IA2261 Provider Evaluation of "The Big Fostering Partnership"

Staffordshire County Council are leading on behalf of 5 Local Authorities namely Dudley, Wolverhampton, Telford and Wrekin and Worcestershire on a project called The Big Fostering Partnership.

The partners are seeking a Provider to undertake an evaluation of the Big Fostering Partnership Project. The aim is to evaluate how The Big Fostering Partnership Project works in terms of its effectiveness in delivering the required outcomes for the children who engage with the project but also include the evaluation of the effectiveness and efficiency of the project's delivery.

The Big Fostering Partnership is a Payment by results project that is seeking to move children from residential care to foster care, known as "step down". The aim of the project is to promote and grow the number of specialist foster carers provided by independent fostering agencies in order to manage more complex children who are 7-15 years of age who are in children's homes.

The aim of the evaluation is to find out whether

a) children who engaged with the project benefitted from it?

b) all those children that could have benefitted from this project had access to it and been considered for the project and the factors that constrained access and identify that could have broadened access?

c) the Local Authority partnership, the use of social finance and a special purpose vehicle contributed to the effectiveness of the project, this is to be measured by the improvement in outcomes for children that have been delivered through the project?

d) the initial use of just one Fostering provider been beneficial and what evidence can be provided to underpin this?

e) the project has had an impact on availability or otherwise of resources for other children and on the Sufficiency Duty.