South Dublin County Partnership: Invitation to Tender – Heads Up Evaluation

Invitation to tender for an independent evaluation.

South Dublin County Partnership, on behalf of it’s delivery partners, is seeking tenders from suitably qualified individuals or organisations to carry out an independent external evaluation of the Heads Up Mental Health Programme.

Tender Outline

HEADSUP is an evidence based mental health education programme for men who are finding life stressful, have issues with unemployment, feel isolated and are at risk of suicide.

HEADSUP is a group based programme offering modules of evidence based mental health education, physical education, progression and positive social supports, whilst at the same time supporting individuals to avail of local supports and develop a life plan. Our programmes are delivered in appropriate local community premises to support men re-engaging and feeling connected with their community. For more information on the programme see www.headsup.ie .

At present the programme is delivered by South Dublin County Partnership, Ballyfermot Chapelizod Partnership, Dublin South City Partnership and County Kildare LEADER Partnership, and is funded by the Health Service Executive (HSE).

Overarching Objectives of the Evaluation are:

1. Evaluation of the Head’s Up Mental Health Programme

Outcomes:

  • Identifying elements of best practice and quality indicators in the programme delivery.
  • Explore how to capture programme outcomes and client progression journey’s in a meaningful way.
  • An analysis of early leavers from programmes and capturing barriers/ progression outcomes of this cohort.
  • Recommend robust pre-and post-measures that align with the aims of the programme.
  • Review of current governance structure.

2. Establishing a clear Heads Up Framework to support the quality and scalability of the model.

Outcomes:

  • Establish a clear operating framework which allows clarity for Head’s Up operators and also supports scaling up of model (for e.g. social prescribing framework, and making the project transferrable to other HSE areas)
  • Establish Clear Quality Measures to ensure integrity of programme across sites (e.g., peer review process).
  • Establish a reporting framework which allows for clear alignment across programmes.

3. Review the programme in the context of national strategic aims for Mental Health, specifically Connecting for Life, and any other national strategies/services deemed relevant.

Outcomes:

  • Ensuring programme is aligned with national and local mental health priorities
  • Evaluate the cost efficacy of the programme in the national context.

Timeframe

The evaluation is to be completed by June 2023 with objective 1, 2 and 3 completed in full.

Experience

The successful Head’s Up evaluator must demonstrate in the tender submission experience in the following areas:

  • Research methodologies including both quantitative and qualitative research,
  • Extensive experience in programme evaluations, preferably in the area of mental health, with clear demonstratable outputs as described in the objectives above.

Tender Proposal

The Tender Proposal should include:

  1. Applicant Details including evidence of relevant professional qualifications and experience of proposed staff to carry out the work.
  2. A detailed Evaluation Tender Proposal outlining the: proposed approach; research questions and methodologies; timeline and deliverables.
  3. Overall costings inclusive of number of days work and VAT.

Evaluation Tender Proposals will be assessed against the above three criteria.

The successful applicant will be asked to provide a current Tax Clearance Certificate and Professional Indemnity Insurance at contract stage.

The issue of the request for tender does not imply that the lowest costed tender or that any tender will be successful. It is envisaged that this evaluation will take no more than 30 days and will not exceed a budget of €15,000.

Closing Date and application process:

Tender submission must be received by 12.00 pm on Wednesday the 31st March 2023.

Tenders received after the closing date will not be considered

Application process:

Submission of Tenders Completed Tenders should be submitted in a sealed envelope Marked Heads Up Evaluation Tender Ref 81/2023 to the Administration Department – South Dublin County Partnership, Nangor Road Business Park, Nangor Road, Dublin 12 or sent electronically to Catherine.Robinson@sdcpartnership.ie

Any queries should be sent to Kim.Dempsey@sdcpartnership.ie with subject reference Heads Up Evaluation Tender.