Early Learning Initiative / National College of Ireland: Request for Tender
Request for Tender for ParentChild+ External Evaluation
Context and Rationale:
The Early Learning Initiative (ELI) at National College of Ireland was developed to address the problem of educational underachievement in marginalized communities. Building upon tried and tested models of early years intervention, it is our mission to work with communities in areas of greatest need to provide world-class parent and child learning support programmes.
The ParentChild+ programme (formally known as the Parent Child Home Programme) is an early intervention programme that is introduced to parents in marginalised communities when their children are between 16 months to 18 months old. The programme focuses on parents being the agents of change to children’s successful learning and developmental outcomes during early childhood and throughout the schooling years.
Since 2007, more than 1,200 children have taken part in the ParentChild+ programme in Dublin’s Inner City through ELI. Furthermore, the programme has grown in scale as ELI now supports 13 community organisations around Ireland to implement the ParentChild+ programme. With this growth, ParentChild+ is at a critical juncture of scaling and replication. To ensure that the programme continues with high-quality fidelity and implementation, ELI is seeking proposals from suitably qualified external researchers to evaluate the ParentChild+ programme nationally.
The ParentChild+ External Evaluation aims to evaluate the impact and scalability of ParentChild+ programme.
The objectives of the current study are:
- Critically evaluate whether ParentChild+ is having an impact on children’s development and identify what factors contribute to the outcome.
- Critically evaluate the scaling of ParentChild+; examine if replication is working to the same extent and what factors contribute to the outcome.
- Highlight and discuss emergent themes that arise during the research process. If scope allows, and in agreement with ELI, follow relevant themes.
Submissions to be made by November 4, 2024 via email to eligrants@ncirl.ie with the subject heading “ParentChild+ External Evaluation Tender Application”