Invitation to Quote

A fantastic and exciting opportunity to help demonstrate the difference made to people’s lives through creative opportunities!

We are inviting quotes from experienced social impact evaluators to work us to develop an arts and wellbeing impact assessment model, as part of an ambitious 20-month collaborative creative project (Jan 2024 – August 2025).

As part of the ‘Below the Waves’ collaboration and the ‘Taith’ project delivery this opportunity will involve working alongside an artist, the collaborative partners and participants to develop and test a new accessible tool and approach for assessing and evaluating the impact of arts and wellbeing projects. 

About TAPE:

At TAPE we are passionate about creativity and believe it can inspire and transform communities.  We offer a range of creative opportunities for groups and individuals in inclusive, accessible, safe, and supportive environments. 

The charity has offered a broad range of inclusive, creative opportunities for people of all ages and abilities since 2008. Our team supports accessible hands-on experiences and opportunities in, filmmaking, audio production, music, photography, VR, design, creative writing, podcasting and much more from our dedicated arts centre in Old Colwyn and in outreach settings.  We aim to remove barriers to participation and support people with additional access and support needs – tackling social isolation and loneliness.  We have well established referral and signposting pathways with health and social care partners in the public and 3^rd sector, ensuring that we reach the people who will benefit most from our offer.

TAPE’s regular weekly programme of free creative sessions includes Backstage Youth Club, TAPE Writers, Ghostbuskers, and Animation Club, as well as events, cinema screenings, BFI Academy, bespoke projects, training, accreditation and much more. 

About the project

Below the Waves (BTW) is an exciting, collaborative project which is seeking to develop new approaches to arts and wellbeing, and measure the impact and social value for organisations, individuals, and communities.

A co-produced project, BTW will invite creative responses to a compelling, community written script (that has already been produced) and offer artist led opportunities for people to explore themes such as wellbeing, connection, and the cultural landscape of North Wales.

Both the script and this project explore ‘what lies beneath’.  In this R&D phase we will explore new ways of working – developing and testing innovative, new approaches for measuring what matters and evidencing the difference our arts and wellbeing projects make.  

Learning, coproduction and strengthening partnerships are at the heart of this project and strong synergy has been identified with Taith – Creative Journeys to Wellbeing.  Taith is a pilot project that is being led by CCBC’s Culture Team in partnership with Conwy Mind and CCBC’s Vulnerable People Team.  

Taith will offer targeted, artist-led group activities in accessible community spaces such as libraries, with the aim of removing barriers to cultural participation – offering people experiencing mental health difficulties the opportunity to co-produce a route to improved wellbeing through mindful exploration of creativity.  Between January 2024 and September 2024 Taith will:

• Strengthen links and test new, more collaborative ways of working between the cultural / creative sector and health and social care (H & SC) partners in the third and public sector

• Pilot new pathways to social prescribing, de-escalating the need for H & SC interventions  

• Empower group members who will work alongside the artist as co-creators of a sustainable resource

• Develop and build arts and wellbeing facilitator capacity amongst creatives and mental health wellbeing professionals   

So far, the collaborators include:

• Sense Cymru – Supporting people with complex disabilities across Wales to live their lives to the full. The new Sense Hub in Denbigh will host workshops and support from the community there will help shape the assessment model. 

https://www.sense.org.uk/places/sense-cymru-wales/sense-hub-denbigh/

• Creu Conwy (CCBC) – Linking the project with Conwy Culture and Libraries, bringing a host of partnering opportunities, resources and skills to the table. 

https://conwyculture.com/explore-culture/creu-conwy

• Vulnerable People Team (CCBC) – A multi-disciplinary team supporting people with emotional and practical support.  This includes the Recovery College at Colwyn Bay Library hosting a number of arts and wellbeing opportunities. 

https://www.conwy.gov.uk/en/Resident/Social-Care-and-Wellbeing/Healthy-living/Vulnerable-People-Team.aspx

• Ysgol y Gogarth – Day and residential Special School in Llandudno, hosting afterschool creative activities as part of the project and bringing a wealth of experience in access, inclusion and creativity. 

http://www.ysgolygogarth.co.uk

• Wrexham University – Initially bringing together representatives from the Arts and Society department and the Media department to help build the assessment model and share research to date. With potential to link in with staff and alumni as the project progresses. 

https://wrexham.ac.uk/

• Conwy Mind – Committed to supporting the people of Conwy to get a better understanding of good mental health and working in partnership to develop new and innovative mental health support services.

• Elly Strigner – Freelance illustrator and animator, representing freelance creatives in the collaboration as well as bringing her experience and skills to help develop the project.
  
  https://www.elly-strigner.co.uk

• TAPE Community Music and Film – lead organisation for the project supporting with project management, admin and workshop facilitation.  TAPE have also co-developed the Below the Waves script that will inform the creative workshops.

https://tapemusicandfilm.co.uk/

The collaborators are brought together by the diverse communities they serve, a wealth of

multidisciplinary experience and a shared commitment to effecting change through arts and culture, underpinned by a commitment to the Well-being for Future Generations Act.

Below the Waves is gratefully supported by an Arts Council Wales, Connect and Flourish grant.

Taith is supported through Arts Council Wales and their Arts, Health and Wellbeing Lottery Funding and is being delivered as part of the Creu Conwy Cultural Strategy which is supported through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund

The R&D phase delivery will include:

• Working with a wide demographic of people in over 400 hours of creative workshops across North Wales.
• Developing new ways of working with TAPE staff and a team of collaborators with significant experience in the arts and wellbeing sector.
• Co-producing a robust approach for capturing the Social Impact of community arts.
• A touring exhibition and launch in Spring 2025

Please see attached Timeline document for more information on the project.

The requirements for this commission 

TAPE Community Music and Film are inviting quotes from experienced individuals / organisations to work with the project team and people involved in the project to develop and test a social impact assessment tool specific to arts and wellbeing delivery.   The ambition of this project is to not only capture the impact of BTW but to build capacity and develop a learning-led approach that can be applied to, and inform, future projects.  Strengthening the case for investing in arts and culture to support the preventative agenda.

This will be used by organisations and individual practitioners alike; it will need to be accessible and easy to use.  There are over 400 hours of creative workshops being delivered by a range of practitioners as part of Below the Waves and these can be used to help formulate and test the model / tool.  

This commission will involve working alongside an artist/filmmaker who will help to develop creative, accessible content as part of, or in support of the social assessment tool.

The Social Impact Assessor will work with the collaborators and project participants to develop an assessment tool for this and future projects.  This will:

• Qualitative and quantitative evaluation at both workshop and project levels
• Include social and economic impact
• Be accessible, sharable and engaging
• Be launched at a series of exhibitions 

This project will be delivered concurrently with partner organisations Creu Conwy’s Social Impact Evaluation, it is essential that there are linkages and collaboration between the two pieces of work to avoid duplication, ensure congruence and maximise shared learning and value.

Outputs

Working together with the artist and the Below the Waves collaborators, the successful supplier will be required to produce the following outputs between January 2024 and Aug 2025:

Agreed Outputs

Prepare an outline approach and agree methodology (Theory of Change) with the collaborators and the artist.

Work with the project team and participants to produce a social impact and evaluation framework.

Work with the artist, collaborators to develop and pilot appropriate data capture tools to collect the data in a creative and accessible way (potential use of digital tools).

Attend monthly project working group meetings and additional meetings as required to collaborate with other concurrent projects

Supply an interim report

Create an engaging, formatted, accessible bilingual Social Impact toolkit

Analyse and collate evaluation data and prepare a final formatted, bilingual Taith project evaluation report

Analyse and collate evaluation data and prepare a final formatted, bilingual Below the Waves evaluation and impact report.

• The project will need to be completed and the report signed off by the 30th August 2025. Some outcomes and impacts may need to be forecast as they will continue to accrue after the completion of the contract.
• There is the requirement to support and work alongside a separately commissioned piece of work to record the project through Digital Storytelling i.e advising on interview questions and utilising these outputs in the final report.
• Translation will be through Conwy County Borough Council and does not need to be factored into the costing, but it will need to be factored into timescales as a guide the lead time for 5000 words is 8 working days   

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