Introduction
Welsh National Opera (WNO) shares the experience of live opera with audiences and communities across Wales and England – in theatres, in neighbourhoods and online.
We believe in the power of opera to transform lives and our mission is to bring the drama and raw emotion of opera to as wide an audience as possible. Building on the Company’s 77-year history and our roots in community singing, we sit at the heart of music-making in Wales and play a valuable role in the communities we serve in England. As a national company with international status, WNO hopes to open up the world of opera to everyone.
Our Values of Innovation, Participation, Creativity, Inclusivity and Diversity are at the heart of our culture. We are committed to engaging our artists, arts workers, and audiences, and have ongoing commitments including equality, diversity, and inclusion, environmental sustainability, and Cymraeg. Looking to tomorrow, WNO is responding to a changing world with a long-term plan to build sustainable practice across the organisation, creating a resilient company which anchors opera’s potential in longevity, legacy and relevance.
WNO employs over 220 people ranging from artists, craftspeople, technicians and business support – based at our state-of-the-art home, Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff, and beyond. At the heart of WNO sit our two full-time ensembles, WNO Chorus and WNO Orchestra, of world-class musicians. WNO’s Programmes and Engagement department comprises of one Director of Programmes and Engagement, six Producers, one Education and Training Manager and three Project Assistants.
WNO Programmes and Engagement
Programmes and Engagement plays a key role in fulfilling the Company’s purpose in igniting a new generation of opera lovers, by working with communities across Wales and England – particularly those who may not have encountered opera before or have access to the arts.
In the spirit of collaboration, we create projects with participants from young families through to people in retirement and everyone in between. With over 75 different projects running weekly every year, we put engagement and inclusion at the forefront of what we do, so audiences can experience opera not just in theatres but across a variety of different spaces and unusual platforms. We are constantly finding new ways and partners to ensure the art form continues to stay relevant to the world in which we live.
Our community engagement programme has been established for over 35 years. It’s an extensive intergenerational offer with the intention of bringing opera and the benefits of singing and performing into communities and working with people who wouldn’t usually have access to taking part in the arts. The programme works across four strands of activity; Wellness and Sanctuary which includes our work in health and with refugees and asylum seekers; and Teach and Inspire which includes our work in schools, with young performers and intergenerational groups.
Arts and Health Programme (Wellness with WNO)
Developed through our Programme and Engagement team, our Arts and Health strategy has grown exponentially over the last five years in accordance with demand for arts intervention from the health services in Wales. WNO’s Programmes & Engagement department have been delivering this growing programme across different healthcare environments and community settings in Wales. As communities across the country try to navigate their way through a society adapting to a changing world and challenges such as the climate emergency, COVID recovery, increasing mental health challenges and impacts of social isolation and social inequality, now more than ever we intend to be proactive as a national arts organisation to support their needs. We know that the arts have a particularly powerful contribution to make to a healthy, connected and engaged human life, and we are focusing on this area as a major part of our programme as we continue to emerge from the longer-term effects of the pandemic.
In 2021, Welsh National Opera were approached by three Welsh health boards to design a collaborative programme which meets the needs of Long COVID patients in Wales, with the hope to support physical rehabilitation by offering tools to support breathlessness, and help towards restoring mental health and wellbeing and reducing anxiety. The Wellness with WNO programme is now fully established and is offered in partnership with all seven NHS health boards across Wales. The programme uses singing and breathing techniques used by professional opera singers to support participants who are experiencing symptoms of breathlessness, anxiety and fatigue. It runs for six weeks at a time via Zoom, and groups are run in both Welsh and English language. Following the six-week course, participants are then given resources to continue their practice independently and are also offered the opportunity to join longer-term drop-in sessions.
So far, we have captured significant data from a range of stakeholders via quantitative and qualitative evaluation across two and a half years of the programme’s delivery. These measured outcomes and captured case studies in relation to breath control, connection and isolation, anxiety, confidence, and learning and awareness of respiratory health, among others, in collaboration with an independent evaluator.
Purpose of the Brief:
Supported by the learning we have made over the past three years, WNO are now embarking on the next phase of the programme’s development, which is designed to reach more participants, while deepening our existing relationships with previous contributors.
Welsh National Opera is inviting proposals from suitably qualified organisations or individuals to conduct a comprehensive Social Return on Investment (SROI) analysis for our Wellness with WNO programme.
Scope:
The selected organisation or individual will be responsible for:
1. Mapping out the outcomes (social, environmental, and economic) generated by the project, using pre-existing evaluation data and evidence alongside some emerging data where relevant, from the ongoing programme.
2. Including a theory of change to show the patient pathway from NHS services to self management with support, to self-management.
3. Quantifying and monetising the identified outcomes, illustrating the level of value for participants of the programme and the NHS services who refer them.
4. Calculating the Social Return on Investment (SROI) ratio.
5. Providing recommendations for maximising social value and improving cost effectiveness.
6. Compiling a comprehensive SROI report documenting the methodology, findings, and recommendations.
The key findings of the report will be shared with stakeholders and funders to help to inform future development and investment. It will also help to inform future planning, processes and programming of the Wellness with WNO strand. We also want to understand the impact of the programme on WNO as an organisation, including organisational learning and how we can increase the relevance of our services across other areas of the NHS in future.
Completion & submission of final report: Approximately November / December 2024 (exact date to be agreed).
So that WNO can actively implement learning throughout the process, there will be a requirement to provide evaluation at agreed milestones throughout the duration of the analysis.
Proposal Requirements
Interested parties are requested to submit proposals that include the following:
1. A detailed outline indicating your proposed methodology for the SROI analysis (a maximum of three pages, or 5 minutes audio / video recording).
2. Qualifications and relevant experience of the organisation or individual(s), including prior experience conducting SROI analyses or similar social impact assessments. These examples will ideally include evidence of skills and knowledge relevant to the arts sector; evidence of working with a wide range of participants; evidence or approaches to working with participants for whom English is a second language; and an understanding of co-production methodology.
3. A proposed timeline for completing the SROI analysis, including key milestones and deliverables.
4. A budget breakdown, including all costs associated with conducting the analysis.
Submission Guidelines:
Proposals should be submitted electronically to April Heade (Producer) on april.heade@wno.org.uk no later than 12pm, Wednesday 3 July 2024. Late submissions will not be considered.
Short-listed candidates may be interviewed.
Fee: We invite you to provide a quote as part of your submission. Please provide a budget breakdown.
Contact Information:
For further information, please contact April Heade (Producer) on april.heade@wno.org.uk / 02920 635049.
We look forward to receiving your proposals.
Sincerely,
Welsh National Opera