Invitation to Offer Evaluation of the Queensland Mental Health Commission's Grants Program 2018-2019

⁠⁠⁠The Queensland Mental Health Commission is seeking proposals for Invitations to Offer for the following:- Contractor Services to evaluate the Queensland Mental Health Commission's Grants Program 2018-2019

Summary of opportunity and QMHC objectives

The Queensland Mental Health Commission has issued this Invitation to Offer to:
a. develop, implement and report on the evaluation of the Grants Program for 2018-2019, and
b. build the capability and support up to five organisations/private entities to undertake comprehensive evaluation of grants at a local level.

The specifications for evaluating the Grants Program includes:
a. Undertake a literature review of best practice principles and identify funding model options for administrating grants.
b. Develop and implement an Evaluation Strategy.
c. Develop progress and final report templates for the organisations/private entities to use at a local level to provide to the Commission.
d. Complete impact and outcome evaluation, including appropriateness, cost-effectiveness, equity and efficiency, of the Grants Program.
e. Determine whether the Grants Program achieved its objectives and the impact of these objectives on improving the mental health and wellbeing of the people participating in a grant funded initiative.
f. Identify if the local level outcomes would have been achieved in the absence of the grant funding.
g. Identify ways to strengthen the design and delivery of the Grants Program to have greater long-term impact and influence.

The specifications for building the capability and supporting up to five organisations/private entities to undertake local level evaluation includes:
a. Develop and refine the program logic in collaboration with the organisations/private entities.
b. Develop and refine impact evaluation tools to:
i. Determine the social and economic impact of the initiative.
ii. Identify how different components of the initiative (for example design, program inputs, the organisation’s ability to implement) contributed to the outcomes.
iii. Determine what other factors (for example local conditions and circumstances, external factors, other local activities) impacted on the outcomes achieved.
iv. Determine if there were unintended outcome/s and what impact these outcome/s had on the initiative and people involved in the initiative.
v. Identify if any negative outcomes occurred that were directly or indirectly associated with the initiative.

c. Develop and refine outcome/effectiveness evaluation tools to:
i. Determine how the initiative achieved its objectives.
ii. Determine the effectiveness, efficiency, and appropriateness of the initiative.
iii. Identify sustainable outcomes achieved by implementing this initiative.
d. Provide organisations/private entities with ongoing support to use the evaluation tools to complete evaluation of the initiative.
e. Identify initiatives that can be scaled up to improve the mental health and wellbeing, and social inclusion of all Queenslanders, in particular people who have a lived experience of mental illness and/or, problematic alcohol and other drugs use, and those bereaved by suicide.

Evaluation will combine quantitative or qualitative approaches, with data collection points to occur at baseline, progress and post implementation of the Grants Program and local level initiatives.