The Individual Placement and Support Fidelity Scale is an excellent tool for:
- Designing an Individual Placement and Support service
- Determining the extent to which an existing employment service is an IPS service
- Identifying the potential causes of a poorly performing employment service
You can use the IPS fidelity scale to self-assess your service. Self-assessment is a good start for establishing which areas you need to improve on to become an IPS service.
If you are scoring good to high fidelity, you may want to consider an Independent fidelity review to confirm your scoring. An Independent fidelity review assures Trusts, providers and commissioners of the effectiveness of your organisation and delivery of IPS.
The fidelity scale is the translation of the 8 principles into 25 items that a service can be scored against. The higher the score, the greater the quality of the IPS service and the higher the expected job outcomes.
Fidelity Reviews
Centre for Mental Health offer independent fidelity reviews of IPS services.
Self-assessment and regular review of action plans are excellent methods for continuously improving IPS services. However, most commissioners now require providers to assure the quality of IPS services through independent review. An Independent Fidelity Review by Centre for Mental Health will confirm the scoring of your service according to the IPS fidelity scale.
By working with Centre for Mental Health as an independent partner, you will have access to a team of experts who bring up-to-date knowledge of national and international best practice and can benchmark your services against similar provision across the UK.
During an independent fidelity review by the Centre, we will:
- Examine documentary evidence
- Interview clinicians, service users, employment specialists, team leaders and NHS senior staff
- Substantiate your score against the IPS fidelity scale
- Assure the quality of the organisation and delivery of your IPS service
Self assess your service prior to our review
Once you are scoring a good to high fidelity, you may want Centre for Mental Health to independently review your service. An independent fidelity review assures Trusts, Providers and Commissioners of the effectiveness of your organisation and delivery of IPS.
You can download the UK version of the IPS fidelity scale in its entirety via our resources page https://www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/ips-resources/
