Purpose

Laois County Childcare Committee is seeking a consultant to engage with the organisation to complete its governance journey and prepare a report on its compliance with the Governance Code. The purpose of this engagement is to identify with the stakeholders what the organisation has achieved and identify key governance measures the organisation needs to put in place to complete the governance journey.

Role of Laois County Childcare Committee

Laois County Childcare Committee is responsible for implementing the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) national programmes through its local implementation plan (LIP).

Mission Statement

Our aim is to provide a planned and co-ordinated approach to the support and development of high quality childcare in County Laois that responds to the assessed and different needs of communities in the County.

Research to be undertaken

Review and analyse the organisational governance procedures and practices
Review of the organisations operating systems.

Tasks

The consultant will undertake the following tasks:

Desk research: a review of LCCC’s current policies and processes, work plan and any other relevant documents.
Facilitated Sessions:  These sessions facilitated by the consultant will focus on a series of prescribed questions (already agreed).
Complete the reporting template.

Timescale

The work should begin in early March with consultations to be completed over a four/five week period. It is anticipated that the final report will be submitted to LCCC by the first week in May 2021.

Outputs

The successful tender for the project will produce the following reports:

The contractor will liaise with the Co-ordinator on a weekly basis and/or as required for the purpose of providing progress updates.
Final report to LCCC.

Methodology

The successful consultant will carry out an initial discussion with LCCC. From this a literature review will be carried out. The successful consultant will facilitate a number of online discussions (no. of sessions to be agreed) with LCCC. The findings of these discussions will be incorporated into the final report. The successful consultant will liaise with the Management Committee/ Co-ordinator throughout the process.

Budget

It is estimated that the research will take no more than 8 days to complete, between literature review, online sessions and report writing. The budget available for this consultative work is €4,795 inclusive of VAT.

Requirements

Tenders should demonstrate:

Relevant research experience, an understanding or experience of the CCC’s.
Proven experience of working with voluntary board members
Proven experience in change management consultation.
Experience of qualitative research, including facilitating group discussions.
Commitment to the values of the CCC’s.
A proven commitment to professionalism.
Evaluation and report writing experience.
Experience that demonstrates ethical standards will be met throughout the research process and ensuring that data protection and confidentiality provisions will be met.

Instructions for the process

In no more than 2,000 words, submissions should include the following:

Overall approach to the work and the tasks outlined
Proposed methodology for the work to be undertaken
Name and contact details of the tenderer / organisation and the personnel who would be involved in the delivery of the work
Previous experience of all personnel involved in undertaking the work (copies of previous work can be attached to tender if preferred)
Detailed costings for the work to be undertaken
Timeframe for the completion of the tasks of the research
Details of two referees

Submission

Tenders should be submitted by email only to LCCC’s Secretary abigail.mc@hotmail.com. The closing date is 25/02/2021 at 5pm. Please mark the subject line of the email LCCC Tender