Principles for Practice

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

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

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