SOS Children´s Villages International is currently undertaking the development of the project “Training Professionals Working with Children in Care” under the framework of the European Commission´s Fundamental Rights Programme concerning the rights of the Child. Based upon the already developed “Securing Children´s Rights – A Guide for Professionals Working in Alternative Care," SOS Children´s Villages will undertake the development and rolling out of training modules aimed at care professionals to adopt a child rights based approach to their practice with children and young people in Alternative Care. The project, titled Capacity Building of Care Professionals, is funded through the European Commissions Fundamental Rights Framework Programme on the Rights of the Child. The project has activities in 8 partner countries Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, France, Hungary, Italy, Latvia and Romania. A number of key project activities have been undertaken to date with the objective to build the capacity of care professionals, to engage key national and European stakeholders and raise awareness on the need to sustain such trainings.
In 2015 a number of key activities and deliverables have already been completed, including the setting up of the European Steering Group (ESG), and the setting up of the European Expert Group (EEG) who have already developed the training handbook Realising Children’s Rights – A Training Manual for Care Professionals working with Children in Alternative Care. Together with project partners, SOS Children's Villages has already undertaken a training of trainer’s event in Budapest. This event trained 19 trainers from partner countries. At national level, National Steering Groups (NSGs) have been created, which consist of partners at national level who hold the responsibility of undertaking project activities relating to training, awareness raising and developing national recommendations on how to ensure the sustainability of the project’s aim after the project will have ended. In spring 2016, trainees and trainers are expected to undergo a post-training assessment. The post training assessment will evaluate, to the greatest possible extent, the quality of work done during the trainings and its influence on the work of care professionals. It is not meant to evaluate the impact of the training or of the project. A report should be compiled based on the outcomes of the post training assessment in the 8 partner countries. This report should be used for three further purposes: Support the development of the national and European recommendations, expected to be developed by mid September 2016 (the national ones) and mid October 2016 (the European ones); Contribute to the final evaluation of the project (to be done in December 2015); and Provide relevant information for potential follow up actions of reviewing the training materials.
Profile and Tasks of the Consultant: The consultant will take on the role of “technical expert” in collecting and analysing data, as well as developing recommendations deriving from the Post Training Assessment. The consultant should have an expert level of knowledge on the topics of Children’s Rights and Child Protection; Children and young people in alternative care; and Research and evaluation. The Consultant should have a good knowledge on the topics of social service workforce development; training and capacity building of professionals in the field of child care and protection.
In cooperation with the project management staff, at international and national level, the consultant will:
- Input into the development of focus group guidelines, with particular attention paid to the questions and line of inquiry sought from focus group participants
- Analyse the information coming out of the questionnaires, focus groups and other relevant sources of information (e.g. the evaluation filled in by trainees and trainers after each of the training)
- Based on the data analysis, develop a report to be presented at the end of project Conference in Paris in November 2016
- Develop a Framework and Process which all 8 participant countries can apply in order to be able to derive national recommendations on how to mainstream child rights in the practice of care professionals as well as guidelines for implementation of those recommendations
- Based on the national recommendations, derive European recommendations on the same topic
Estimate of the total number of days to complete this assignment: 24 days
Interested experts should submit their Curriculum Vitae together with proof of having undertaken similar work in the desired areas of interest, including expectations for remuneration to undertake the assignment. All submissions should be sent electronically by the 26th of February 2016 to, Project Assistant, Aleksandra Grassl Aleksandra.grassl@sos-kd.org.
