Description of the goods or services required
Good/Services Required
In 2019 Monmouthshire County Council moved its Tourism, Leisure, Culture and Youth Services to a new service group 'MonLife'. This new service group has taken on management of the significant and wide-ranging heritage assets including sites, buildings and collections in our care.
The creation of this new service has provided us with a unique opportunity to review our approach to the management of our heritage assets. MonLife has established an integrated organisational culture for what have previously been a disparate set of services and sites, encouraging close cross-disciplinary and holistic working that will have huge benefit to our cultural, built and natural heritage.
We have recently been awarded some funding to allow us to complete the first stages of engagement and consultation with our visitors, stakeholders and local residents to ensure that we build on current and future opportunities, increase footfall and increase economic benefit to the sites and surrounding businesses.
We are aware that greater collaboration will be crucial across our Heritage and associated sites and assist us in making choices to improve and sustain our sites into the future. Initially this will take the form of community engagement to ensure that our users and communities, have the opportunity to play an active role in prioritising the activities we offer and the stories we tell.
As part of this process, we would also like identified, additional meaningful opportunities for future collaborations, skills, training, and wider engagement with our community members.
Stakeholder/visitor engagement work will take place across: Caldicot Castle; Gilwern Outdoor Activity Centre; Abergavenny Museum, Chepstow Museum, Old Station Tintern, Shire Hall Monmouth, Castle Meadows Abergavenny, Blackrock Picnic site, Rogiet Country Park, Clydach Ironworks, Lower Wire Works and Abbey Tintern Furnace.
We want more people to enjoy these attractions and harness their positive benefits. Our current core market is local active families. However, we wish to widen our engagement to young and older residents and visitors to Monmouthshire.
Stakeholders and beneficiaries will directly contribute to the consultation/engagement programme and will allow users, and non-users, to collaborate with us to ensure the new developments meet their needs and expectations
The overall aims for this first stage engagement and consultation work are:-
1. To consult and engage with our stakeholders/visitors to enable them to share their views and expectations on the anticipated feasibility studies for the individual sites, which aim to improve and sustain sites;
2. To ensure any barriers to participation are mitigated, guaranteeing opportunities for all;
3. That our stakeholders/visitors feel engaged and consulted with and have a greater understanding of local assets and their potential as community spaces;
4. To establish additional meaningful opportunities for future collaborations including skills, training and continued wider engagement with stakeholders/visitors;
5. Use the results from the consultations to inform our future priorities for the sites and inform future funding applications.
The engagement with stakeholders/visitors at the sites must be guided by the underpinning Heritage Mission, Vision and Overarching Goals for MonLife Heritage:
Our mission: maximise our heritage assets (our amazing sites, stories and people) to enhance the vibrancy of Monmouthshire and promote a deeply rooted sense of place
Our vision – to enrich people’s lives by creating engaging and inspiring heritage experiences across our county
Our overarching goals:
• Build a future focused, resilient business model for MonLife heritage which is competitive and an exemplar of sustainability;
• Provide a framework which will encourage county-wide engaging, quality, impressive and inter-connected experiences which inspire passion, learning and exploration of the wider landscape, bringing our heritage to life;
• To engage a wide range of audiences, making the heritage physically and intellectually accessible for everyone, and for future generations;
• Ensure that staff, volunteers and the wider community are able to co-produce the future of MonLife Heritage ensuring that the stories which are presented, together with their significance, is understood by all and generates a real sense of pride and wellbeing.
Our Target Audiences
Audience Type Overall Number
Visitors Local Residents 200
Visitors Travelling visitors (over 10 miles) 150
Businesses Local Businesses 25
Organisations Schools 60
Organisations Local Community Groups; Town Councils; Friends groups; Historical society groups 25
Specification
The Council requires a dedicated and creative consultant to help us begin to implement the first stages of wider consultation and engagement with our stakeholders/visitors which will assist us to achieve our short- and long-term benefits. And for those participating feeling engaged and consulted with and have a greater understanding of local assets and their potential as community spaces.
The intention is for the consultant to capture a wide range of views, from children/young people; families; older residents and other community partners and stakeholders, in order to attain a wide representation from parties who will benefit or be impacted on future project intentions across the Heritage and associated sites.
As timescales for the project are limited, we would expect the consultant to train six internal staff so they can carry out surveys to ensure a wider scope of responses.
The survey will be relevant to the overall aims and have a baseline quota of questions that will be the same across all sites, however some questions may need to be focused on specifics and the survey will reflect for those individual sites.
We would like analysis of both survey and focus groups to be completed by the consultant and this information reported back in through a report/presentation to MonLife with recommendations for addressing feedback from stakeholders/visitors
The specifics are:
• Create a survey using a variety of accessible methods (on-line; paper)
• Facilitate 4 focus groups as per MonLife direction
• Support and train six internal staff to be able to carry out surveys with visitors to ensure wider scope of responses
• To comply with all elements of GDPR when gathering information
• Provide early notice of emerging issues and opportunities so that all stakeholders are better placed to deal with those issues and opportunities in a proactive way
• Analysis of focus groups and survey in a readable electronic format
• Present findings to MonLife team within timescales set
What we can provide
We can provide the following assistance:
- Information on each heritage and associated site where engagement is to be undertaken
- Current work programmes/feasibility processes and future ambitions for the sites
- List of groups to be engaged/consulted with
NOTE: To register your interest in this notice and obtain any additional information please visit the Sell2Wales Web Site at https://www.sell2wales.gov.wales/Search/Search_Switch.aspx?ID=119207. |