Northwest Faith Communities Research Project Notes from Pre Tender Meeting 17th September 2008 Change of Closing Date The deadline for the submission of responses to this tender has been extended to 3pm on Monday 6th October 2008. As detailed in the Invitation to Tender (ITT), we require an electronic submission. The electronic submission should be emailed to Emma.Charnock@nwda.co.uk and the email should be followed by a telephone call to 01925 400290 to the submission has been received successfully. As the deadline has now moved we anticipate inviting successful shortlisted contractors to present their tender during the last 2 weeks of October. Therefore we expect the winning contractor to attend an inception meeting and commence work at the beginning of November. Background John Devine, Churches Officer for the Northwest, highlighted previous faith work that the NWDA had undertaken, Faith in England’s Northwest (2003) and Faith in England’s Northwest: Economic Assessment (2005)1. The aim of the work currently out to tender is to drill a bit deeper into the work of faith communities and the added value they bring by looking at some concrete examples. David Rayner from the Department of Communities and Local Government (CLG) gave an overview of the CLG document Face to Face, Side by Side whilst Doreen Finneron from the Faith Based Regeneration Network (FBRN) gave an overview of the Faith Based Action and Inter Faith Framework studies that have been undertaken2. Unfortunately the set of indicators arising from this work have not yet been published but will be published in due course and made available via the FBRN website http://www.fbrn.org.uk/. Questions and Answers 1. As the FBRN have yet to publish their set of indicators how can this be tied into the work? •
It is anticipated that by the time the contract for this work is awarded the indicators will have been published. We wouldn’t expect every project to deliver on every indicator but we can explore both the indicators and the expectations at the inception meeting.
2. The ITT mentioned a list of 12 projects to be used as case studies. How will these be chosen and how will any difficulties / sensitivities be overcome? •
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The 12 projects will be chosen by the Churches Officer for the Northwest and the Northwest Forum of Faiths and their co-operation in the research will have been secured in advance. They are likely to be projects that we are already aware of and
Both of these documents are highlighted in section 4 of the Invitation to Tender Both the CLG work and Faith Based Regeneration Network studies are highlighted in section 4 of the Invitation to Tender 2
possibly part funded by the NWDA. John Devine has already mentioned this work as and when he has met with people therefore we hope there will be little resistance by the projects to being approached to take part in this work. In addition the previous faith research work undertaken by the NWDA has always proceeded with the backing of strategic faith leaders which strengthens our cause when dealing with local faith activities. 3. What does “recent or existing” projects mean? •
Either projects that are currently in progress or have only recently finished. It should be noted that some larger projects e.g. Project Eden are an ‘umbrella’ and are formed by many small projects
4. Will the 12 case studies chosen be named in any final outputs and if so will the case studies understand this? •
Yes and Yes!
5. Anonymity can help to reach the hard to reach groups. Is there any scope for 2 or 3 of the projects not to be the ‘usual suspects’? •
A number of the projects will be multi faith as well as single faith
6. Is there anything else you are looking for from the case studies/projects? •
Some multi faith projects are ahead of the game and are excellent role models where as other projects have been successfully doing the same thing for years without viewing themselves as either a ‘project’ or being interesting. We would certainly be looking for a good geographical spread and to include some examples from rural areas.
7. Section 6 of the ITT – Outputs, mentions single sided case studies. Do you really mean single sided? •
Originally it was hoped that the findings of this project would be launched at the September party conferences but timescales have slipped. As such we were thinking of something to the point and easy to read. We still wish to get the story across concisely and in an interesting way but we are open to imaginative solutions from contractors.
8. What format and size do you expect the questionnaires to be? •
We would expect consultants to suggest this in their methodology. As a minimum we would expect each project manager to be interviewed but consultants may wish to suggest additional options such as interviewing a group of users or beneficiaries
9. What involvement will the researchers have in the publicity? •
Section 6 - Outputs of the ITT asks for bids to cost in at least 3 presentations. This is standard practice and these presentations are likely to be used for the contractors to present an overview of the project and its findings at relevant events or meetings. The contractors are only required to submit electronic copies of final documents. Any hard copy printing will be taken care of by the NWDA.
10. Would you expect the final report to be available in any other languages and would we need to cost in translators to meet the leaders of the projects? •
If we did get requests then this would be handled by the NWDA under their existing procedures. Translators will not be necessary.
11. The ITT doesn’t mention any indicative costs. Can you give us any? •
The NWDA cannot discuss any costs at this stage. All tender documents received will be judged on their merit and value for money. If you feel that you would like to submit a number of options to account for different costs you are welcome to do so. Likewise it may be helpful to include unit costs so that appropriate decisions can be made. For example to ask for additional presentations or work in a particular area
12. When do you expect the work to be completed by? •
Section 8 – Timing of the ITT says that we anticipate completion within 3 months however this is indicative and all tender documents received will be judged on their merit and value for money. With the start date now expected to be the beginning of November we appreciate that the project now runs into the Christmas and New Year period so consultants may wish to reflect this in their timescales.
13. Would there be any objection to the successful consultants making a presentation of the findings in advance to those organisations who have taken part? •
Absolutely not. It would be extremely useful
14. Will the researcher be involved in the dissemination of material? •
No, the Agency’s Marketing team will be responsible for any branding and publishing.
15. Can you provide examples of quantitative and qualitative data? •
An example of quantitative data in the Operation Eden project would be readiness for work, number of employees, further education sign ups etc. A qualitative example would be providing space for groups to meet as this is not measurable but is an indicator of faith.