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Job description

Terms of Reference 

Scoping review for funding opportunities on children and young people’s nutrition, health and wellbeing, in the context of UK food insecurity 

Background  

Comic Relief is committed to ensuring that all children and young people have the opportunity to thrive, regardless of their circumstances. As part of this commitment, we aim to support reliable access to nutritious food where children live, learn, and play - improving their health, development, and overall wellbeing. 

Child food insecurity in the UK is a growing concern, driven by rising living costs, wages and benefit inadequacy, and increasing pressures on families. Today, over 2.1 million children are food insecure in the UK, with 1 in 9 households struggling to access enough nutritious food. 

While Free School Meals (FSM) have been widely discussed and studied, and are known to provide support to children, young people and their families, the picture beyond lunchtime is less well understood. Many children rely on breakfast clubs, after-school meal provision, school and community food programmes, and holiday food schemes to access sufficient and nutritious food throughout the day and year. Despite their importance, evidence of their impact on children’s health and wellbeing, and on family resilience is still quite limited. 

Comic Relief and Sainsbury’s are therefore exploring a UK funding opportunity on improving children’s health and wellbeing, specifically within the broader context of child food insecurity. This opportunity will build on our long-standing commitment to addressing poverty and inequalities affecting children.  

Findings from this process will shape Comic Relief and Sainsbury’s priorities for 2027 and beyond. With limited funding, we have to make informed choices, and this work will help ensure that future investments meaningfully improve outcomes for children’s health and wellbeing.  

Scoping Review 

The overall objective aim of this scoping review is to help Comic Relief and Sainsbury’s make informed decisions on future funding priorities in this area. Specifically, the work should aim to: 

1. Summarise how UK food insecurity is affecting children and young people, and their families’ resilience. 

1. Explore provision models that tackle the issue of child food insecurity, with a particular focus on food in and around the school day. 

1. Identify examples of good practice and innovative models. 

1. Map key actors delivering work aligned with our objectives. 

1. Provide recommendations that inform Comic Relief’s future funding.  

1. The current state of play  

• The scale and nature of child food insecurity across the UK, including any groups of children and young people disproportionately affected, through a review of existing literature, including grey literature  

• Summary on the impact of food insecurity on children’s physical and mental health, learning outcomes and wellbeing. 

• Responses from government and local authorities.  

• Ongoing policy debates and developments.  

2. Provision models 

Identify and explore current provision models relating to food in and around the school day, including but not limited to: 

• Breakfast clubs 

• Lunch provision (including FSM) 

• After-school meals and wraparound care 

• School pantries and food clubs/food banks or community meals based in or near to schools 

• Holiday hunger and holiday food and activities programmes 

• Nutritional quality and standards across these provisions 

In particular, we would like to identify other initiatives worth exploring that we have not funded yet but that may further the objectives of our programme, beyond the ones listed above.  

3. Examples of good practice  

• Effective or innovative models of children’s food, health and nutrition and wellbeing support 

• Community-led organisations or approaches enhancing children and young people’s health and wellbeing 

• Programmes that integrate food, wellbeing and family support 

• Approaches that evidence impact on nutritional value, children and young people’s outcomes or wider household resilience 

This should include a summary of the added value of charitable organisations, including where they complement or fill gaps in statutory provision.  

4. Mapping of key actors 

Identify organisations already delivering strong work that fits Comic Relief’s interests and priorities. These may include: 

• National organisations focused on children and young people’s health, nutrition, food insecurity or poverty 

• Organisations delivering relevant support, such as breakfast club, after-school or holiday food programmes, or food provision as part of wider children and families support work 

• Intermediary organisations funding smaller organisations delivering this type of work 

• Research bodies, think tanks or evidence generating organisations focused on children and young people’s nutrition, health and wellbeing 

• Advocacy organisations focused on children’s nutrition, health and wellbeing. 

The mapping should: 

• Note each organisation’s focus, strengths, and target demographic 

• Highlight promising models, approaches, or interventions 

• Identify gaps or groups underserved by current provision 

• Include organisations that fit Comic Relief’s eligibility criteria (criteria will be provided) 

5. Recommendations 

Provide clear, actionable recommendation on options for Comic Relief and Sainsbury’s future funding offer, including: 

• Priority themes or areas where Comic Relief’s support could add most value 

• Types of organisations or interventions we should consider funding 

• Potential geographic, demographic or thematic focus areas 

• Potential risks or considerations 

• A list of organisations that fit Comic Relief’s criteria 

Methodology 

This scoping review will draw on a combination of desk research and interviews with key informants and stakeholders to build a clear understanding of the landscape of food provision for children and young people.  

The desk research will review existing evidence, policy analyses, programme evaluations, and publicly available data on breakfast provision, after‑school meals, community food programmes, holiday food schemes, and other initiatives that support children’s access to nutritious food where they live, learn and play.  

This will be complemented by semi‑structured interviews with practitioners, programme leads, policy experts, school‑ and community‑based providers, researchers, and organisations working on child food insecurity. These conversations will help surface lived experience, implementation challenges, emerging gaps, and opportunities for strengthening children and young people’s health and wellbeing through improved food access.  

Timeline and deliverables 

We expect to appoint the successful tenderer in August 2026, to commence work immediately. We expect the contract and all associated deliverables to come to completion by the end of October 2026.   

Comic Relief is therefore seeking a consultant based in the UK to deliver the following:  

• Scoping report for internal purposes with an update on good practice on children's food provision, and approaches that focus on their health and wellbeing, the added value of civil society responses, a mapping of key actors, and recommendations of organisations to consider funding.  

• Summary report for external purposes to inform other key players working in this field (approx. 10 pages). The shorter report will present findings on the current state of play, existing provision models and examples of good practice identified by the research.  

• Final presentation to key Comic Relief staff to discuss findings and recommendations. 

We estimate this work to take 15 – 20 days in total, including discussions with Comic Relief staff. 

The scoping report will need to be submitted to Comic Relief at the end of October, with at least two rounds of feedback, and the consultant(s) should be available to meet with Comic Relief staff on an ongoing basis to discuss findings as they emerge.  

Budget 

The budget available for this piece of work is GBP 15,000 excluding VAT (if applicable) to cover all fees and expenses. Agreed expenses can be claimed against receipts. Value for money will be considered when analysing the tenders, however for us this means the most effective and efficient use of the available budget and not necessarily the lowest cost tender, so we urge tenderers to propose how they would use all the available budget. 

Applicant’s Profile 

We are looking for a consultant/team with knowledge of food insecurity and/or related social issues contributing to inequality and poverty in the UK. This could be as a practitioner, academic, think tank, advocate and/or policy advisor, for example. The selected consultant should be able to clearly communicate information, findings and recommendations in concise, engaging and accessible (i.e. without using jargon) ways to a variety of audiences and stakeholders. Crucially, they should also be able to exercise critical analysis and judgement to interpret evidence and draw insights, ensuring that recommendations are strategic, moving beyond descriptive relaying of information.  

Other information to note 

The scoping exercise does not entitle organisations contacted or cited in the report to funding or preferential treatment.

Application information

Application process 

If you are interested in applying for this work, please respond to this Terms of Reference with the following (max. four pages of A4 plus annexes): 

• A detailed explanation of how you fulfil the applicant’s profile 

• A full description of your proposed approach and methodology/ies 

• If bidding as a team, a summary of the team composition, roles and responsibilities, including how you intend to coordinate and collaborate effectively across the team, and who the lead contact is 

• The name, job title, organisation and email address of two independent referees, including a brief description of your relationship with them/the work you carried out for them and when (we will not contact your referees unless we intend to contract you/your team, and we will ask for your permission before doing so) 

Please also submit the following as Annexes (not included in the four-page limit): 

1. A budget for the work that clearly shows figures for day rates for all team members (where applicable), expenses, VAT (where applicable), etc. 
2. A workplan/timeline, including key milestones and a breakdown of the expected  allocation of days 
3. CVs of all team members (max. 2 pages per person) 
4. Two examples of relevant previous work by the applicant/s (ideally of a comparable nature/scale) 

Applications must be submitted by 12.00 midnight (UK time) on Thursday 25 June 2026 to Sofia Bianchini S.bianchini@comicrelief.com with the subject “Application – UK Children’s Health and Wellbeing Scoping Review”. Any applications received after this time will not be considered. If you have any questions in relation to your submission or to any requirements of this tender, please e-mail Sofia Bianchini at s.bianchini@comicrelief.com.  

Shortlisted applicants will be invited to discuss their proposals in more detail at our discretion. 

Processing your data 

Please let us know if you would like us to keep your personal details in our database for future reference. We will process your personal data according to the UK data protection law (the General Data Protection Regulation). If you want to know more about how we will use it, please refer to our Privacy Notice on our website. 

More information can be found here: https://comicrelief.app.box.com/file/2262153703200?s=gdkcdgbxcdz5zwddvbr0y7zracu84uz6 

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