Child Poverty Action Plan - Programme Evaluation

The North East Mayoral Strategic Authority (North East MSA) seeks to commission an external consultant to undertake an independent programme level evaluation of the Child Poverty Action Plan 2025-2030. The evaluation will assess the design, implementation, and impact of a complex, multi-strand programme delivered between August 2025 and March 2030. This will include directly funded activities, wider activities mobilised through the programme and selected aligned activities where appropriate and supported by the available evidence. The commissioned evaluation is intended as a cross-cutting programme-level evaluation of the Child Poverty Action Plan as a whole. It is recognised that individual projects, interventions and delivery activity within the wider programme will be subject to separate monitoring, evaluation and research activity commissioned by the North East MSA or undertaken by delivery partners. The evaluation will synthesise evidence generated through proportionate project level evaluations (including light touch monitoring and in depth project deep dives) to provide a coherent, programme wide assessment and will not be responsible for conducting primary project-level evaluations, except where explicitly agreed. This will support strategic assurance, learning and decision making, and inform future iterations of the Action Plan and wider North East MSA and regional policy and investment decisions. The programme-level evaluation will therefore consider both the evidence relating to individual interventions and the combined contribution of the wider programme towards the intended outcomes of the Child Poverty Action Plan. The programme‑level evaluation will also seek to determine the degree to which reducing child poverty has been embedded as a cross-cutting theme across North East MSA activity, and that of partners. This will include examining how the Child Poverty Reduction Unit and the regional Child Poverty Action Plan have influenced strategic priorities, programme and project design, funding and delivery decisions, and whether they have contributed to changes in policies, practices and activities beyond those directly funded through the programme.