November 2016

Process Evaluation of ground-breaking programme of Public Legal Education and Social Action with young people in community settings

The LEF invites applicants to conduct a process evaluation of the first stage of a new programme of Public Legal Education and Social Action designed and delivered by leading UK charity Youth Access.

The Legal Education Foundation, together with the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, has funded leading UK charity Youth Access to deliver a programme of public legal education and social action, working with young people in three locations across England. Youth Access coordinates a national network of organisations that deliver advice, information and counselling to young people. The programme is entitled Make Our Rights Reality ("MORR") and aims to empower vulnerable young people aged 15 to 25 to act as a force for change in society and use the law as a tool for tackling the everyday problems that they experience. Through inspiring young people to participate in social action and Public Legal Education ("PLE") training to increase their legal capability, the programme aims to encourage young people to engage meaningfully in civil society and to exercise their rights and responsibilities as emerging adult citizens.

The project is envisaged to run over five years and represents a substantial investment on the part of the young people, organisations and funders involved. Evaluating the outcomes over the course of the programme is central to the effort and we are keen to arrive at an approach that is meaningful and feasible. As such, the Legal Education Foundation is seeking initially to commission a process evaluation of the programme, capturing the development of the scheme and key parts of its structure in its first ten months, with the aim of identifying a range of methods that might be used to facilitate the generation of robust evidence regarding the impact of the programme on a range of outcomes over the longer term, for example, the ability to deal with rights based problems, health and wellbeing, employability, confidence and self-esteem.

About the evaluation:

Make Our Rights Reality is a novel, pioneering and multi-faceted programme working with young people with multiple and complex needs. The funders are looking to commission a process evaluation to help us to gain a better understanding of the way in which young people engage with the activities planned during the first ten months of the programme and to suggest a research strategy for evaluating the impact of the programme (or parts of the programme) on outcomes for young people.

From the evaluation, we hope to receive the following outputs:

1. A process map, capturing the way in which the programme operates as a whole and demonstrating the range of entry and exit points from the programme for young people.
2. Data on:
   1. the numbers of young people that engage with the programme,
   2. the individual attributes of the young people that engage,
   3. how they become engaged in the programme (recruitment, peers, other)
   4. their reasons for engaging,
   5. what activities the young people undertake and how they move between them and;
   6. whether they exit the programme, reasons for exit and the point at which they exit.
3. A detailed description of the activities young people engage in as part of the social action element.
4. An evaluation of the efficacy of the core course in delivering improved knowledge and problem solving skills and the relationship between the completion of this course and engagement with the social action projects.
5. A list of methodological approaches that might be adopted to capture the impact of the programme (or elements of the programme) on a range of outcomes for young people such as ability to deal with rights based problems, health and wellbeing, employability, confidence and self-esteem. The strengths and weaknesses of each approach should be included and all approaches should be fully costed.

Budget and deadline:

The Legal Education Foundation will consider proposals up to £80,000.

Applications to tender must be submitted by email to natalie.byrom@thelef.org by 12pm on Friday 6th January 2017. Applicants must ensure they are free to attend an interview on Wednesday 11th January 2017.

Detailed specification and submission criteria

The Legal Education Foundation’s Director of Research welcomes discussions with applicants prior to the deadline, please email natalie.byrom@thelef.org to arrange a convenient time.

Sophie Earnshaw is a Justice First Fellow at Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG). As part of her work as a Fellow, she has been acting as legal advisor on a case heard by the Supreme Court in early November that ruled that the Government discriminated against a disabled woman and her husband and a severely disabled child who needs overnight care through the implementation of the ‘bedroom tax’.

The Supreme Court judges dismissed the Government’s appeal in the case of Sophie’s clients Paul and Susan Rutherford who provide around-the-clock care for their disabled grandson and who have a third bedroom for overnight carers. CPAG acted for the Rutherfords who had successfully challenged the bedroom tax scheme in the Court of Appeal which held the policy unlawfully discriminates against children with disabilities who need overnight care.

Commenting on the judgment, Sophie said:

Follow this link to hear Sophie being interviewed about the case on BBC Radio 4’s Money Box.