Request for Proposal
Request for the development of a communications training package for Directors of Adult Social Services in England
RFP – Communications training package
The purpose of this RFP is to find a partner agency or consultant who is able to design the structure and content of a communications training programme and alumni network, for our members.
A communications training programme is one of the key elements of ADASS’s new communications and influencing strategy. It focuses our resources to build sustained cross-party, political backing for the long-term transformation of adult social care outlined in Time to Act – the roadmap for transforming care and support ADASS published in April 2023.
Key to the strategy is working with allies to build a movement that will work over the next five to 10 years to change public thinking and understanding of adult social care.
This is based on the hypothesis that politicians largely only provide sustained backing to significant change and investment that matters to voters, and which they’re confident will succeed. At the moment social care is viewed by the majority of the public either as something that doesn’t directly matter to them or if it does, as a failing public service that nobody is willing to improve.
Our comms and influencing theory of change identifies two key assets with ADASS can use to help change this public mindset about social care: our members (their expertise, knowledge, networks and influence) and our allies in and beyond the social care sector.
This project focuses on developing a training programme and post-training alumni network that will empower ADASS members (Directors of Adult Social Services, Deputy Directors and Principal Social Workers) and their teams to share a common language to describe the impact and value they have every day on the people they support, and the wider impact that has in their community. It aims to empower them to become practitioner leaders within the movement we’re building, helping to change the story of social care in their communities and across the country through their involvement in national campaigns.