Invitation to Tender for the Evaluation of the Coaction Hub

Introduction

Standing Together Against Domestic Abuse (STADA) is a national charity which brings communities together with the aim of ending domestic abuse. We support organisations to work in partnership to identify and respond effectively to domestic abuse to ensure survivors receive the best possible support to live free of abuse.  STADA pioneered the Co-ordinated Community Response (CCR) in the UK. The CCR brings together services to ensure local systems keep survivors safe, hold abusers to account and prevent domestic abuse. Our model of co-ordinated local partnership to tackle and ultimately prevent domestic abuse is now considered best practice. 

This project is a partnership between STADA and Asian Women’s Resource Centre (AWRC). AWRC has been leading the way in foregrounding the intersectional needs of Black and Minoritised women experiencing violence against women and girls and creating a coordinated ‘by and for’ led ecosystem to support multiagency response to harmful practices. They have created a roadmap and achieved key milestones for structural changes within the VAWG sector to constructively challenge institutional bias and significant disparity in resources and capacities between white led organizations and the specialist sector.

The partnership between Asian Women’s Resource Centre and Standing Together is a unique one. Both agencies have a wealth of experience and expertise in the VAWG Sector and bring individual strengths to the partnership. Both STADA and AWRC believe that the Co-ordinated Community Response is the most effective way to increase safety for victims and survivors of domestic abuse and harmful practices.  The agencies agree that there is much work to be done in this area, most importantly to address the poor responses received by Black and Minoritized/global majority survivors from statutory and non-statutory agencies.

The Esmee Fairbairn Foundation has provided 3 years funding to the “Coaction Hub Project: AWRC in partnership with STADA”, a joint project between AWRC and STADA. The premise of the partnership is that the organisations work as equal partners and focus to create an equitable partnership. 

 

Details of the new Coaction Hub Partnership 

PURPOSE AND SCOPE

Project Overview

The project aims to strengthen the CCR to improve responses to Black and minoritized survivors of domestic abuse and harmful practices and create a knowledge hub. The project will map and examine current responses to Black and minoritized survivors of domestic abuse and harmful practices. The agencies will carry out in depth consultation with specialists and survivors to inform tools which will be piloted before being rolled out nationally. The project will be informed by a pan London strategic partnership set up with statutory and non statutory partners with a specialist interest and expertise in supporting Black and minoritized survivors. 

 

Outcomes for the Project

  • The ability of professionals to respond to the needs of Minoritized/global majority survivors/victims in statutory processes will increase.

  • Efficiency and responsiveness of the CCR model for Black and Minoritized/global majority women will be better understood and acted upon.

  • Effective collaboration between specialist services and multi-agency stakeholders will be increased.

Project Model

Whilst different areas of the project will be led by one of the partner agencies, the two agencies will be working closely together to support all aspects of the project.  The key areas of the project are: 

  1. AWRC will launch and lead a specialist ‘Knowledge Hub’ with focus on participatory mapping of specialist engagement within the CCR model. The AWRC Co-ordinator will initiate and roll out consultations with specialist pan London partners, build and execute a work plan around reviewing existing risk assessments and engagement pathways for Black and Minoritized/global majority women and girls. Liaise with 2nd tier organisations, cross sector coalitions and VAWG leads to pilot proposed tools and further consolidate the CCR and risk assessment recommendations. They will roll out pilots nationally. They will produce a final report on the review of the CCR Model, including results from the mapping and findings from the pilot project. 

  2. STADA will build on extensive data collection on MARAC and harmful practices to produce research and recommendations on the effectiveness of MARAC for harmful practice cases. This will include consultation with specialist agencies and MARAC co-ordinators. 

  3. AWRC and STADA will offer training to MARAC Co-ordinators to upskill them on harmful practices in order to improve MARAC responses to these cases.

  4. AWRC and STADA will co-ordinate a pan London, by and for led strategic harmful practices forum to pool knowledge, coordinate resources and collectively represent the voice of harmful practices workers and influence practitioners, policy makers and commissioners.

  5. STADA will lead on a 2 year mentoring programme specific to Black and Minoritized/global majority workers in the sector to gain the skills and training to become DHR Chairs. 

  6. AWRC and STADA will hold a number events nationally to disseminate the findings and recommendations of the project.

Requirement for the Evaluation

  1. The Coaction Hub partners wish to appoint an experienced researcher or team of researchers to conduct an evaluation of the three year project using a mixed-methods design.

  2. The evaluator has a solid experience of developing monitoring and evaluation tools and problem-solving where needed.

  3. They are able to delve deeper and give a comprehensive framework and tools to help with the key milestones.

  4. Ability to reflect and understand how research bias can impact evaluation and have the ability and skills to navigate through this and find ways to overcome such challenges.

  5. Experience of evaluating a project run in partnerships and collaborations

  6. Have a good understanding of equality and diversity issues

 

Methodology

We propose to work with the successful candidate to design and finalise the exact methodology.  We would like the evaluation to answer the following questions at a minimum:

Outcomes and Impact

  • To what extent have the partner services been able to meet the outcomes set for the project?

  • What aspects of the model worked well, from the perspective of all stakeholders?

  • What were the successes and challenges of the project from the perspective of a white led and by and for organisation working in partnership?

Process

  • To what extent have the partner services been able to meet the key deliverables as indicated above?

  • What worked well in the delivery of the model and what are the lessons learnt?

Context

  • The ability of professionals to respond to the needs of Minoritized/global majority survivors/victims in statutory processes.

  • What external factors impacted in piloting new toolkits to improve responses.

TIMELINE AND OUTPUTS

  1. Deadline for tenders: 22nd August 2022

  2. Interviews for shortlisted candidates: Week commencing 30th August 2022

  3. Appointment of successful candidate(s): September 2022

  4. Initial meeting with Coaction Hub Coordinators to discuss methodology and review frameworks and systems in place: Late October/ early November

  5. Finalisation of evaluation design, budget allocation and timelines

  6. Mid-term evaluation report due: November 2023

    • Analysis of pre-collected data on outputs, outcome data, feedback questionnaires to check progress;

    • Stakeholder consultation with partner leads to identify any changes required for the second half of the project;

    • Short summary report (10 pages) highlighting any recommendations for changes to the operational model for the duration of the project.

  7. End of project evaluation report due: March 2025

    • Qualitative interviews with partners, service users and external stakeholders.

    • Analysis of pre-collected data on output, outcome data and service user questionnaires;

    • Consideration of agreed research evaluation questions and recommendations;

    • Full report and shorter summary version for stakeholders/service users.

Ethics and Values

The appointed research team are expected to embed  coproduction and ensure lived experience of survivors is taken into account in the  research methodology . They are also expected to work collaboratively and flexibly with Coaction Hub Coordinators  to help recruit research participants and engage interpreters where required. The research team are expected to adhere to good practice in the ethical conduct of research, including at a minimum:

  • principles of informed consent;

  • data protection and confidentiality in line with General Data Protection Regulation (GDRP);

  • ensuring the psychological and physical safety of participants in procedures for recruitment and follow-up of participants and the administration of data collection methods;

  • familiarisation of all service safeguarding procedures.

Budget

A total budget of £12,000 is available for the evaluation, inclusive of all expenses and VAT.

Information required in the tender

Please provide a written response by 22nd August 2022 with the following information

  1. Your understanding of the needs of the Coaction Hub and equitable partnership 

  2. Previous examples of similar work; 

  3. Understanding of some of the challenges that may be faced in delivering the evaluation and proposed suggestions for overcoming these;

  4. Outline of initial ideas for evaluation methodology and timeline;

  5. Details of the skills and experience of the proposed researcher or team;

  6. Initial budget including daily rate and total costs inclusive of VAT and all expenses;

  7. Provision of contact details of two referees.

Deadline: Monday 22nd August 2022 

Interviews: Week commencing 30th August 2022

Tenders to be emailed to hr@standingtogether.org.uk.

Criteria

We will use the following criteria to assess all proposals:

  1. Track record of excellent evaluative research involving women  experiencing VAWG and women from diverse ethnic communities: Examples of research carried out with the target group, and illustration of the skills the bidder has to include this group of women in the research process (links or copies of previous research made available if possible).

  2. Value for money: Full budget; Understanding of the existing literature and evidence in the field, and how the proposed research will add to this.

  3. Understanding of the needs of the service user group in service delivery and research: Ability to show clear understanding of the needs of Black and minoritized  women experiencing different forms of VAWG. Illustration of how the values and purpose of the project fit with those of the research team.

  4. Project management: Shows understanding of some of the challenges in delivering research with the service user group with suggestions of how to overcome; Project plan with realistic time-frame; Examples of previous research successfully carried out at similar scale/value; Commitment of enough staff and resources to manage the project smoothly.

  5. Research methodology: Proposed research methods, clear reasoning for choice of methodology and analysis framework.

  6. Quality assurance: Demonstrable consideration of ethical standards and ability to carry out the research in accordance with ethical principles, including data protection and safeguarding; Demonstration of quality through two references provided. 

Further Information

Shortlisted candidates will be invited for an interview virtually. For further information or for an informal chat, please email us on: hr@standingtogether.org.uk.