GMCA 1221 Greater Manchester in Work Progression (GM: IWP) Service Evaluation Partner

GMCA seeks the appointment of an evaluation partner whose role it will be to carry out an end-to-end, longitudinal evaluation of GM's IWP project, alongside a literature review of in-work progression in GM and nationally.

The IWP project is expected to go live between October and December 2024 and will operate until January 2027. The contract of the evaluation partner will end in March 2027 to account for final data gathering and publication of final report. The partner will be expected to engage with the GMCA and each of the local authority delivery providers at the point of the programme's go live in order to finalise an evaluation plan and monitoring framework.

The intention is for the commissioner, local authorities (and where applicable other delivery partners) and evaluation partner to work collaboratively . The GMCA considers evaluation and performance measurement to be a critical enabler in making informed and intelligence led decisions. With this information, we aim to determine whether the provision makes a tangible difference. The evaluation will be used to determine future investment decisions in in-work progression programmes in Greater Manchester and aim to influence local and national policy and funding decisions.

The evaluation partner will be expected to work closely with the local authorities and any other delivery partners. All outputs from the evaluation must be fit to influence both local (GM) and national policy and be fit for stakeholder and public consumption. This includes a requirement to maximise learning arising from the programme in relation to how different levels of system and service level integration impact on programme-level outcomes. As such, the evaluation partner will be expected to have demonstrable awareness of the factors that government - including but not limited to HM Treasury - would take into account when considering the efficacy, value for money, and wider application/scalability of pilot activity.