An Evaluation of the Yellow Flag Programme 
Call for Tender

The Irish Traveller Movement is seeking an assessment of the effectiveness, impact, and delivery of the Yellow Flag Programme, a national school-based inclusion and anti-racism initiative. The evaluation will examine programme outcomes, implementation, costs, and financial resourcing from 2019–2025. It will also provide recommendations on future funding opportunities to support the programme’s sustainability and growth.

About the Yellow Flag Programme

The Yellow Flag Programme was founded by the Irish Traveller Movement in 2008 as an innovative, intercultural solution to tackle racism at a social and institutional level, and equip schools with the tools to cultivate an inclusive learning environment, where diversity of ethnicities, cultures and religions is valued and celebrated.

It is the only practical 8-step framework of its kind in Ireland that takes a whole-school approach to inclusion, and it was developed in 2009 in response to Ireland’s increasing cultural diversity.
Despite Government efforts to promote migrant integration, and policy intended to ensure Traveller inclusion, those groups, who constitute citizens, residents, migrant workers, refugees and asylum seekers, experience discrimination and exclusion.

The role of schools as learning environments in which to defeat racism and promote inclusion at a critical early life stage, gives the Yellow Flag Programme a core operating framework, and importantly, equips children at those schools with the tools to take that learning into their home and community settings. It also recognises that an insecure connection within the school environment, and associated negative identity-based experiences, render Black Minority and Ethnic (BME) students, including Travellers and Roma, vulnerable to adverse psychosocial impacts, early school leaving, and reduced education and employment outcomes.

The Yellow Flag Programme provides a practical series of 8 steps that brings issues of interculturalism, equality and diversity into the whole-school programme and allows schools to apply them to the day-to-day running of the school. It works with students, staff, management, parents and wider community groups so that issues of diversity and equality are not merely seen as "school subjects" but can be understood and taken outside the school setting into everyone's personal lives. On completing 8 steps, and being assessed externally, the school is awarded its Yellow Flag in recognition of its work in promoting diversity and inclusion.

This invitation to tender is influenced by the following context:

1. Significant updates to the programme since the2019 evaluation
2. A lack of core funding despite interest and engagement from schools and other stakeholders
3. The implementation of a new evidence based framework in 2021.

Proposed Project –Objectives of the evaluation 

The successful tenderer will be expected to deliver a comprehensive report covering:

Programme Content and Delivery Appraisal

• Review the programme’s 8-step framework, its design, and practical implementation across diverse school contexts.

Impact Assessment

• Assess qualitative and quantitative impact on students, staff, families, and communities across four core outcome areas.

Implementation Process and Resource Effectiveness

• Examine the delivery mechanisms, tools, and supports provided to schools, and assess their effectiveness and adaptability.

Cost-Base Analysis

• Analyse the programme’s cost structure including delivery, staffing, training, and support resources, identifying areas of efficiency and potential improvement.
• Analysis should include how financial data will be accessed, validated, or benchmarked.

Financial Resourcing Review (2019–2025)

• Appraise funding levels and sources over the past six years and assess alignment with programme scale and impact.
• Analyse potential future funding pathways to ensure sustainability and scalability of the programme. This may include analysis of public, philanthropic, and private funding
  opportunities, and alignment with national policy priorities on education, inclusion, and anti-racism.

Please see full Tender Document attached below.

Submission Deadline: 

The deadline for receipt of submissions is 4th June.

Proposals should be emailed to: sian@itmtrav.ie using the subject ‘Yellow Flag Invitation to Tender’. Shortlisted candidates may be called for an interview.