Evaluation Consultant Brief for Bucks County Museum

Deadline for tenders: 14 March 2021

Successful tenders will be invited to interview w/c 15 March 2021 via Zoom

Completion of Contract by end of September 2023

OVERVIEW

Bucks Museum is an independent Trust which was set up in 2014, moving away from the local authority Bucks County Council. The Trust now attracts over 93000 visitors per year which includes 13000 school children and looks after a large collection of artefacts covering the history of Bucks from 200 million years ago to today. The main galleries in the Museum showing objects from the history of Bucks are 25 years old and the Museum is currently working on a number of projects from a Master Plan to develop new galleries. The Bucks Heroes Project will form stand alone new content, which will be at the heart of the other new developments in the future.

Main contact : Programme Manager – Stephen Barker

Email : [email protected]
Phone: 07775 974 976

Twitter and FB : @BucksMuseum

Instagram : Buckscountymuseum

www.buckscountymuseum.org

The Bucks Heroes project, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, is taking place from October 2020 to November 2023 (Owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, the project time frame has been adjusted). The purpose of the project is to engage with local communities who are not represented in the current museum displays and to find and represent the hidden stories of ordinary people in those communities, who have done extraordinary things. The outputs of the project are:

• Bucks People gallery – 4 new cases with objects and stories from different communities
• Live interpretation and animation in the gallery to bring Bucks Heroes stories to life
• Community events to celebrate culture and traditions around the stories from different communities
• New Learning Space to provide capacity for displays, learning activities with schools and families including handling boxes with objects from the community
• Bucks Heroes Exhibition in 2023 in the Museum entrance showcasing local stories and objects
• Bucks Heroes App – created by young people 15 – 16 yrs for young people and families in 2021

The target communities for this project are :

• Muslim Community
• Hindu Community
• African Caribbean Community
• LGBTQ Community
• Black History group

 Participants in this project will be:

• Museum Staff including a new post Programme Manager, Museum Director, Community Outreach Officer, Social History Curator and Creative Learning and Engagement Manager
• Existing and new volunteers from the different community groups
• Visiting families for events and holiday activities/programmes

AIMS

The project team wish to create an evaluation plan at the start of the project to create base line assessments for all the participants listed above and following impact assessments to evaluate the benefits of the project to each group.

The role of the consultant will be to help provide a frame work, such as the Logic Model from NLHF for delivery to include qualitative and quantitative evaluation and to introduce examples of best practice elsewhere and appropriate methodology for the community groups. The consultant will be expected to help analyse the results at the end of the first and second year to help advise and inform the remainder of the project and to provide a frame work for a final report to be written by the Programme Manager.

The new postholder for the Programme Manager (starting on March 1^st 2021) will be responsible for ensuring the delivery and analysis of the evaluation, managing contracted staff for delivery and the collation of lessons learnt at the end of each year to pass back to the project participants and staff so that delivery can be improved in the remaining months of the project.

At the end of the project we would like to know the following :

• How many more people are visiting the Museum in general
• How much has the visitor base diversified as a result of the project
• How many people from different communities have actively engaged in delivering the project outputs
• How has the project involvement changed the participant’s lives
• What impact has the project had on the communities themselves and their engagement with heritage
• How has the project changed the Museum’s offer and work practices and engagement with local communities
• How will staff and volunteers use new skills to enable them to continue with this work after the end of the project

Sample Evaluation Questions :

 Impact questions on community and volunteers: 

• How has this project given you new interest and active involvement in heritage?
• How has it enhanced your quality of life?
• How has it give you pride in your local community?
• What new heritage skills have you learnt?
• How do you use the Museum spaces for community traditions now?

 Staff: 

• How has this project changed traditional curatorial approaches to exhibitions and events
• What changes has this made to your working practices with communities
• How has the new skills you have learnt changed the organisation? 

Evaluation Methodology: 

Support will be needed from the consultant to select appropriate methodology to work with the following participants:

• Communities
• Volunteers
• Paid staff
• Visitors
• Schools

Deliverables: 

Evaluation Consultant:  

• Attend evaluation consultation meeting (via Zoom) with Project Team in March 2021 to scope the evaluation plan for the project
• Providing feedback after initial meeting on final project evaluation plan
• Meet with new Programme Manager in April 2021 to provide briefing for them on evaluation methods and delivery
• Analyse results of first year of project evaluation in November 2021 to recommend lessons learned and changes needed to evaluation techniques for Year 2.
• Provide Programme Manager with a brief on evaluation tasks and methods for new evaluation delivery staff to be appointed to deliver in Yr 2 and 3 of project
• Analyse Year 2 evaluation results in December 2021 and provide recommendations on any changes needed for the final year of project.
• Assist for Programme Manager with a framework and key analysis for final evaluation report to be compiled by Programme Manager in December 2023.

Bucks Museum: 

• Access to relevant data held by the Museum on visitors and communities covered in project
• Access to project staff at Museum

CONTRACT MANAGEMENT

Timetable: 

Budget available : £2750 + VAT

Payment Schedule : Payment for each timetabled event against agreed daily rate to be paid one month after completion of duties.

Award criteria :

 A proposal for undertaking the work should include:

• The approach planned for delivery of the work with number of days/hours needed indicated
• details of staff allocated to the project, together with experience of the contractor and staff members in carrying out similar projects, particularly with different communities. The Programme Manager / lead contact should be identified if not a sole operator
• the daily charging rate of individual staff involved
• confirmation that the timescales of the project can be met
• an overall cost for the work