Principles for Practice
This section sets out core principles that underpin effective collaborative evaluations between health and social care providers and higher education institutions.
- Shared Principles
Genuine commitment to collaborative partnerships from a base of shared values embracing our common human experience - Service Principles
Principles for practice (health and social care providers) - Higher Education Principles
Principles for practice (higher education providers)
Shared Principles for Academics and Health and Social Care Providers
Any evaluation requires:
- Evaluation is part of a personal, professional and organisational commitment to Quality Improvement
- Recognising the incremental nature of ‘quality improvement’
- Balance across available resources e.g. time, money, expertise
- Mutual respect for the expertise of others e.g. clinical, academic, professional, lived experience
- Independence from the organisations perspective e.g. avoiding conflicts of interest
- Appropriate engagement of service users and carers e.g. in design, delivery, review
- A range of beneficiaries perspectives e.g. organisational, staff, learners, service users, carers, community
- Developing ethical practice e.g. choices, decision-making
- Avoiding undue restrictions on the ability to publish.
- Being clear about commitment and communicating this; in the right way, at the right time
- Recognising that the necessary expertise is not just in ‘one organisation’ – working in collaboration helps use the best skills
- Sensitivity in reporting findings; awareness that findings may not mirror expectation
- The publication of findings should be based on principles of co-production – co-publishing to the standards of SQUIRE
- Seeing the findings of evaluation as an opportunity for shared learning; there will be things that do not go well and it is important that learning emerges from every experience
Principles for practice for health and social care providers
From a health and social care perspective evaluation requires:
- Everyone recognising that ‘quality improvement is part of role / requirement
- Thinking about evaluation when an intervention is being planned
- Understanding evaluation in context
- A commitment to participate in evaluation
- Establishing a clear evaluation question
- Building and sustaining positive relationships
- Balancing the quality of evaluation with available resources
- Understanding needs, expectations and priorities
- Thinking about the longer-term relationship with academic partners
- Commitment to support staff in engaging in quality improvement building capacity, capability and confidence
- A willingness to acknowledge finding (building a culture of openness)
- Demonstrating an organisational commitment to collaboration in quality improvement
- Thinking through the implications of engaging in quality improvement for staff, patients and the public
- Establishing a process for a shared exploration of the evaluation findings, making constructive recommendations
- A collaborative approach to agreeing next steps
Principles for practice for higher education providers
From an education provider perspective collaborative evaluation requires:
- Understanding of evaluation in the changing context of health and social care
- Building and sustaining positive relationships
- Understanding organisational expectations for evaluation
- Aligning academic and needs and priorities
- Tailoring evaluation approaches that are relevant to available expertise and resource
- Utilising evaluation approaches that ensure a fair representation of the question / intervention