Tender/ Call for Proposals:
To establish a Framework and conduct an Evaluation of the EPIC School Pilot Project regarding children in care 2025-2026

Deadline for applications: 5pm, Friday 8 August 2025

Background and Project Overview

EPIC, Empowering People in Care, has 25 years of experience working with children in alternative care (foster care, residential care, special care). EPIC’s Education Project is funded by Tusla Education Support Service (TESS) and aims to raise awareness of the situation of care-experienced children in schools, build the capacity and knowledge of teachers to support children in care, engage the Department of Education on the situation of children in care in schools and increase collaboration between professionals in the care and education sectors. The Education Project Advisory Group is composed of representatives of the Department of Education Inspectorate, NEPS, ETBI, NCCA, TESS, Tusla, EPIC, school leadership, foster care and the care-experienced community.

With the support of TESS and other key education stakeholders, EPIC has developed a toolkit called Take Care, to help schools better understand and support children and young people in care. Take Care consists of a youth-centred resource and an accompanying school guide. Developed with care-experienced children and young people, the resource provides insight into their school experiences and the challenges they face. The school guide provides information about the care system and gives practical guidance on how schools can better support care-experienced children. The toolkit is intended to empower the whole school community – leaders, teachers, and non-teaching staff – by providing the tools to uphold the rights of care-experienced students and ensure they have the support they need to succeed in education.

EPIC will pilot the use of the Take Care Toolkit in a fixed number of schools (primary and post-primary) over the academic year 2025-2026 and is seeking a consultant to set up a monitoring and evaluation framework and conduct an evaluation of the pilot programme.

Pilot programme outline

The Pilot programme will have two strands. Strand 1 will focus on awareness-raising and general capacity building in schools. EPIC will work with 10 schools with the aim of applying the guidance from the Take Care resources across the school. A ‘community of practice’ will be established to bring together the principals and care champions year head, school care champion, social worker, social care worker, foster carer, and the Education Welfare Officer.

A monitoring and evaluation framework is needed to provide an understanding of the implementation, outcomes and impact of the pilot programme in terms of effectiveness; to understand the experience of the teachers and principals using the toolkit to support children in care; and to assess the impact for children in care. It will establish the key performance indicators to be tracked over the course of the academic year, the methodology for monitoring progress and any action research elements to explore how schools, foster carers, social workers and other agencies interact in providing wraparound support to young people as they move through care and education. It will also seek to document any needs for extra resourcing for care-experienced young people in school. It is envisaged that the framework will be in place for the start of the programme beginning September 2025.

Please see document attached below for further information.

Application Process

1. Proposal to include an outline of how you would approach this project and estimated costings: maximum 2 pages.
2. A link to, or copy of, your portfolio or samples of past work that is similar in content/style or process.
3. Resume

Email your proposal to: education@epiconline.ie

Deadline for applications: 5pm, Friday 8 August 2025