data analytics in novel and innovative ways that will address the key challenges that the social care sector is facing. The programme is supporting the teams with funding of up to £60,000 per project, with each project running for up to 12 months, from March 2021.

Evaluation of the Strengthening Social Care Analytics programme

We are looking to appoint an evaluation partner so that we can understand how our funding has supported project teams to improve the use of better data analytics within social care, including what has enabled or inhibited successful implementation and effectiveness.

The lessons developed through the evaluation will enable us to draw generalisable conclusions from these projects, which will inform our approach to further work in the sector, including our engagement with the national conversation regarding social care. The evaluation will inform ongoing discussions with key stakeholders, including national policy makers and membership organisations who represent social care commissioners, providers and people who need social care, so that they can learn about how data can be used to improve care and support good practice in social care data analytics going forward.

We are seeking an evaluator who can support us with the design and delivery of a qualitative process evaluation. The provider will be responsible for designing, managing and conducting the evaluation; analysing the findings; and producing an interim report, a final report and a presentation that synthesises the key findings into a core set of lessons.

The successful evaluator will be expected to attend formal mid-point and final review meetings with the project teams, and to arrange additional interviews with the teams as required. We will work with the successful provider to refine the evaluation questions and approach before they submit a final evaluation protocol, and will also work with them on the structure of the interim and final reports. We will expect the provider to set the findings in the context of the wider strategic narrative.

The successful evaluator will be required to start working with us from July 2021 and the final report will need to be completed by May 2022.

How to apply

If you are interested in submitting a proposal, please follow the steps below to complete your application.

1. Please read the invitation to tender for full details of the tender response requirements and selection criteria.
2. Please submit your tender response form on our online portal AIMS. Please read the AIMS user guide before starting to complete the form. This is available on our website and via the online form on AIMS.
3. The deadline for online applications is 12.00 (midday) on Monday 7 June 2021. We will not accept proposals submitted after this time.
4. A response to your application will be made during the week commencing 21 June 2021.
5. Update: we intend to interview shortlisted bidders on 1 July 2021 to explore proposals in more depth. Please ensure you are available for a virtual interview on this date.
6. The final decision will be communicated by 12 July 2021.