The contract will be divided into the following two Lots. Social Care Wales intends to appoint one provider per Lot:
Lot 1 – Co-design and Test Leadership Support Programme & tools for Adult Social Care Providers
Lot 2 – Programme evaluation and impact assessment of the co-design and testing of a new leadership programme and tool for nurturing positive cultures in adult social care services across Wales
Suppliers may submit bids for one or both Lots. However, a Supplier may not be awarded both Lots due to an unavoidable conflict of interest (i.e. evaluating their own work).
In the event that a Supplier is ranked highest in both Lots, the Supplier will be awarded Lot 1 only. The award for Lot 2 will then be offered to the next highest-ranking compliant bidder
Project Phases
The Supporting Positive Cultures Programme will be delivered across three distinct phases. Phase 1 has already been commissioned and is underway. Phases 2 and 3 will be delivered through the two Lots commissioned as part of this tender.
(a) Phase 1: User Research (completed separately)
Phase 1 is currently underway and is due to complete in June 2026. This phase focuses on developing a robust understanding of the needs of leaders in adult care provider organisations, particularly in relation to embedding, assessing and sustaining positive organisational cultures and their underpinning principles.
The outputs from Phase 1 will include a set of evidence-based proposals setting out what an effective future support service for nurturing positive cultures could look like.
Phase 1 is not included within the scope of this tender. Its findings will be shared with the successful supplier/s upon contract award and will directly inform the work commissioned through Lots 1 and 2.
(b) Phases 2 and 3: Design, Testing and Evaluation (commissioned through this tender) (LOT 1)
The Phases will be delivered through the two Lots described below.
Lot 1: Co-design and Testing of Leadership Support (Phase 2) & Positive Culture Tools (Phase 3) for Adult Social Care
Lot 1 will be responsible for the design, co-production, testing and refinement of the programme’s practical components, informed by the evidence generated through Phase 1.
This includes:
• Co-designing and testing a leadership support offer for adult social care providers, and
• Co-designing and testing a positive cultures tools to support providers embed, assess, measure, and improve organisational positive culture in a meaningful and proportionate way.
The focus of Lot 1 is on practical development and testing with providers.
Summary of Lot 1:
The successful Supplier will:
(a) Phase 2 codesign and test a new support service anticipated activities:
- Recruit partners and identify adult care providers and key stakeholders in collaboration with Social Care Wales and Care Inspectorate Wales on the work.
- Design and run workshops aimed at co-designing a new support offer and approaches to support positive cultures.
- Collaboratively develop a theory of change for guiding the design and testing of a new support service.
- Recruit 6 adult social care providers testing sites across Wales; based on agreed criteria, in consultation with Social Care Wales and partners. Ensure ethical research practices are upheld including informed consent, safeguarding, and data protection.
- Develop site specific action plans to support six care settings to test ways new support service that nurtures positive cultures, gather feedback, and iterate solutions for support. This will involve working with the Responsible Individual, Registered Manager and up to 3 front-line staff at each pilot site.
- Gathering data to support the evaluation on the ‘positive culture’ position of each test site at the start, re-measure at the mid-way and end point.
- Undertake site visits or virtual consultations to observe Responsible Individual and Registered Manager in their own care settings to understand how they support positive cultures and behaviours. Also gain insights into the challenges they face, how they are overcome and what difficulties remain.
- Develop practical resources, guidance and learning materials.
- Produce a service design report explaining what was designed, how it was tested and what was learned from the design and testing process. The report should also feature information about the experience of the 6 testing sites and their results. The report should also include recommendations for Social Care Wales to consider as next steps towards a scaled implementation of the work.
(b) Phase 3 Codesign and test tools for anticipated activity:
- Engage stakeholders in co-design workshops to define success criteria and design principles for the tool.
- Develop a tool that measures indicators against the positive culture principles and aligns with strengths-based and compassionate leadership models.
- Test the tool with 6 providers across Wales.
- Validate usability and clarity through iterative feedback from the six pilot sites and test with care providers
- Produce a service design report explaining what tool(s) was designed, how it was tested and what was learnt from the design and testing process. The report should also feature information about the experience of the 6 testing sites and their results. The report should also include recommendations for Social Care Wales to consider as next steps towards a scaled implementation of the work.
(c) Phase 2 & 3: Support service and tool
Collaborate with a separate commissioned supplier to gather evidence that will feed into an Evaluation report for Phase 2 and 3 which will contribute towards the Rayne Foundation Better Carers Better Careers programme evaluation. The independent evaluation explains whether it worked, why it worked (or didn’t), what difference it made, and how the programme contributed to wider system outcomes.”
Lot 2: Programme Evaluation and Impact Assessment for Supporting Positive Culture (Phase 4)
Lot 2 will focus on the independent evaluation of Phases 2 and 3. This includes the development and delivery of an evaluation and impact framework to assess the design and testing activity undertaken through Lot 1.
Lot 2 will:
- Evaluate the leadership support offer and tool(s) developed under Lot 1
- Assess outcomes, learning and early impact
- Synthesise findings and generate evidence to inform future policy development, practice improvement and potential wider roll-out.
Lot 2 will not be involved in the delivery of design of the support being evaluated.
What is required / ‘The Requirements’ - LOT 2
(a) Evaluation Requirements (Phases 2 & 3)
This phase will develop an evaluation and impact framework which forms part of a wider programme to support positive cultures in adult care services
Lot 2 is for undertaking an independent, mixed methods evaluation of the User research and codesign and testing of:
- a leadership support service to nurturing positive cultures; and
- a tool for implementing, measuring and evaluating positive cultures.
The evaluation will synthesise data from Phase 2 & 3 to assess outcomes, identify lessons learned, and inform future policy and practice. It will ensure accountability and support continuous improvement across the sector.
The evaluation will:
- Assess the extent to which the support offer and tool were delivered as in-tended and detail any adaptations
- Explore:
~ whether the programme achieved it's desired aims,
~ the factors that influenced the impact of the programme and whether these varied across test sites,
~ what difference the programme made to staff, management, the or-ganisation and people accessing care and support, and
~ the influence of wider systemic factors had on the impact of the pro-gramme.
~ Explore the outcomes from the programme including:
~ Any positive or negative outcomes and impacts from the programme,
~ The factors that contributed to those outcomes
~ whether any systemic barriers need to be addressed to improve outcomes from the work.
- Develop theory of change alongside the programme provider (building on the Rayne Foundation expected outcomes) using contribution analysis to:
~ Map intended outcomes,
~ explore contribution towards outcomes,
~ monitor ongoing outputs and explore changes to workforce and provider behaviour and;
~ Explore any systemic barriers impacting on the programme.
- Assess positive cultures at the test sites at the start, mid-point and end of testing
- Involve lived experience and workforce voices wherever possible
- Measure changes in behaviours, leadership, wellbeing, culture, practice and collaboration
- Assess how, where and why positive cultures emerge
- Highlight barriers and enablers to positive cultures
- Explore implications for policy, commissioning and regulation
- Outline considerations and recommendations for upscaling the programme going forward.
The Supplier will need to work in close collaboration with Social Care Wales, providing regular updates to ensure the work remains aligned with the project’s aims and adheres to the contract deadline.
The successful Supplier must work closely with both the co-design supplier and Rayne Foundation evaluators (Bean Consultancy) to ensure reporting requirements and outcomes measures are addressed.
See Specification for further infromation