CONSULTANCY OPPORTUNITY - Inspiring belief in young people - The Key

Inspiring belief
           in young people

CONSULTANCY
OPPORTUNITY
  PROJECT EVALUATOR

BACKGROUND
OF THE KEY
The Key exists to inspire belief in young people. We want to create a world where all young
people are inspired to believe in themselves and achieve their potential. We support young
people to believe in their ideas and take responsibility for living them, by discovering what
they are capable of and generating the drive and determination to do something
meaningful with their lives.
For almost years, The Key has supported 11-25 year olds from across the North East who
face challenging circumstances. These include young people who are: living in areas of
deprivation, looked after or leaving care, young parents or carers, from a minority ethnic
background, affected by disability or mental illness, or in the criminal justice system.
Practically, we provide them with the opportunity to engage in our tried and tested skills
development framework. This is designed to meet the three psychological needs posed by
Self-Determination Theory (autonomy, relatedness and competence) and to inspire them
into action. The Key Framework enables them to form a growth mindset and positive
emotional wellbeing as well as engage in their community and wider society.
The Key Framework is a simple, youth-led process that challenges young people to dream
up (think), plan, budget, pitch, do and review their own projects in small groups. Each group
works with a trained Key Facilitator (from our network of youth and community
organisations) to develop its project, which may be simple (e.g. a trip to a local museum) or
ambitious (e.g. planning a community oriental festival). Either way the project must present
group members with a stretching challenge and the opportunity to build twelve vital
personal and social skills. The cycle can be repeated up to four times as long as the group
can evidence incremental challenge, new learning opportunities and personal
development.

“We want to create a world where young people are inspired to believe in themselves and
are empowered to achieve their full potential. Our mission is to empower young people to
believe in their ideas, and take responsibility for living them, by discovering what they’re
capable of and generating the drive and determination to do something meaningful with it.”

We have 100+ member youth organisations and we provide a youth-led Framework which
enables young people to explore their passions and interests whilst building their skills and
confidence and we provide flexible funding which allows young people to make these ideas
a reality.

For further information on The Key visit: www.thekeyuk.org

PROJECT BACKGROUND
The Association of Colleges (AOC) and Pears Foundation are supporting social action pilot
programmes currently taking place across five colleges. The programme aims to support
colleges across the country who are embedding high quality opportunities for social action
for their students.

Funding for the programme is through the Pears #iwill Fund, a partnership fund with The
National Lottery Community Fund and DCMS. Pears Foundation approached The Key to
identify a potential Further Education (FE) partner in the North East, following previous
successful work with Pears #iwill social action programme.

The Key saw the opportunity to support FE students to experience The Key Framework
and its benefits while getting involved in social action in their communities and the
opportunity to develop a model for working with FE providers, which could be replicated
elsewhere, as part of their ‘Scale Up’ programme.

Newcastle College saw it as an opportunity to enrich their offering to students, giving them
additional skills, knowledge and experience; along with the potential to improve attainment
and attendance. It contributed to their goals and requirements around PHSE and
enhanced the work experience placement.

Newcastle College and The Key have worked together to ‘co-create’ the programme,
starting with an initial plan for delivery which has been adapted and developed along the
way.

Business Objectives
The Key are embarking on a growth programme and as part of this programme are
undertaking a research and development phase which will inform longer term
development and contribute to the ambition of expanding the reach of The Key nationally.
As part of this R&D phase The Key are piloting different approaches to delivering The Key
Framework in particular settings / sectors and in partnership with other organisations. The
Pears Foundation / AOC project coincided with this R&D phase and The Key are keen to
utilise this opportunity to develop a ‘product’ which can be used in other FE establishments
and to establish the added value that The Key Framework can bring to students, the local
community and FE institutions.

Newcastle College want to use the findings to inform strategic planning and evaluate the
impact of using The Key Framework and social action as part of work experience sessions
and the general college experience for students, the college community and potential
impact on attainment, attendance and progression.

For more information about The Key’s scale up ambitions,
please read our summary document.

EVALUATION BRIEF
The Key and Newcastle College are seeking an independent evaluator to evaluate the
impact of the current Association of Colleges (AOC) / Pears Foundation funded
programme seeking to embed The Key Framework within Newcastle College in order to
sustainably support students to take social action.

Newcastle College is a further and higher education college in Newcastle upon Tyne, it is
the largest college in the North East of England, with over 18,000 students.

The College specialises in vocational education and provides Further Education, Higher
Education, Apprenticeships and Adult courses and has five schools. Newcastle College is a
division of NCG, one of the largest education, training and employability organisations in
the UK.

Evaluation Objectives

The objectives of the evaluation
are to provide critique to and understanding of the following aspects of the
project;
   1. The impact of the current programme on:
   1.1 Students' attainment, attendance, drop out rates, course sign up and progression, in particular the
   impact on the achievement of aspirational target grades, compared with a comparative group of students
   who have not completed the programme.
   1.2 Students' development of the 12 Key Skills and progression towards a growth mindset.
   1.3 The correlation / causation relationship, if any, between 1.1 and 1.2.
   1.4 Achieving a positive ‘financial return on investment’ based on any demonstrated improvements.

   2. The design of the programme in relation to:
    2.1 Work experience coaches’ assessment of the impact of participating in The Key.
   2.2 The true delivery implementation costs to the college.
   2.3 Why there has been successful implementation in some subject areas over others?
   2.4 The effective use of 'super facilitators', what was the impact of this role and can it be replicated in
   future delivery?
   2.5 Ease of use for college and work experience coaches and any blockages that were experienced /
   how to overcome them.
   2.6 How important was buy in to the success of the project at organisational leadership level.

   3. Theory of Change ‘enablers’ exploration to understand what level of flexibility and
   compromise, if any, may be required for delivering the programme again and the impact on the
   young people regarding:
   3.1 Social Action focus (ownership / opportunity).
   3.2 Work experience focus (ownership / opportunity).
   3.3 Average spend per project (earned reward).
   3.4 The compulsory element of participation (ownership).
   3.5 Attendance on panels of individuals external to the college (3rd party validation)

COMMISSIONING
THE PROJECT EVALUATION

Time Commitment
This evaluation will run concurrently with the final phase of the project. This enables the
collection of any outstanding data and information which may not have been collected
in previous delivery. The intention is for the final evaluation report to be available by
26th Feb 2021 to inform the second phase of the scale up programme.

Budget
£5,000-£7,000 (inc VAT) has been allocated for this work as part of the project's funding
and we invite interested parties to submit a high level breakdown of their costs in line
with this budget.

Research Targets
   The students taking part in the Key Framework.
   The work experience coaches who are facilitating the students to use The Key
   Framework in College.
   Newcastle College course tutors and curriculum leads.

Key Stakeholders
   Newcastle College – their Board of Governors and Executive team,
   The Key – Board of Trustees
   Pears Foundation
   AOC

Existing Research / Data
The Key has a large database of existing information on the demographics and skills
development of the cohort of young people undertaking The Key, as part of a much
larger database of equivalent information for all young people across the North East of
England who have completed a key project. The Key’s Data Analyst is able to produce
quantitative data reports and data sets as required (and appropriate).

Newcastle College has quantitative data relating to attainment, attendance and
progression for students. Pears Foundation and #iwill / Step Up to Serve have
extensive data and research on social action and the impact of involvement on young
people and their communities. To date, monthly reports have been submitted to AOC
to update on progress and an annual report was submitted in January 2020,
summarising the project and progress to date.

COMMISSIONING
 THE PROJECT EVALUATION

 Deliverables
 The Key / Newcastle College require a written report which they can use to show what, if
 any, impact using The Key Framework and encouraging students to undertake social
 action projects has on the specified objectives. The Key will use the evaluation to inform
 the development of their product offer to FE institutions as part of their ongoing growth
 strategy.

 Applications
 We are inviting expressions of interest from individuals who would like to be considered
 for this role with an initial deadline of 22nd November. Expressions of interest will be
 shortlisted, and all applicants will be notified of outcomes by w/c 30th December, with
 shortlisted applicants invited to an informal interview (most likely virtually) in order to
 assess the best fit candidate.

 We invite interested parties to submit a short CV or biography detailing relevant
 experience for the role (up to one side of A4), and a proposal of how you would intend to
 complete the project with methodology, timings and budget clearly defined (up to two A4
 sides).

Applications and enquiries should be addressed to:
Hannah Underwood Director of Innovation and Growth
Email: hannah.underwood@thekeyuk.org