Invitation to Tender Contact: Project: Jacob Diggle, Senior Research and Evaluation Officer j.diggle@mind.org.uk Your Experience in Mind : Service User Survey Date: February 2015 Brief description: Mind is committed to increasing its impact and improving its services. We believe that people with lived experience of mental health problems are best placed to help us do this. We are looking for an evaluation partner to design, deliver, and analyse a survey of people who use our local Mind (LM) network. This survey should explore how far our values are embedded in local Minds and how important they are to service users. Budget: Deadlines: 40,000 (including VAT) Deadline for submissions: Partner selected: Fieldwork start date: Fieldwork end date: Final report due: 12 noon, 9 March 2015 16 March 2015 April 2015 July 2015 September 2015 1
We re Mind, the mental health charity. We re here to make sure anyone with a mental health problem has somewhere to turn for advice and support. Our vision: We won t give up until everyone experiencing a mental health problem gets both support and respect. Our mission: We provide advice and support to empower anyone experiencing a mental health problem. We campaign to improve services, raise awareness, and promote understanding. Our values: Open We reach out to anyone who needs us. Together We re stronger in partnership. Responsive We listen, we act. Independent We speak out fearlessly. Unstoppable We never give up. Mind has a diverse portfolio of activities, including training, policy and campaigning, advice lines, and supporting our network of 150 local Minds. We also coordinate the delivery of large and innovative new services across our network. The local Mind network has a presence in every region in England and Wales, directly supporting around 420,000 people every year. By far the largest network of services and support for people with mental health problems in the country, its strength lies in its unique ability to draw on the skills and experience of a trusted national network, matched with strong local relationships, and the tailoring of services to local needs. 2
Programme Summary Mind is committed to increasing its impact and improving its services. We believe that people with lived experience of mental health problems are best placed to help us do this. One of our strategic objectives for 2012-2016, informed by extensive service user consultation, is to ensure that more mental health services are recovery-focussed, holistic, person-centred, and involve services users in their design and delivery. 1 We are looking for an evaluation partner to design, deliver, and analyse a survey of people who use our local Mind services. This survey should give us a rich understanding of how far these values are embedded in local Minds and how important they are to service users. The insights gained from this survey help local Minds to improve their services. The findings are also used by national Mind to track progress towards our strategic objectives, identify organisational development needs, and to promote the networks services to users and commissioners. We have run the Your Experience in Mind survey for the last two years. Firstly, in partnership with Survivor Research and then with the McPin Foundation. Reports from last year s survey can be found on the tender section of Mind s website. These reports detail the methodology, findings, and other useful information about the survey. Our research objectives for this survey remain the same as previous years. They are: To understand to what extent local services are promoting recovery in people with mental health problems; To understand to what extent local Mind services offer a person-centred experience; To understand to what extent local Mind services are culturally appropriate and accessible for BME groups; and To understand to what extent local Minds offer opportunities for people to get involved in the design and delivery of mental health services. In 2015, the Your Experience in Mind survey will be run in parallel with the Mind Quality Mark (MQM). MQM is the national quality standard endorsed by the Charity Commission which all local Minds must meet in order to retain their place in the Mind network. MQM assessments are carried out every three years and thirty seven local Minds will be going through this process in 2015. All of these local Minds will be strongly encouraged to participate in the Your Experience in Mind survey alongside MQM. The national Mind Innovation and Improvement Team will also be developing a programme of organisational development based on the survey s findings. The thirty seven local Minds participating in the survey and MQM process are: Enfield City and Hackney Ystradgynlais Islington Leeds Restormel York Andover Ulverston Carrick West Leicestershire Neath Port Talbot Richmond Borough South Somerset Ynys Mon and Gwynedd Central Nottinghamshire Tyneside Bassetlaw Havering Middlesbrough and Stockton St Helens Swansea Swindon Flintshire Portsmouth Norwich & Central Norfolk Peterborough & Fenland Coastal West Sussex Hillingdon Tower Hamlets and Newham Mid Staffs Caerphilly Borough Llanelli Stockport and District North Staffs Manchester Scarborough, Whitby and Ryedale 1 Please read here for an overview of the recovery movement in mental health: http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/help-information/mental-health-a-z/r/recovery/ 3
Key Deliverables Survey Design and Methodology We are keen to retain a large amount of the existing survey design to provide comparability between years. However, our evaluation partner will be expected to review the existing design and methodology. This year, we would also like to understand how respondents experiences of local Minds differ from other services they receive (e.g. primary care, secondary care, social care etc). We are also particularly keen to increase the number of responses from Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities. Peer Researchers Mind strongly believes that people's direct experience of mental health problems and service provision must inform and influence everything we do. Therefore, we will require our evaluation partner to train and coordinate peer researchers as part of their work. These researchers must be users of local Mind services. They should receive suitable training on how to recruit participants and conduct surveys, as well as being able to access ongoing advice and support. Whilst local Minds will be ultimately responsible for data collection, McPin used peer researchers for the 2014 survey and this had a positive effect on response rates. A short briefing paper on this experience is also available on the tender section of Mind s website. In addition to their help with conducting the survey, we also want to understand the effect of this role on the peer researchers (e.g. self-confidence, social capital). Therefore, a tailored assessment of their outcomes should also be delivered by our evaluation partner. Data Analysis The survey should be live for at least six weeks in the field. Depending on the volume and representativeness of responses, data analysis will be either descriptive or inferential. Ideally, we would like to be able to generalise some findings to the broader network of local Mind services. However, our priority is having rich insights into the performance of the participating local Minds. Qualitative data should be coded and analysed thematically. It is essential that the voice of service users is given prominence in all reporting. Reporting During the fieldwork period, we expect regular updates about the progress of the survey and the number of responses received from each local Mind. At the conclusion of the research, our chosen evaluation partner should produce a final summary report that synthesizes their findings from across the local Minds and draws out key themes. They should also produce tailored evaluation reports for each of the participating local Minds. These local reports should situate each organisation s results in the context of their peers. Our partner should also be available to give presentations on the findings, if required. 4
Project Management Key Roles Senior Research and Evaluation Officer The evaluation partner will be commissioned and supported by Mind s Senior Research and Evaluation Officer. The officer will be the primary contact at Mind and will have responsibility for quality assurance. Head of Innovation and Improvement The Head of Innovation and Improvement oversees support for the local Mind network and is responsible for the Mind Quality Mark process. They will also be responsible for delivering a tailored organisational development programme for local Minds, based on the survey findings. Lived Experience Reading Panel The Reading Panel will be made up of peer researchers who helped to conduct the survey. This group will review the final research reports. Budget We have a budget of 40,000 available for this work. This budget includes all travel expenses and VAT. Any payment to peer researchers (excluding the Lived Experience Reading Panel) must also be drawn from this budget. Each applicant must make their own decision about what is a financially viable costing for the project. This could include full cost recovery or exclude some costs (e.g. on-costs). Whilst we will not be selecting partners solely on cost, value for money is one of our selection criteria. Applicants may also recover costs from other sources. However, supplementary funding cannot have conflicting research aims or requirements. Any additional funding must be specified in your proposal and is subject to written permission by Mind. Application Details Please outline the following: Your understanding of our research needs Your relevant experience of mental health research Your experience of evaluating values-based services Your proposed research methodology Your plan to recruit, train, and co-ordinate peer researchers Your approach to project management and quality assurance particularly addressing the challenge of conducting research over thirty seven separate sites An indicative budget for this piece of work, outlining the resource required for each of the stages of the project. (Please show the day rate for each team member) The CVs of the research staff who will be responsible for this work Please supply an electronic copy of your proposal by 12 noon, 9 March 2015 5
Selection Process The following criteria will be used to evaluate the tenders: Criteria Weighting % Track record of excellence 30 Value for money 20 Experience working with people with mental health issues 15 Alignment with Mind s values and principles 15 Experience working with peer researchers 10 Creativity 10 Submissions should be made electronically to the Jacob Diggle, Senior Research and Evaluation Officer (j.diggle@mind.org.uk). Questions may be submitted to the same address. In the interest of fairness, face-to-face meetings will not be given at this stage. Any questions received during the tender period will be collated into a single Q&A document and published on the Mind website weekly. The chosen partner will be selected by 16 March 2015. 6