Evaluation of the Recruit, Recover & Raise Standards Programmes

The Welsh Government wishes to commission research to evaluate the first phase of the Recruit, Recover and Raise Standards Programme (from summer 2020 to date). This will include recommendations to inform decisions about the ongoing response of the Welsh Government to supporting primary & secondary schools and early years childcare settings to recover from the disruptive impacts that COVID-19 is having on learning. Welsh Government has allocated funding to schools and early years childcare settings to provide additional support to children and young people whose education and development have been most disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. We are seeking an independent research organisation to evaluate the effectiveness and early impacts of this funding. The overarching aim of the research is to provide evidence to inform decisions about the ongoing response of the Welsh Government to supporting schools and early years childcare settings to recover from the disruptive impacts that COVID-19 is having on learning. This will include a programme-level focus on the Recruit, Recover and Raise Standards (RRR) Programme, which provided funding to maintained schools and early years childcare settings only. There will be another, separate focus on early-years, to include the early years childcare settings element of the RRR funding and additional grant that was made available to both maintained and non-maintained sectors. It is expected that findings from each focus will be combined to provide overarching lessons and recommendations for the future.