DESMOND Quality Development Study

Principle Investigator: Professor Melanie Davies

Other key staff: Professor Kamlesh Khunti, Sue Cradock, Heather Daly, Bernie Stribling, Lorraine Martin-Stacey, Jacqui Troughton, Marian Carey and Helen Eberol

Partners involved: University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust and the University of Leicester

Summary: The QD process for the current DESMOND ND programme consists of internal and external processes. The internal processes are focused on the educator undertaking personal and peer reflection on their practice following the delivery of a set number of programmes. The external component starts with the initial training support and is followed by the application of external review tools (at predetermined times).

The DESMOND observation sheet (DOS) is a paper-based assessment tool designed to assess the extent to which the content and process indicators of observable educator behaviours are being delivered. The DESMOND Observational Tool (DOT) is a quantitative measure of who is talking at 10 second intervals and is designed to assess the interaction of the educator and the participants of the group.

A review of the QD processes over the past year has raised concerns about the objectivity of the QD tools, the quality of the feedback from ‘assessors’ and the system’s cost effectiveness.

Aims:
The QD team as part of CLAHRC sought to answer the following questions

• Are the current assessment tools reliable in terms of capturing the educator processes?
• If the tools are used by ‘experts’ to view the same programme, do they get the same results?
• What are the views of the assessors about the QD process and how would it need to change?
• What are the challenges in operating such a such a system from the perspective of the educators and coordinators
• What are the costs associated with the current QD approach?

Further information: If you would like to be involved in this study, or for more information, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it