Provision of Consultancy Services for Post-Project Evaluation Stages 1 & 2 of the Blaenau Gwent Lear

Descriptions

Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council (‘The Client’) is the Lead Sponsor organisation for the development of the ‘Blaenau Gwent Learning Zone’ which has been constructed on The Works site at Ebbw Vale. The Learning Zone is a post-16 facility of 14,072 m² (13,310m² gross internal area) built as a regeneration partnership scheme involving Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council as Lead Sponsor, Coleg Gwent as Joint Sponsor, and the University of Wales Newport, with support from Welsh Government.The three local partner organisations in this project, are committed to ensuring that a thorough and robust system of monitoring and evaluation is undertaken at key prescribed stages to provide the relevant data on outputs, results and longer-term impacts of the Learning Zone, and, to be able to show how well the Project has contributed to the effectiveness of Structural Funds in Wales, and ensure that positive lessons can be learnt from the Project and passed on to other organisations. The Authority is seeking to appoint a suitably experienced and qualified consultancy to undertake the Monitoring and Evaluation project which comprises the following two stages:The project comprises the following;Stage 1 Evaluation – Project ManagementThe objective will be to assess how effectively the project was managed from the commissioning of the Business Case to completion of the Learning Zone construction contract. Evaluation will examine:• The effectiveness of the management of the project• Support of the stakeholder organisations• The effectiveness of the joint working arrangements involving partners and stakeholders• Procurement of advisers and main Contractor• The extent to which project management met stakeholder expectations and objectives• Whether the key design principles were achieved• Whether the project was delivered on time and to budget• The extent to which the Learning Zone was fit for purpose• The Project Manager’s Project Closure ReportTimescale: To be completed by the end of August 2013.Budget for Stage 1: £20,000 Stage 2 Evaluation – Impacts and Benefits of the Blaenau Gwent Learning Zone ProjectThe objective will be to examine whether the strategic aims of the Learning Zone as originally conceived in the Geographic Pathfinder document and in the subsequent Business Case were achieved. The beneficiaries will be drawn from the current Ebbw Vale FE Campus, from the school Sixth Forms, and from the enhanced number of Higher Education students to be funded through UHoVI. The majority of learners will be Blaenau Gwent residents, although assumptions have been made about a proportion of learners coming into Blaenau Gwent attracted by the quality of the Learning Zone. Long-term benefits will be felt more widely in the local economy in terms of increased employment, employment progression, higher earnings and retained population. This second stage evaluation will examine:• The investment objectives and the evidence of need for the project• Quantifiable and non-quantifiable benefits, in particular the impacts on the stakeholder groups affected• Measures and targets agreed for defining success• The extent to which the project achieved the ERDF Operational Programme and Strategic Framework documents• Whether the project objectives could have been achieved more effectively in another wayTimescale: To be completed by June 2015Budget for Stage 2: £30,000