Consultant to Development of a Manual/Guidelines on Inclusion Water Safety and Survival Swimming

Background

Each year thousands of Thai children die from drowning, even though drowning is a preventable cause of death. One of the most vulnerable groups of children prone to drowning are children with disabilities. Under the recent Save the Children project on Drowning Prevention Education for Children, a number of students with disabilities could not fully participate in the water safety and survival swimming training and activities provided by their schools. These children were faced with many challenges during the training, as they needed adapted support. The survival swimming teachers did not have a special education background to teach them effectively. These challenges made the Children with disabilities lose the opportunity to learn from the water safety and survival swimming activities, leaving them unable to help themselves when they encounter a drowning situation.

The Department of Mental Health, Ministry of Public Health has raised concerns that there are more than 800,000 children with psychiatric illness: autism, attention deficit hyperactive disorder, mental delays, and learning disorders who are highly prone to drowning. They need more supervision from their caregivers, including educators. (https://th.rajanukul.go.th/preview-3097.html). The mortality rates of drowned children with disabilities are still unknown as there is a lack of data. However, most drowning cases of children reported in the news are children with autism and/or children with other mental disorders.

On 29 January 2020, the Inclusive Survival Swimming Working Group, composed of 14 organisations, including the Special Education Bureau (SEB), agreed on the need to develop a teaching manual/guidelines for special education teachers (and parents and caregivers) on inclusive water safety and survival swimming to effectively support the water safety learning needs of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or with Intellectual Disability (ID). Save the Children, in collaboration with the SEB, Office of the Basic Education Commission (OBEC), is seeking a consultant to develop a teaching manual/guidelines for special education teachers (and parents or caregivers) on inclusive water safety and survival swimming to support the learning needs of children with ASD and children with ID.

Scope of the Consultancy

In close consultation and coordination with Save the Children and SEB, the consultant will:

1. Conduct literature review and draft an inclusive water safety guideline for supporting children with ASD/ID characteristics
2. Facilitate workshops for teachers, children with ASD/ID and their parents or caregivers to contribute in the development of the water safety visual learning and survival swimming manual/guideline for children with ASD/ID
3. Develop an inclusive survival swimming manual that will be used by water safety and survival swimming instructors for teaching children with ASD/ID
4. Lead and facilitate the testing of the manual/guidelines with support from SEB/OBEC and the Inclusive Survival Swimming Working Group
5. Submit the tested final document to be adopted in the SEB/OBEC education system.

Scope of Study:

1. Literature review on children with ASD/ID characteristics and the existing training on water safety and survival swimming, and other available training materials developed or previously used in Thailand
2. Study of special education teachers and ASD/ID caregivers to finalize the teaching design and the content, including IEC visual material of the water safety and survival swimming curriculum which should also include Child Safeguarding and Child Protection
3. Study of Pilot testing with special education teachers, survival swimming instructors and ASD/ID caregivers on the visual water safety and survival swimming curriculum

Timeframe & Deliverable Outputs

The consultancy service period for the whole assignment is 70 working days during July 2020 to February 2021

Deliverable/Output	Timeframe
Develop an operational plan/workplan detailing how the work will be done and how the objectives specified above will be met	July 2020 (This can be first 1-3 days of the consultancy)
Literature review on children with ASD/ID characteristics and the existing training on water safety and survival swimming, and other available training materials developed or previously used in Thailand	July 2020 (5 days)
Develop the content of this curriculum (first draft) and submit to Save the Children and SEB/OBEC for review and feedback	August 2020 (10 days)
Facilitate consultation workshops with special education teachers and ASD/ID caregivers to finalize the teaching design and the content, including IEC visual material of the water safety and survival swimming curriculum which should also include Child Safeguarding and Child Protection	September-October 2020 (20 days)
Present second draft manual/guideline to the Inclusive Survival Swimming Working Group on the structure of inclusive water safety and survival swimming curriculum	October 2020 (10 days)
Pilot testing with special education teachers, survival swimming instructors and ASD/ID caregivers on the visual water safety and survival swimming curriculum	November-December 2020 (10 days)
Present third draft (after testing and adapting to fit with the context) to the Inclusive Survival Swimming Working Group for final recommendations and suggestions	January 2021 (5 days)
Finalize the inclusive water safety and survival swimming for ASD/ID manual/guideline	February 2021 (10 days)

 

Reporting and Documentation

The consultant will be supervised and overseen by Save the Children’s Child Health & Safety Programme Coordinator and will be required to work with SEB specialists, special education teachers, ASD/ID caregivers, survival swimming instructors, and children with ASD/ID.

Participation and contribution to the meetings with the team and the members of Inclusive Survival Swimming Working Group is required for improving the water safety and survival swimming for ASD/ID manual/guideline and for recording best practices. 

Place of work: Bangkok

Consultant qualifications:

•             Thai Nationality

•             At least master’s degree in special education or other related discipline

•             Minimum of 10 years of work experience in special education and other relevant fields

•             Authored curriculum/manual/guidelines related to children with ASD/ID (Request for sample works of the applicant)

•             Thai and English language proficiency

•             Ability to work within strict deadlines

Required Documents:

•             Quotation with proposal rate.

•             Expression of Interest

•             CV of the applicant (or agency profile, if applicable)

•             Proposed implementation plan and detailed budget

•             Sample works

•             References

Closing date for submission:

15 June 2020 at 17.00 pm.

Interested candidates please submit the required documents via  THA_Procurement_BKK@savethechildren.org

And for further enquiries – please contact admin.thailand@savethechildren.org

“We need to keep children safe so our selection process, which includes rigorous background checks, reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse”

Contact : admin.thailand@savethechildren.org

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ที่ปรึกษา / Consultant