External evaluator of our Care Advice Service 

The Care Advice Service consists of a Care Advice Line, Rights & Entitlements workshops for young care leavers, and Young Trainers programme.

What we’re looking for from an external evaluator

We are seeking someone/ an organisation with experience of research and evaluation relating to care experienced young people and / or services designed to support them. They will need to have an awareness of the challenges many care experienced children and young people face, be empathetic, and be able to apply trauma-informed approaches in their work.

The Care Advice Line Service:

The Care Advice Line (CAL) is Become’s flagship service. It is a freephone telephone service open Monday to Friday, 10am to 5pm. It can also be contacted by e-mail, using the contact form on Become’s website, or via What’s App. The CAL is open to all children and young people with experience of the care system, up to the age of 27, and to their supporting adults (professionals, foster carers, and loved ones). The CAL aims to:

• Provide an independent and non-judgemental listening ear to children and young people
• Support children in care and young care leavers to understand and access their full rights and entitlements
• Support children and young people’s access to relevant advice and support services, which may be Become’s own or may be provided by other organisations that we trust, and
• When necessary, safeguard children and young people in partnership with other agencies and professionals.

Rights & Entitlements workshops for young care leavers: through delivery of our CAL, we know care-experienced children and young people are often unaware of the support they are entitled to. This is a major barrier to them being able to advocate for and access their entitlements as care leavers. By delivering free group Rights & Entitlements of Care Leavers workshops to young care leavers in partnership with external organisations, we aim to build young people’s understanding before they encounter difficulties and need advice through our CAL.

Young Trainers Programme: we offer an accredited training opportunity for young care leavers to build their skills in workshops facilitation and online delivery methods. They then have opportunities to co-facilitate online Rights & Entitlements of Care Leavers workshops to other care leavers.

Evaluation of our Care Advice Line

With generous support from the National Lottery, we are planning an external evaluation of our Care Advice Service, to explore:

• The impact of the Care Advice Line (CAL) (for young people and supporting adults), of Rights & Entitlements workshops for young care leavers participating, and of our Young Trainers programme for young people involved, and any differences across groups of young people reached,
• How the CAL complements other services that exist for children in care and young care leavers (e.g. advocacy),
• What are the features of our CAL offer most valued by children and young people.
• This will be a time bound evaluation, using use a mixed methods approach, involving field work with young people and supporting adults and analysis of routinely-gathered impact and evaluation data (Lamplight case recording system and other sources). The evaluation will focus on delivery under our National Lottery grant period.

Expressions of interest

To express interest in delivering this evaluation, please submit an expression of interest to Chloe Grant, Director of Services, by 5pm Monday 8 January 2024. This should include your/ your organisation’s suitability based on the above requirements, a project plan outlining how you would deliver this evaluation and a budget overview. Please contact Chloe Grant with any queries: [email protected]