Funding or commissioning a helpline?

If you are responsible for giving grants to helplines, or if you have a contract with another agency to deliver a helpline on your behalf, there are a number of ways that THA can help you.

Procurement
As helpline specialists, we can work with you to develop and review a service specification and invitation to tender (ITT) and to assess ITT responses.

Our previous clients for this type of work include the Department of Health and the Legal Services Commission.

Contract management
If you are looking for a partner to help you manage and improve the performance for one or more helpline contracts, THA’s sector knowledge and experience allows us to work constructively with your supplier to help them monitor and achieve realistic targets.

Our previous clients for this type of work include Department for Education.  

Independent evaluation
Looking for an outside view about the helpline(s) that you fund or commission? We can help you to appraise the service in a number of ways.

  • Strategic review, looking at the current specification, outcomes, performance and partnerships of the helpline and recommending action to increase its chances of surviving and thriving in the future. Our previous clients for the type of work include the Home Office.
  • User surveys, recruiting and interviewing users about their experience of the helpline and the effect that it has had on their knowledge, skills and confidence. Our clients for this type of work include the Department of Education.
  • Undertaking a broad and standardised review of the helpline using the new Helplines Standard. Our clients here include the Department of Education.

What to do next
Our rates start at £550 + VAT per day (funders or commissioners in the voluntary sector who are THA members) plus expenses.

Or, if you have a very specific issue on which you would like some support, we offer a 45-minute mini-consultancy from £99 + VAT (voluntary sector THA members).

For more information, contact us on 0300 330 7777 or by email at info@helplines.org.uk