Evaluation of Gambling Education Hubs 2022-2025

About GambleAware

GambleAware is an independent charity that commissions evidence-informed prevention and treatment services in partnership with the NHS, public health agencies, local authorities, the voluntary sector, and other expert organisations and agencies, across Great Britain.

GambleAware recognises the importance of evaluating the impact of our commissioned projects, alongside the mechanisms influencing the outcomes resulting from these. We are committed to building evidence of ‘what works for whom’ to support and inform our commissioning, as well as generating knowledge to contribute to the wider body of evidence, and national policy. 

The central aim of GambleAware’s purpose and vision is to achieve effective prevention of gambling harms, and access to treatment and support. GambleAware’s Organisational Strategy[1], published in April 2021, outlines our priorities and objectives to guide our work towards our vision of a society where everyone is safe from gambling harms.

Requirement

GambleAware is seeking Expressions of Interest for an evaluation of the Gambling Education Hubs. This programme of work comprises three distinct Gambling Education Hubs; one in each of England, Scotland, and Wales.

The overall aim of the three Gambling Education Hubs is to prevent and reduce gambling-related harms among children and young people, through early intervention and prevention.

This is designed to be achieved through a core activity of work focusing on building workforce capacity among the range of practitioners and other adults who may play a role in supporting young people around gambling harm (e.g. through development and delivery of training, tools, resources), and developing approaches to foster young people’s engagement with the topic.

The primary purpose of the evaluation is to assess the design, implementation, and effectiveness of the three Gambling Education Hubs, and provide recommendations to support the Hubs achieve their outcomes and evidence their impact, as well as generate knowledge to contribute to the wider body of evidence informing GambleAware’s wider commissioning decisions and national policy.

It is envisaged that the evaluation will:

• Involve comprehensive process evaluation of the Hubs, providing feedback on the implementation of the Hubs and delivery of their core activities, to aid understand of learning from the way the Hubs have been implemented
• Involve impact evaluation exploring the effectiveness and added value of the Hubs, to identify the early- and mid-term outcomes achieved by the three Hubs

• Utilise a mixed-method approach triangulating findings from across multiple sources, including:
  • primary research with all key stakeholder groups, including Hub delivery teams; organisations engaged as partners – e.g. schools, local authorities, third sector organisations; young people; and, parents/carers
  • secondary analysis of monitoring/project data
• Ensure data collection covers all key stages of programme design and delivery

• Incorporate a theory-based approach, to the extent that it:
  • Tests the soundness of the intervention logic, through examining inputs used, activities undertaken, and the outcomes that these activities have resulted in, or contributed to
  • Seeks to understand the relationship between the contexts within which the Hubs are operating, the mechanisms for change, and any observed impact
  • Supports ongoing revision and development of Hub theories of change and logic models as the work of each Hub develops
• Involve a research design with a degree of flexibility, in order to pursue emerging themes and accommodate the iterative and developmental nature of provision within each Hub, which may result in different trajectories for programmes of work, different engagement approaches, and diversity in prioritisation and scale of activities
• Provide for the comparing and contrasting of the suitability and effectiveness of the different activities and implementation routes the three Hubs adopt
• Have a strong focus on generating learning and insight, and feeding this into the Hubs in an ongoing manner, to both generate learning from across Hubs and facilitate learning between them during the course of the evaluation.

The appointed Supplier will be required to understand the different contexts of the three nations the Hubs are provided in, and situate the evaluation findings within the wider contexts. This includes the differing geographies; youth, education, and health landscapes; and legislative frameworks in each nation.

Timescale and budget

The project is expected to commence end of June 2022 and be completed by September 2025. A maximum budget of approximately £180,000 - £200,000 (incl. VAT) is available for this work.

Evaluation of Expressions of Interest

Submissions will be evaluated on how they meet the criteria outlined on the Expression of Interest form.

Submission of completed forms

The EOI form can be found here

Completed forms should be submitted to evaluation@gambleaware.org by Friday 22/04/2022, 17:00.

[1] GambleAware (2021) GambleAware_Organisational_Strategy_2021-26.