1. Summary of Outcomes of Approval & Monitoring Activities 2005-2006 Barbara Bradley Professional Officer NIPEC

2. Introduction NIPEC’s quality assurance activities are based on NMC standards for course approval and monitoring.. and DHSSPS Framework for monitoring of non NMC regulated education and practice development (piloted during 2005-2006)

3. Approval of NMC regulated programmes 2005-2006 The Beeches In-service Education Consortium Return to Midwifery Practice Programme University Of Ulster Pre-registration nursing programme (adult and mental health) Queen’s University Belfast Pre-registration nursing programme (adult, mental health, learning disability & children’s) Queen’s University Belfast Overseas nurses’ programme

4. Monitoring NMC regulated programmes 2005-2006 Monitoring activities’ four key themes The importance of clinical placement experience Ongoing developments in partnership-working between education & service Increased involvement of service provider expertise to programme planning and delivery Taking account of the education providers’ own annual reporting processes

5. Monitoring of NMC regulated programmes 2005-2006 NIPEC samples a range of programmes in each monitoring year to meet NMC and DHSSPS requirements QUB programmes Pre-reg midwifery (three year & shortened) Lecturer / Practice Educator programme UU programmes Community programmes Lecturer & Practice Educator Programmes

6. NIPEC monitoring activities includes Analysis of education providers’ annual reports Attendance at course committees Meetings / discussions with external examiners Meetings with students Meetings with lecturers and course directors Meetings with senior managers (education) Meetings with senior service managers, ward managers and mentors Attendance at education / service liaison meetings Observation of sample of practice placement audits Analysis of course documentation

7. Summary of outcomes of monitoring NMC regulated programmes 2005-2006 From data reviewed, evidence was generally positive and found that the programmes monitored continued to meet NMC requirements. External examiners reported favourably on all the programmes monitored. Service and education partners continue to collaborate in programme development and delivery

8. NIPEC Expert Education Partners Partners recruited from learning disability, mental health, children’s, midwifery and adult nursing Training is ongoing All partners were involved with NIPEC officers in approval and monitoring activities during 2005-2006 The additional expertise provided by partner input is invaluable Recruitment of new expert education partners in 2007

9. NMC programme monitoring 2005-2006: Areas for enhancement and action Variability in the quality of mentorship support was identified as an ongoing issue Link lecturer support in some pre-reg community placements requires further strengthening Some midwife mentors in new placement areas experienced some difficulties; resolved by ongoing support from link lecturers Involvement with link supervisors of midwives has been strengthened

10. Practice Learning A sample of practice placement audits were observed across nursing and midwifery settings Link lecturer systems continue to develop More consistent input from service mangers observed Variation continues in the numbers of students similar clinical areas support Mentorship preparation and support requires ongoing development

11. QA of DHSSPS commissioned programmes / practice development activities (piloting of the new system during 2005-2006) New monitoring tool / system developed Piloting involved monitoring one programme from each education provider and a practice development activity in one HPSS Trust Evaluation of the process resulted in some minor changes to the monitoring tool but confirmed the tool to be valid and reliable Full implementation of the process will commence in 2006-2007

12. Conclusion NIPEC continues to develop systems to meet NMC programme approval and monitoring requirements New developments to monitor non NMC / DHSSPS commissioned programmes and activities Ongoing developments in the NIPEC Expert Education Partners’ input into QA activities NIPEC continues to support service and education providers with regard to the implementation of the new NMC standards to support learning and assessment in practice