Blog: Ayrshire College on monitoring & evaluation
Our Student Mental Health Agreement (SMHA) is an important document that outlines the terms and expectations for mental health support here at Ayrshire College. Our SMHA is designed to ensure that mental health needs are met effectively and that there is a clear understanding between parties about the goals, resources, and responsibilities involved. However, like any agreement, it’s essential to continuously monitor and evaluate its effectiveness to ensure it’s achieving its intended outcomes, therefore we felt it important to embed monitoring and evaluating in our SMHA by including it as an outcome.
Why is monitoring and evaluation so important for our Ayrshire College SMHA?
Regular monitoring ensures that all parties who have signed the SMHA are adhering to the terms of the SMHA. This includes following through on agreed actions. The mental health needs of our students can change over time, regular evaluation helps in adapting the agreement to reflect these changes, ensuring that the agreement remains relevant and effective. Monitoring and evaluation help us in assessing whether the mental health strategies and interventions outlined in the agreement are working. This allows for adjustments to improve outcomes. Regular assessments can help identify any gaps or issues in the agreement that may need to be addressed to better support the mental health needs of our students.
What are the key components of our monitoring and evaluation process?
We review whether the objectives outlined in the agreement are being met.
- Are the milestones being achieved?
- Are the goals still relevant?
We evaluate the effectiveness of the mental health support offered to students.
- Are the support activities delivering the desired results?
- Are there any new interventions that could be beneficial?
We gather feedback from all parties involved.
- Ayrshire College students
- College staff
- Mental health professionals
This feedback is crucial for understanding the impact of the agreement and identifying areas for improvement.
We assess whether all parties are complying with the terms of the agreement and we have clear measures within our SMHA which can be used to evaluate progress.
Practical Steps for Effective Monitoring and Evaluation
At Ayrshire College we ensure our SMHA has a clear governance structure underpinning it, with clear lines of accountability. For Ayrshire College, this is our Promoting Wellbeing Group – a cross-college working group made up of staff, students and stakeholders from the NHS and third sector. This group feeds up to our strategic VIEW Group (Values, Inclusion, Equality and Wellbeing).
It is important to define clear, measurable outcomes and indicators of success in your SMHA, we set up regular review opportunities or check-ins to assess progress and use various data collection methods to gather relevant information, capturing both qualitative and quantitative data. It is important that all relevant stakeholders are involved in the evaluation process. This will include students, staff and stakeholders.
Be prepared to make adjustments to your agreement based on the findings of the evaluation. This may involve modifying objectives, changing actions, or addressing any identified gaps. We keep records of evaluations through the Promoting Wellbeing Group administration. Documentation helps track progress over time and provides a basis for any future revisions to the agreement.
Monitoring and evaluating our SMHA is an ongoing process that requires attention, commitment, and collaboration. By systematically assessing the effectiveness of our agreement, we can ensure that the support provided here at Ayrshire College remains relevant and impactful.
Read more about the Student Mental Health Agreement Project.
