Place Expansion MEL Partner Kirklees

The work in Kirklees is vital to aid understanding of what communities really need in order to move around more and gain the health benefits from doing so. This is an incredibly important opportunity to really get underneath the barriers to physical activity and work with communities to design solutions that work for them. The work comes at a point in time with the recent publication of our Director of Public Health’s Annual Report 2024-2025: Physical Activity Matters  [Link]. There is system level support for this work and a genuine excitement about what will be learnt.

Across Kirklees there have been a number of pieces of work in recent years to try to help increase levels of physical activity including:

• The Everybody Active Advisory Group (EAAG) has existed in various forms since 2001. Increasing amounts of partnership work is already taking place, but mostly has focused on the delivery of individual activities and interventions rather than systemic change.
• Whole system approach sessions in December 2019 which brought 30 system leaders to map complex systems affecting physical activity. While this created connections and excitement about potential change COVID came shortly afterwards.
• A wider systems leadership course in 2019 and 2022, for colleagues from across the health and care systems. Although not physical activity specific they align with the approach advocated by Sport England and therefore helped to prepare the ground for this work.
• Leadership Essentials 2 day event in June 2024 which was very successful and helped shape what went into the development award bid.
• A few isolated pieces of funding such as Tackling Inequalities Fund, Active Through Football and We are Undefeatable so keen to look at how longer term, sustainable change can be achieved through effecting systems change.

Click to see Kirklees' Development Award bid      

This evaluation will run for 12 months with the possibility of an extension to be discussed at a review point following the 12 month period to support with the work areas set out below. This support is required during the development award phase, which is expected to last 12 months, depending how quickly the work progresses to submission of the full award. Through this the aim is to seek to begin to understand how working at a hyper-local level within the context of a broader system impacts on better conditions for physical activity for all. It will feed into the national evaluation approach to better understand how we can tackle structural inequalities, strengthen community and individual capacities and integrate physical activity across different but connected parts of the system to achieve more sustainable impact.

The Evaluation Will

• Be simple in its design, adaptive and will evolve as the work progresses. There will be a degree of flexibility around the scope of this work with regular reviews with the evaluation partner.
• Be inclusive of diverse perspectives and include the voice of community partners, internal and external partners.
• Help people to tell their stories and use these to inform the work.
• Have a strong focus on equality and ensuring this is core to the work.`
• Support local capacity and capability in evaluation and organisational learning, which may include facilitating process learning meetings
• Use a broad range of data sources and methods, appropriate for the evaluation questions and audience
• Combine a number of different approaches that will enable learning to be captured at a hyper-local and system level and be put into action as delivery progresses.
• Consider the context including recognising the setting and connected influences contribute to the success of initiatives and approaches.
• Ask why and be critical, supporting with highlighting what may or may not be working and why.
• Will fit in with and support the wider Sport England NELP

Click to see full tender document 

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Q&A

Q. Please could you clarify your expectations regarding our team’s presence on site or in person? We appreciate that there will be a certain amount of in person consultation with relevant stakeholders and meetings with your team to arrange, but we would like to understand whether there is scope for remote working or hybrid engagement, as members of our team are based across different locations.

A. Yes, there is scope for remote working. We would be keen to understand what a typical weekly commitment might look like but agree that a hybrid approach makes sense, working remotely where in person consultation and meetings aren’t needed.

Q. The tender documents note that we must “propose Service Levels in our tender response.” Please could you clarify what is meant by “Service Levels” in this context, and whether you have specific metrics, standards, or examples that should be used?

A. This refers to the applicant setting out clear standards and metrics that define the expected level of service. Examples could include staff level commitment and availability or response times. These details help us understand what level of service we can expect from your team.

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Q.  From the spec, we anticipate that much of the work in the development phase, will be to develop the evaluation framework (TOC, key indicators of success, key question areas, identify stakeholders etc), and then to work with Yorkshire Sport and partners in identifying and engaging the community. Is this correct?

A. Yes, that’s correct. This will be led by the Kirklees Place Partnership, of which YSF is a key partner.

Q. The evaluation of this piece of work in the development phase seems to be more about to what extent is Yorkshire Sport and Kirklees in the best shape to understand the barriers facing the communities and to develop a strategy for improving access to and engagement in physical activity.  Is this correct?

A. Yes, it’s about understanding how ready the Kirklees Place Partnership (including YSF) is to tackle these barriers and shape the right approach.

Q. Do you envisage funding any community groups to develop their capacity in the development phase?

A. Yes, we plan to fund some community groups to help them build capacity and strengthen local engagement.

Q. The ten conditions that you have included in the spec that are considered to be important for talking inequalities and physical activity, do you expect the evaluation to help develop evidence as to how well these are being met over the duration of the award?

A. Yes, the evaluation should cover all ten conditions, with focus depending on where our resources are targeted.

Q. The System Maturing Matrix for Place Based System Approaches to Physical Activity Inequalities is also a frame that can be used to ‘measure’ how well your activities are tackling inequalities.  This is a complex framework.  To what extent are you expecting the evaluation will engage in this measurement index? 

A. The evaluator should take part in the system maturity matrix work, supporting Kirklees to broaden involvement and guide how it’s best completed and used.