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The British Journal of Developmental Disabilities Vol. 47, Part 2, JULY 2001, No. 93, pp. 86-97 AN AUDIT APPROACH TO EVALUATING INDIVIDUAL PLANNING Roberta Radcliffe and John R. Hegarty Background: Individual planning (IP) is an essential component of service-delivery for people with learning disabilities. The literature contains many discussions and evaluations of individual planning, but there is no agreement on the best method of evaluating it. This article proposes that service-providers should routinely audit their individual planning system against their own objectives for it - by conducting a self-audit. Aim: The purpose of this study was to produce and test procedures for the self-audit of the IP component of a learning disability service. Method: The manager of a service for adolescents and adults was interviewed, and documents were analysed, in order to produce a set of objectives for the IP component of the service. Records of IP meetings were then examined to assess whether the objectives had been achieved. Staff interviews and personal observation were used to check the validity of these documents as a measure of how IP meetings had been conducted. Results: The self-audit procedure showed what the service’s IP objectives were, which of them were being achieved in practice, and which were not. Cross-checking the results obtained from documentary analyses with staff interviews and personal observation showed that the documentary data were a valid indicator of what had taken place in IP meetings. Conclusions: The study illustrates the effectiveness of a simple audit procedure for clarifying the objectives of individual planning and for showing whether or not they are achieved in practice. The procedure could easily be followed by other service providers. Using such a self-audit procedure could enhance the effectiveness of the IP component of a learning disability service.
*J. R. Hegarty, BA, PhD. Director of Learning Disability Studies, Department of Psychology, Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire ST5 5BG, UK Tel: 0044 (0)1782 583386 Fax: 0044 (0)1782 583387 E-mail: j.r.hegarty@keele.a.c.uk Roberta Radcliffe, B.Sc. Graduate Student at Keele University and assistant psychologist at Autism Care (UK) Ltd., Heath Farm, Scopwick, Lincoln * For Correspondence |