New ITT: Independent evaluation of IMPACT: IMProving Adult Care Together (UK Centre for Evidence Implementation in Adult Social Care)

The Health Foundation and the ESRC are co-funding a £15m UK centre to lead the way for better implementation of high-quality evidence on innovation and improvement in adult social care. The IMPACT Centre which is led by Professor Jon Glasby at the University of Birmingham, aims to transform how social care evidence is turned into practice, including supporting adults and young people moving into adult social care, and how social care interacts with partner agencies and other sectors. 

The Centre will seek to increase the use of high-quality evidence research by adult social care staff; build capability among the workforce to identify and evaluate innovations in adult social care; improve connectivity across social care providers and staff, commissioners, innovators, people with lived experience of social care, academics and policy makers; and improve understanding of the behaviours and mechanisms that lead to, or prevent, the uptake and implementation of evidence across social care.   

The Centre is being developed and implemented in three phases over seven years, between April 2021 and December 2027.  

Evaluation of the IMPACT Centre

As part of the overall monitoring and evaluation framework for the IMPACT Centre, the Health Foundation and the ESRC are seeking an evaluation partner to undertake an independent impact evaluation of the overall programme of funding and development and delivery of the Centre, to understand how investments of this size and scale can support and strengthen links between evidence, policy and practice. This will need to be based on the underlying Theory of Change for the programme and its four primary aims. It will also need to consider the impact of the Centre and its activities on the implementation of evidence into practice, and how it builds links between research, policy and practice in the wider social care eco-system.

The Centre will have national strategic significance to both the social care sector and to other funders who are looking for innovative ways to support innovation and improvement in adult social care. As one of the largest investments of its type in the UK in adult social care, there is a significant amount of knowledge to be gained on what works and how to implement evidence into practice through the development and delivery of the Centre itself. This independent evaluation will assess the impact of this funding and develop valuable learning for the funders, the Centre and wider system stakeholders and help inform future funding strategies.

A single contract will be awarded to an independent evaluator (or consortium) to undertake the two stages of the evaluation, which span over two phases of the Centre’s establishment and delivery phases: scoping and design; and implementation and delivery of the funders’ impact evaluation. 

The successful provider will be responsible for delivering all aspects of the evaluation and is likely to require a team with demonstrable experience in conducting robust qualitative and quantitative research, working with a wide range of stakeholders. 

The successful evaluation partner will be required to start working with us from April 2022 and the final evaluation report will be due at the end of 2027. 

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. 
3. Please read our webinar slide pack, FAQs or watch our pre-recorded webinar which offers prospective applicants the opportunity to hear more about the evaluation and clarify understanding. If you would like to watch the pre-recorded webinar, this is now available on request by emailing simon.turpin@health.org.uk, and we will send this directly to you.
4. If you have any questions after reading the ITT and watching the webinar, please email Amanda.Watt@health.org.uk 
5. The deadline for online applications is 12:00 (midday), Thursday 3 March 2022. We will not accept proposals submitted after this time. 
6. Shortlisted applicants will be notified in the week beginning 21 March 2022.  
7. We intend to interview shortlisted bidders on Wednesday 30 and Thursday 31 March to explore proposals in more depth. Please ensure you are available to be interviewed on these days. 
8. The final decision will be communicated in the week beginning 4 April 2022.