Press Release

Issued on: Monday 21 May. For immediate release.
Issued by: National Schizophrenia Fellowship (Scotland)

Launch of User-Led Evaluation Guide

A new Guide to User Led Evaluations of Supported Employment Services is being launched at a national conference on Monday 21 May in Edinburgh.

Entitled 'The Next Step', it is a practical guide to planning and carrying out evaluation of supported employment services, and was produced by NSF (Scotland) Employment Support Team in Dumfries and Galloway.

The Guide shows how people who use or participate in supported employment services can learn to take the lead role in designing and conducting the evaluation. It also shows ways in which lessons from an evaluation can be used to improve services and can feed into good practice by other services.

According to Jan Hansen, Employment Services Manager in Dumfries and Galloway, the evaluation threw up some unexpected benefits. ' Not only did this evaluation model teach service users how to implement an evaluation exercise, but it also gave them the opportunity to define the criteria by which the service would be assessed. This resulted in a much stronger sense of ownership of the exercise by the service users, and several participants said that taking part in the evaluation had helped improve their self-esteem, confidence and skills.'

The Guide is being promoted at the national conference of the Scottish Community Care Forum on 21 May in Edinburgh. The Conference title is 'Messages to Take Away�Good Practice in User and Carer Involvement', an appropriate theme for the dissemination of the Guide.

The Next Step is free of charge, and as well as being promoted at the Conference will be promoted to voluntary and statutory sector providers in the supported employment field by way of an Introductory leaflet. Copies can be ordered from the NSF (Scotland) national office, and orders should include a �5.00 payment per copy to cover postage, packaging and handling costs.

For further information: email: [email protected]

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