Seeking responses from individuals or consultancies with experience working with organisations in the migration sector. Ideally consultants will be specialists in anti-racist approaches and/ or safety, building resilience.
Project Title:
Building Resilience Co-design - an Insight to Action Project
1. Introduction & Background
Refugee Action invites tenders from experienced consultants or consultancies to support a small number of grassroots and lived experience-led* organisations build safety and resilience and support the co-design of an open-source resource aimed at advancing safety/ resilience and/ or anti-racist practice across the refugee and wider migrant support sector.
Racial injustice lies at the core of the hostility faced by people seeking asylum in the UK. It operates on three levels. First, it is embedded in the very structures, policies, and narratives that shape the refugee protection system. Second, it is evident in the everyday experiences of racist abuse and discrimination. Thirdly, it is evident in behaviours and standards of white supremacy that centre whiteness and harm racialised people and communities disproportionately. Yet, conversations around asylum and refugee protection often fail to address the role racism plays. UK border and immigration policies are shaped by racial bias and must be recognised as matters of racial justice. Our stance is clear: the treatment of asylum seekers and refugees and, by extension, all migrant communities, reflects racial injustice in action. If we are to build a just and equitable society in the UK, we must confront and challenge this reality. With over 800 organisations working across the migration sector, there is both the capacity and responsibility to centre racial justice in this work.
This project is rooted in insights gathered through our Insight Hub and responds to a need within the sector for accessible, sustainable anti-racism support (See bulletin 28). Specialist training and support is invaluable but can be costly and therefore difficult to access for some organisations without specific budgets to allocate to the work. We are seeking to pilot a collaborative, co-designed project that centres the expertise and experience of some of those organisations.
The Insight Hub, part of the Insight to Action programme, is a collaborative platform that strengthens the refugee and migration sector by sharing learning, responding to crises, and embedding lived experience and anti-racism. It connects organisations, campaigners, and funders, with a growing focus on grassroots and lived-experience-led groups supporting migrant communities.
We run regular surveys to track trends and identify sector-wide challenges. In response, we develop resources and training through our Collective Support initiatives, helping organisations adapt and strengthen their work. The Building Resilience codesign project is part of this support, shaped by Insight Hub findings—particularly Bulletin 28—which highlighted barriers such as racism, rising hostility, limited capacity, and funding pressures that undermine organisational resilience. As one of Insight to Action’s annual milestones, this project will create an open resource to help the sector build resilience and embed anti-racism.
Collaboration is at the heart of Insight to Action. Supported by an advisory group, the programme team works to minimise power imbalances, communicate openly and honestly, and remain responsive to changing needs. We actively seek feedback from the organisations who take part in our surveys to ensure the programme continues to reflect their realities.
2. Project Context
- Racial injustice underpins the policies, systems, and narratives affecting people seeking asylum and refuge in the UK.
- Thirty-five percent of organisations secured funding for anti-racism or community cohesion work over the past year. Key gaps include staff capacity, leadership support, time, and affordable training. Many organisations also face political and local resistance, making it harder to address racism openly.
- There’s a strong call for deeper community engagement, more lived experience leadership, and practical support—such as clearer policies, better collaboration infrastructure, and guidance from trusted organisations like HOPE Not Hate and collated information from Migration Exchange.
Through this tender, we seek an experienced consultant/ consultancy to help harness commitment to change into practical, shareable outputs that can drive sustainable change across the sector alongside recommendations for embedding safe and resilient practices.
3. About the Project
Aims
- To convene 3-4 grassroots/ lived experience organisations to identify a focus area of work for each organisation
- To support each organisation through 3 x one-to-one sessions over a 2 month period supporting development of work.
- To co-design an output/ outputs with organisations that supports an element of practical, sustainable resilience building or/ and anti-racist practice.
- To share the learning and final output with over 700 Insight Hub members and the wider migration sector
Key Objectives
- Convene a co-design session with 3-4 Lived Experience Led organisations to identify key areas of work to support resilience/ safety building/ and/ or embedding anti-racist practices.
- Support each organisation with 3-4 one-to-one sessions over a period of 2-3 months to develop pieces of work.
- Document the process and journeys of the organisations to present in a collective debrief at the end of the project.
- Convene a debrief to share learning and discuss potential outputs
- Co-lead creation of a practical, meaningful, and sustainable final resource
- Ensure the process and outputs are accessible, inclusive, and rooted in equity.
4. Scope of Work
The selected consultant will be responsible for:
- Project Shaping and Onboarding (October 2025):
- Advise project management group** on project approach and process design
- Advise project management group** on project approach and process design
- Delivery (November, December, January 2025, 2026):
- Conduct desk research to establish open source materials already in circulation
- Convene co-design workshop
- Support organisation through one-to-one sessions (3-4 sessions each)
- Document each organisations journey and pull out insights
- Convene final session pulling together learning, insights, and best practice with the group
- Ensure psychological safety and inclusive participation
- Output Development (January - February 2026):
- Develop final learnings into a practical open-source resource
- Provide recommendations for wider sector use and future actions
- Develop final learnings into a practical open-source resource
- Evaluation & Learning (February 2026):
- Debrief with the project management group**
- Support/ review creation of other sector-facing learning materials or reports for Insight to Action
- Debrief with the project management group**
5. Deliverables
All of the work will be online
- Participation in project planning meetings (led by Insight to Action Team)
- Conduct desk research on available open-source materials alongside the Insight to Action team
- Design of initial co-design session (3–4 organisations)
- 3-4 one-to-one sessions with 3-4 Lived Experience led/ grassroots organisations
- Design of final group workshop
- Content lead for open-source resource (will have access to web designer/ visual designer)
- Written Summary report of project process (no more than 4 sides of A4)
- Debrief and feedback session with the Insight Hub team and strategic management group
6. Consultant Profile
We are looking for a consultant or consultancy who meets the following criteria:
Essential
- Proven expertise in organisational resilience building and/ or anti-racism and racial justice work
- Strong facilitation skills, particularly with marginalised and grassroots groups
- Strong supervision and support skills
- Experience working in or with the migration, asylum, or social justice sectors
- Understanding of and experience in co-design, participatory processes, and Lived Experience led approaches
- Commitment to power-sharing, equity, and trauma-informed practice
- Experience synthesizing learning and writing reports/ resource creation
Desirable:
- Experience creating accessible and inclusive learning resources
- Knowledge of the UK refugee/migration support landscape
7. Budget & Timeframe
- Budget: £7000 inclusive of VAT, travel, preparation and delivery costs
- Timeline:
- Consultant appointed: October 2025
- Project delivery: November 2025 to January 2026
- Final output and evaluation: February 2026
- Consultant appointed: October 2025
8. Tender Submission
To apply, please submit:
- A short proposal (max 2 pages) outlining:
- Your approach to the work
- Relevant experience
- Suggested methods or ideas for the co-design process
- Your approach to the work
- CV(s) of lead consultant(s)
- Budget breakdown (inclusive of VAT and all expenses)
- Two references or examples of similar work
Deadline for submissions:
Wednesday 24th September (midnight)
Submit to:
Pascale Gayford and Angham Abdullah
pascaleg@refugee-action.org.uk and anghama@refugee-action.org.uk
9. Selection Criteria and Process
Tenders will be reviewed by the project management group (Pascale, Angham, Yusuf and Aneel)
Tenders will be assessed against the following:
Criteria
Relevant experience, expertise and skills - 30%
Quality of proposed approach- 30%
Understanding of sector and context - 10%
Value for money - 10%
Commitment to equity and inclusion and being from a lived experience background - 20%
10. Contact for Questions
If you have any questions about this tender, please contact:
Pascale Gayford (Insight and Development Manager) pascaleg@refugee-action.org.ukand Angham Abdullah (Insight Hub Research Officer) anghama@refugee-action.org.uk
11. Notes
*What do we mean by lived experience-led?
By lived experience–led we mean organisations in which people with lived experience of migration or forced migration play a substantive role in governance and leadership, are meaningfully represented across staff and volunteer teams, and where migrant communities are embedded in decision-making processes that guide the organisation’s strategy and activities.
**Who is in the Project Management Group?
This is made up of members of the Insight to Action team (Pascale Gayford - Insight and Development Manager, Angham Abdullah - Research Officer, Mohamed Omar - Head of Experts by Experience and Partnerships) and members of the Insight to Action Advisory Board (Yusuf Ciftci - Director of EBE Employment Initiative and Aneel Singh Bhopal - Deputy CEO of the West of Scotland Regional Equality Council).
*Blog photo by Brigitte Elsner on Unsplash
