Connecting Green Infrastructure - South West Wales (Monitoring & Evaluation)

Description

Timescale: December 2021 – May 2023 An award has been made by Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council to appoint the services of a consultant or consultancy company, to carry out an independent evaluation of the recently funded ‘Connecting Green Infrastructure’ regional project. The primary aim of the project, working as part of a new regional partnership, is to enable the co-design and co-delivery of Green Infrastructure (GI) in ways that meets local needs, supports communities and their health, builds ecosystem resilience, and enhances biodiversity. The project is setting out a new and collaborative approach to designing and delivering green infrastructure (GI) across Neath Port Talbot (NPT), Swansea and Carmarthenshire, for the benefit of local communities and their natural environment. This is a partnership project, with the Council working alongside Swansea Council, Carmarthenshire County Council, Coed Lleol and Cwmaman Town Council. The project is funded by the Welsh Government’s Enabling Natural Resources and Well-being in Wales (ENRaW) Fund, supported by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and Welsh Government. Specification:- The Countryside & Wildlife Team of Neath Port Talbot Council is therefore seeking to appoint the services of a consultant or consultancy company, to carry out an independent evaluation of the Connecting Green Infrastructure Project. The consultant will complete a programme of work made up of three main elements: 1. A preliminary review of the project at the start of the main project start, and reflective of work undertaken since formal project commencement, 26th February, 2020. This will include analysing information and methods outlined in grant submission and project documents, formalising the type of information and feedback gathered by the GI Team throughout the project, and communicating any early recommendations via a preliminary evaluation report. 2. Working closely with the steering group (project partners), the consultant will identify and recommend the best way to centrally monitor project activities over the duration of the project, reviewing current indicators and reflecting grant funding requirements and existing monitoring systems. 3. A detailed final project evaluation that will analyse all aspects of the project, to include an assessment of how the project responded to any recommendations made 3 in the preliminary evaluation. The final evaluation will establish if the project has been completed in accordance with the project application, offer and budget; and how well it has achieved the Project Indicators. The consultant / consultancy company will be required to evaluate, report and where appropriate make recommendations for improvement on the following aspects: • Effectiveness of the delivery of the project. • Effectiveness of the project in co-designing and co-delivering Green Infrastructure (GI) in ways that meets local needs, supports communities and their health, builds ecosystem resilience, and enhances biodiversity. • Implementation, operation and as far as possible, the impact of the scheme. • Added value benefits, including how the project performed against the delivery of aims, objectives and commitments, reviewing what worked well, what didn’t work well, lessons learned and how they were addressed. • How the project contributed to the goals of the Well Being and Future Generations Act and the requirements of the Environment (Wales) Act, and across cross cutting theme, to include: - Equality of opportunity and gender mainstreaming - Sustainable development - Tackling poverty and social exclusion - Promotion of the Welsh language - Children’s rights and support for families. • Assess the governance and project management, including the effectiveness of regional working practices. • Key lessons relevant to this and future operations.