Understanding the impact of OFFA's approach to using evidence to promote effective practice in access and participation

The Office for Fair Access (OFFA) wish to place a contract for a principal investigator (PI) to undertake an impact evaluation of the strategic approach and activities of the Evidence and Effective Practice function at OFFA since 2014. This work is time sensitive and will need to be completed by December 2017. The contract is for: - a researcher or external evaluator to undertake an evaluation of OFFA's Evidence and Effective Practice function - the delivery of interim findings to OFFA in a presentation / briefing format at a mid-way point meeting with the contract managers - a final detailed report of evaluation findings and recommendations for improvements that OFFA can use internally - a summary report of evaluation findings and recommendations for improvements that OFFA can share externally. The evaluation will consider the extent to which the activities of OFFA's Evidence and Effective Practice function have successfully met the aims of OFFA's Evidence Strategy. The evaluation findings and recommendations should support our understanding how and why OFFA's approach and activities affect different key stakeholders, in order to generate insightful and valuable recommendations to improve future effectiveness. The procurement process will be run by HEFCE procurement.