Invitation to tenderDesign and digital support for Reading Friends

The Reading Agency1 February 2018

Invitation to tender

Context and overview

The Reading AgencyOur missionWe are a charity whose mission is to inspire more people to read more, encourage them to share their enjoyment of reading and celebrate the difference that reading makes to all our lives.

Our strapline is: “Because everything changes when we read.”

Our values Collaborative Empowering Creative Committed Influential

Our approachReading can raise spirits, fire imagination, and enable people to manage their lives and engage with their communities. We believe that everything changes when we read, so we specialise in helping people to enjoy reading and encouraging them to share their own pleasure in reading with others.

We work with people of all ages – adults and families as well as children and young people. This includes lapsed readers, reluctant readers and those who struggle with reading as well as passionate readers who want to share their enjoyment of reading with others.

Over 1.4 million people from across the UK take part in our reading programmes every year. We have set ourselves ambitious targets for the future because we know what a difference reading can make to people’s lives and that there is an increasing demand for the work that we do and the volunteering opportunities we provide.

www.readingagency.org.uk

Reading Friends

Loneliness and social isolation is a significant health and wellbeing issue for older people1. 8-10% of people aged 65 and older are often or always lonely, while 12% feel socially isolated.

The Alzheimer’s Society estimates that there are 850,000 people in the UK living with dementia and that this number will grow to one million by 20252. In addition, the lives of 21 million people are touched by knowing someone with dementia and there are over half a million people caring for people with the condition in England. A staggering one in three people can expect to care for someone with dementia during their lifetime.

Reading Friends starts conversations through reading to connect older people and reduce isolation and loneliness. Driven by individual interests and needs, it will bring friendships and stronger social networks to everyone involved, including people with dementia and carers. Reading Friends is UK-wide, but locally delivered by public libraries as well as community and voluntary sector organisations. Reading Friends is funded by the Big Lottery Fund.

This is a new and unique project for The Reading Agency and an opportunity for the design agency to be involved in developing an evolving programme. Co-creation and empowerment is at the heart of our project and we expect the design approach to work within these principles as well. Reading Friends aims:

To provide richer social connections and greater cultural engagement for older people through creating opportunities to participate in reading activities

To empower older people through their ownership, co-production and influence in the shaping and delivery of the Reading Friends model

To promote happiness, social connectedness and engagement by involving older people in reading activities they have helped to develop

Through the above, to improve health and wellbeing

To embed reading interventions in national and local approaches to caring for an ageing population

The Reading Friends model focuses on shared reading powered by the social activism of participants and volunteers. It uses a befriending model in which volunteer ‘Reading Partners’ support the target audience (Reading Friends) either one-to-one or in groups. The materials we are currently using to help volunteers understand and participate in Reading Friends are attached with this brief to give more details about the project. These materials will need to be updated as outlined in this brief.

1 Loneliness – the state we’re in, Oxfordshire Age UK (2012) 2 Dementia 2014 Report Statistics, Alzheimers Society (2014) https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/statistics

We currently have six test projects in operation over eight sites in England, Wales and Scotland. They are:

Stirling Library Service

Newcastle Library Service & Age UK Newcastle

Oldham Library Service & Springboard Carers Network

Sheffield Dementia Alliance & Sheffield Library Service

Conwy Library Service

A loose partnership of three organisations in West Sussex supported by West Sussex Library Service. They are: Abbeyfield Society (Horsted Keynes), Age UK Horsham and Dementia Support (Chichester).

In September 2018 there will be a national launch of the Reading Friends programme and we will be announcing up to 10 new projects across the UK, which will mean Reading Friends is operating in 16+ locations.

We are operating devolved project management in Scotland and Wales. Scottish Book Trust is our partner delivery organisation in Scotland and Literature Wales is our partner in Wales. They will also be managing older people’s advisory structures in these nations and we expect that there may be different design requirements in some materials for these nations.

Northern Ireland came on-stream in February 2018 with projects starting during the pilot phase of the programme in September 2018. Verbal Arts is our partner to develop the project in Northern Ireland.

Target audience There are three main audiences:

i) Participating organisations who co-ordinate the programme locallyii) volunteers (“Reading Partners”)iii) participants (“Reading Friends”)

Partner organisationsPartner organisations facilitate access to the Reading Friends programme for vulnerable and isolated older people who may not otherwise be able to find out about it or participate in it. They work to raise awareness of Reading Friends in their networks and encourage participation. They may provide volunteer capacity from among their own workforce and networks, particularly where the programme engages older people in residential and care homes or sheltered accommodation where other volunteers may not be able to access.

Partner organisations may also work with older people to set up supported reading activities, using the resources and training materials provided by The Reading Agency, where the audience is particularly vulnerable or it is not feasible for members of the local community to engage the participants e.g. in high dependency care homes.

Each partner organisation is developing their offer in response to the needs of the local community and the Reading Friends they are working with. At this stage various methods of engagement are being tested, including one-to-one sessions and group meetings.

Communications requirements:

o Information about The Reading Agency and its work

o Resources to attract, retain and support volunteerso Resources to raise awareness and attract Reading Friendso Induction materials, tips and ‘how to’ sheets both for co-ordinating roles and for

on the ground volunteer roleso Possible opportunities for networking

Volunteers or “Reading Partners”A Reading Partner is a volunteer/facilitator role focused on encouraging lonely and isolated people to become a Reading Friend, supporting them with reading activities and to engage with a wider reading community. Reading Partners can be drawn from the local community or from partner organisations and will use the resources and activities supplied to support vulnerable older people to participate in reading activities and engage in the Reading Friends network. The aim is to empower older people to progress to Reading Partner where possible, moving on to inspire others to engage with reading.

Reading Friends is built upon the concept of active engagement of people in a supported reading network both as Friends (active participants) and Partners (facilitators). Friends will be supported to become active Partners and to encourage others to take part. Data from the 2014-15 Community Life Survey shows that 37% of people aged 65-74 had volunteered informally in the last month and 33% had volunteered formally in the last month. People in this age group also gave the largest amount of time to regular volunteering of any age group other than those aged 16-25. However, we are also interested in the intergenerational possibilities of Reading Friends and the potential benefits to other age groups of participating in this project.

Consultation has flagged this as a potentially important strand of activity and we may engage young volunteers as well as older people, for example through our existing Reading Hack programme.

Communications requirements

o Information to explain the project and how they can get involvedo Induction information to prepare them for their role, including online trainingo Tips and ‘how to’ sheets to support them in their volunteeringo Regular information and ideas to refresh their activities

Participants or “Reading Friends”The main target of this programme will be “vulnerable older people”, this includes:

o Isolated older people, including people living in sheltered housing and care home

o People with dementia

o Same generation carers of older people

Communications requirements:

From our research we do not think that Reading Friends will need specific resources from the Reading Friends programme to participate in the sessions. However, the posters and leaflets need to make Reading Friends appealing to the target audience and the brand identity needs to feel engaging and inclusive.

Project timetableThe project funding commenced in September 2016 and we are currently in the test phase of the project. Below is a summary of the project phasing:

Timescale Phase Project activities

September 2016-June 2017 Planning and set up

Co-creation of materials and approach Selection of test projects

June 2017-August 2018 Testing and development

Testing Reading Friends concept in 6 sites in England, Scotland and Wales, each with bespoke approaches for their audiences

September 2018-August 2019 Pilot Selection and refinement of approaches for pilot

Pilot of selected approaches from test projects in 10 sites across UK

September 2019-August 2020 Rollout Rollout of Reading Friends programme – possibly with 20 projects although this may be wider depending on demand in the sector

Design briefThe successful agency will be required to support the Reading Friends project with design and digital development to support the overall communications strategy.

Revised design and development of project materialsWe have developed our initial design materials in close co-operation with our older people’s steering group and advisory group. Those materials have been tested and we have feedback and learning from that process that we can share. In addition, we will be consulting with representatives from each of the test projects at an event on Thursday 8 March 2018, which we will require the successful agency to attend. The event will be held at the Free Word Centre, London EC1R 3GA.

We are looking to build on the learning from the first phase design to develop our materials for the next phase of the project. In particular we want:

Consideration of the existing materials and how they can be optimised following feedback

Collaboration with project co-ordinators in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales to ensure that Scottish, Northern Irish and Welsh needs are met

Support to ensure that all text effectively communicates key messages and works with the design to reinforce those messages – this includes copywriting support to edit the text in our volunteer pack, on posters and leaflets to maximise impact

Consideration of how the materials can appeal to broader audiences, including young people, as we extend our work into intergenerational volunteering

Images of materials for promotional purposes

Development of a creative idea that is upbeat, engaging and can provide a design platform for further development of the project.

o Ideally we’d like to have a ‘bible’ of principles and templates to work from in designing new material that helps us ensure anything else we develop fits with these principles. We worked with our co-creation group to develop agreed principles for Reading Friends which could help this process – they are attached with this brief.

o We need to bear in mind that we might move some/all of these resources online behind a paywall or authentication process at some point and so the design approach needs to be able to be adapted for HTML and other content.

Digital development

Reading Friends also needs to develop a digital presence that shares the overall ‘look and feel’ of the materials. This will include:

A website to promote the project which can be easily searched for project information and volunteering opportunities

A secure platform for projects to communicate, to share information such as best practice and challenges

An online training portal to support the current face-to-face induction sessions which will be accessed via a paywall or authentication process

Fundraising capability to process donations to the project

A sign-up function to allow registrations to receive project information

Capability to share stories to show the impact of the project

Capability to post news and blogs

The potential for future development and expansion.

We have commissioned a report to provide a clear picture of the digital opportunities and challenges, which is attached with this brief.

We will work in effective partnership with our design partner, including check-and-challenge of our ideas, mutually supportive work with delivery partners in the nations and a shared priority for co-production and empowerment of our participants and audiences.

All digital and design materials will need to be ready for the launch of the project’s pilot phase in September 2018. We will plan and agree a timetable with the successful agency.

Technical specificationsIn general, we also expect any design materials to adhere to the guidelines published by one of our project partners, the Dementia Engagement and Empowerment Partnership (DEEP) about principles of design for people with dementia:

http://dementiavoices.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/DEEP-Guide-Creating-websites.pdfhttp://dementiavoices.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/DEEP-Guide-Writing-dementia-friendly-information.pdf

BrandingAll design material will also need to fit within The Reading Agency’s visual identity guidelines (attached) and incorporate the key messages for both The Reading Agency and Reading Friends.

It will be important to understand how the brand identity can be used on different treatments, including: website/s, widgets, posters, leaflets and other publicity collateral.

Design challenges The target audience experiences many communication challenges, including sight-loss,

dementia and possible lack of literacy skills

Allow for a bilingual Welsh-language version – Welsh text usually requires significantly more space.

Also consider requirements for Scots or Gaelic together with our Scottish project management partners

There will be a rolling programme of review and redesign that may be required throughout the pilot and rollout phase of the project (to August 2020).

Budget and duration of contract The total budget for this work is £29,000 plus VAT for work completed between March–

August 2018.

This includes design and build of a minimum viable product website for testing in the pilot year.

It also includes all out of pocket expenses for attending meetings in London and potentially one other meeting in Oldham to hear volunteer feedback about the current resources.

We will set the budget for following years based on the requirements that emerge from our co-creation process and the needs of the project as it develops.

This budget does not include translation costs, which we will manage as the need arises.

We will initially appoint an agency from March 2018-August 2018 with the option to extend the contract on an annual basis until the end of the project in August 2020. We have budget for both website development and refreshing of resources in 2019 and 2020.

What will success look like?The materials will incorporate and build on the learning from the first phase of work. This means they must be:

Eye-catching and appealing to the target audiences

Easy for the various audiences to understand

Engage and enthuse people to participate in Reading Friends and clearly convey the essential information needed

Success is likely to comprise:

High take up of the programme and retention of participants

Relevant across the four nations, including bilingual materials in Wales

Look and feel developed for Reading Friends that can be used effectively on the website

Materials meet the accessibility considerations

Materials are well received by participants, volunteers and delivery partners

Attachments with this brief The Reading Agency visual identify guidelines Reading Friends five key principles

Reading Friends digital report

PDFs of current Reading Friends materials (poster, leaflet, folder and sample pages)

Proposal DeliverablesWe are not expecting extensive responses to this brief. Along with information about your approach and examples of your work, we would also like a breakdown on how you expect to be able to deliver the design and digital concept within the available budget.

Deliverables

The following are indicative dates and a detailed schedule will be agreed with the successful agency:

Monday 5 March* Briefing meeting with the Reading Friends team in London

Thursday 8 March* Learning event with current test projects in London

Wednesday 28 March Present initial visual identify and web/print concepts

Wednesday 11 April First draft of print materials

Wednesday 25 April First iteration of web presence

Wednesday 9 May Present and walk-through draft web presence

Monday 2 July Materials ready to go to print

Monday 16 July Soft launch of web presence for testing

Wednesday 1 August Materials delivered to pilot project sites

Monday 3 September Launch of website

* Confirmed dates.

Following on from initial approval, all written materials will need to be translated in Scotland and Wales and print materials will need to be formatted to accommodate translations and logos.

The final print deadline is a hard deadline and needs to include final designs for all four nations.

Accessibility Please say how you would ensure that materials would comply with accessibility considerations.

Agency backgroundPlease give examples of other printed materials and web presences you have developed for other clients, in particular other charity clients, with any impact indicators the client may have seen.

Project planThe successful agency will be expected to project manage the design and delivery of the artwork and web presence. This will include liaising with project partners in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales to take their feedback and needs into account.

Please provide a project plan for this work, taking into account the key dates above, and explain your approach to project management and any key moments where feedback and input will be required from the Reading Friends team.

Itemised breakdown of costs and approachPlease give your quotation for designing the deliverables listed above. Please say how you would propose to respond to our brief and the methods you deploy to ensure that the designs you produce meet our requirements.

Please give examples of other briefs you have completed that are similar to ours together with the results. We are particularly interested in seeing your response to other charity, arts organisation and re-branding commissions.

Please note that our print is managed through our preferred supplier so this quote is for producing print ready artwork only.

All services within scope and out of scope of the quote costsAre there any services that you have not included in your quotation above that you would expect we might need from you? These might be things you do not feel have been included in the brief or that you feel would bring added value to our project.

Agency contactsPlease include the main and alternative contacts for your agency.

Tender delivery method

Submission contactPlease send your tender via email to Alison Blaxland at The Reading Agency at alison.blaxland@readingagency.org.uk

Submission deadlineThe deadline for submissions is Monday 19 February 2018 at 5pm.Shortlisted applicants will be contacted by Friday 23 February 2018.

Interviews will be held at the Free Word Centre, 60 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3GA on Wednesday 28 February 2018.

The successful agency will be required to attend meetings with the Reading Friends team and test projects at the Free Word Centre on Monday 5 and Thursday 8 March.

Tender specifics

Contact for information gatheringAny questions about this tender should be sent via email to Alison Blaxland: alison.blaxland@readingagency.org.uk

Notification of contract award dateThe successful tenderer will be appointed by Friday 2 March 2018.

Target contract start dateThe contract will start on Monday 5 March 2018.