Brief for external evaluation of A Cinema Near You

(Photo courtesy of Screen Argyll)

Evaluation of A Cinema Near You

A contract for independent evaluation of this 2 year programme to address gaps in cinema provision across Scotland. Deadline for applicants 12 noon on Monday 3rd February 2020.

Background
RSS is the national agency responsible for developing access to the cinema experience in under- provided communities throughout Scotland; we aim to enable more people, in more places, to share great screen experiences.

We believe the best way to enjoy film is in a cinema environment and this is borne out by the demand RSS experiences for support in establishing community cinemas and by the demand for the Screen Machine – the mobile cinema serving over 40 locations in the Highlands and Islands. We also believe that the cinema experience has a great deal to contribute to such areas as town centre regeneration, community development, and personal wellbeing.

To this end, in 2016 RSS collaborated with the Social Value Lab on research which resulted in the report Your Cinema, Your Community. Since then, RSS has been building a series of links with national agencies involved in these areas, including:

• SURF,
• Senscot
• Scotland’s Towns Partnership
• Development Trusts Association Scotland,
• Coalfields Regeneration Trust,
• BEMIS,
• Voluntary Health Scotland, and others, to promote understanding of how cinema and screen provision can be a powerful tool in addressing wider social agendas.

In 2018 the Scottish Government made an additional £10million p.a. available for film development, and set up the new Screen Scotland partnership, to focus on all aspects of the screen sector. At the start of 2019 Screen Scotland then approached Regional Screen Scotland and Film Hub Scotland to invite a proposal to address significant gaps in screen provision across Scotland, both geographic and demographic.

A Cinema Near You
In April 2019 Creative Scotland approved £500,000 of National Lottery funding for a two year development programme, to be led by Regional Screen Scotland, in partnership with Film Hub Scotland and supported by Screen Scotland (which together form an ‘Operational Group’ for the programme). This new programme was publicly launched during the Edinburgh International Film Festival at the end of June 2019, as A Cinema Near You (known hereafter as CNY).

CNY is intended to take a collaborative approach to cultural funding. Potential applicants of all kinds are invited to complete an initial, online, Expression of Interest, no matter how early a stage their ideas are at. This triggers an initial discussion, by phone and email, with RSS staff, and at an appropriate stage the applicants will be invited to complete a three page Application Questionnaire. After review by the CNY Operational Group, the applicant is then formally invited on to the CNY Programme, and will work with the RSS team in preparing a Costed Plan of activities.

Plans which need no more than £5,000 of funding can be approved by the Operational Group. Plans seeking more than £5,000, or any request which would take the total funding for any one programme participant to more than £5,000, will be considered by an independent Assessment Panel made up of an officer of Screen Scotland, a member of the Board of RSS, and a representative of Scotland’s Towns Partnership. Members of RSS and FHS will offer support through this application process, will make a formal recommendation to the Assessment Panel, and will continue to work with the Programme Participant thereafter on the delivery of their Plan.

By January 2020 RSS had received almost 70 Expressions of Interest from locations within more than two thirds of Scotland’s 32 Local Authority areas. Of special note was the interest being shown in developing regional screen networks. RSS has already helped to develop such networks (based on the existing NEATFlicks agency in North East Scotland) in:

• Dumfries and Galloway
• Argyll and Bute
• Orkney
• Scottish Borders
• Fife

Now the possibility is emerging of another 5-6 such networks, with the possible outcome that, by the end of the CNY programme in 2021, much of Scotland, outside the major cities, could be covered by such regional screen networks. This possibility makes issues of both initial capacity building and longer term sustainability much more feasible.

Outcomes and Outputs
RSS and Film Hub Scotland had proposed initial targets for CNY in terms of numbers of:

• new fulltime cinemas
• multi-use venues starting part-time DCP screenings
• new DVD-based groups
• new networks

Even on the level of engagement to date, six months into the two year programme, those targets are likely to be exceeded. At the start of the programme, RSS had an informal ‘hit list’ of ten Local Authority areas where there was the closest equivalence between low levels of cinema and screen provision, and high levels of multiple deprivation. As of November 2019, there are now applicants from almost all of those LA areas. The rapid uptake of the CNY programme, and the particular emphasis on regional networks, led to the Operational Group agreeing a revised budget and delivery structure at the end of September 2019: tangible evidence that CNY is an evolving and self-reflective programme, adapting to circumstances as they become evident.

Evaluation
The CNY Operational Group has agreed that the programme should have three levels of evaluation:

1. RSS and FHS’s own evaluation, based on target outputs, and on a high level appreciation of areas of need and opportunity.
2. Self-evaluation by each CNY Programme Participant: not just how many were involved, and what the demographic mix was, but also how the activities helped the Participant to work towards its own targets and objectives, defined under the ‘triple bottom line’ headings of cultural, social and economic impacts. Our assumption is that many Programme Participants will be better informed than we can be about the specific needs, challenges and opportunities within their community or sector.
3. Independent evaluation of the CNY programme as a whole. This is an experimental, collaborative approach within the field of cultural funding (though it has parallels with some aspects of community development funding and support). By the end of the programme (all activities should be completed by June 2021), will CNY have met its own objectives, and, equally important, will it have met the hopes and objectives of the sectors it aimed to work with, and will the CNY method have been seen as effective, and a possible model for other forms of cultural support?

Key Tasks of the Evaluation
We are recruiting the independent evaluator at this relatively early stage in the CNY Programme as we wish them to: both benefit from any interim findings or views as the Programme goes forward, and to ensure that the final report is informed by an understanding of how the Programme was developed, and evolved.

• Advise RSS and FHS on undertaking items 1 and 2, above: their own evaluation, and self- evaluation by Programme Participants, and review the results
• Consider how the CNY Programme has met the aims of Screen Scotland, Regional Screen Scotland and Film Hub Scotland through examining their strategic documents and through interviewing key personnel
• Provide measures of social, environmental and economic impacts created by the programme
• Survey all those who submitted an initial Expression of Interest (whether or not they went on to become CNY Programme Participants; their initial contact with the Programme may have addressed their needs or directed them to another source of assistance)
• Survey a range of partner organisations (such as those listed above) for their perceptions on the impact of the Programme on their areas of interest
• Review the CNY process and consider its effectiveness and fitness for purpose.

Proposal Submission Requirements
This should be an e-document of not more than four A4 pages, covering the following key areas:

• Proposed methodology
• Details of who would be working on the project
• Breakdown of the required number of days’ work and the daily rate
• Fee for work on the project, including expenses and VAT
• Examples of comparable work undertaken
• Contact details for one referee who is familiar with your work in a comparable field.

Your submission should be emailed to robert@regionalscreenscotland.org no later than 12 noon on Monday 3rd February 2020.

Timetable and Structure
Contract to be issued, and initial briefing meeting to be held, in February 2020, and the work to be undertaken between then and June 2021, with the final report submitted by the end of July 2021. It is anticipated that the draft report will be presented to a meeting of the CNY Operational Group. The contract will be managed by Robert Livingston as CEO of RSS (robert@regionalscreenscotland.org )

Contract & Payment Details
There is a budget of £10,000 for this contract, inclusive of VAT. 50% of the fee will be paid at the start of the commission, and the remaining 50% on completion and submission of the evaluation report.Your proposed budget should include VAT (where appropriate) as well as travelling and other expenses directly incurred as a result of this project.

You can download a PDF of this document here.