Development and Validation of a Japanese Fidelity Scale for Supported Employment

The Individual Placement and Support (IPS) model of supported employment is an evidence based practice. Although several agencies have been trying to implement the IPS-model since 2005 in Japan, there was no tool to assess the quality. This study developed a Japanese version of the 25-item Individualized Supported Employment Fidelity Scale (J-ISEF), a new Japanese fidelity tool for supported employment based on the IPS model. A working group consisting of researchers and practitioners was formed to develop J-ISEF based on IPS-25. Some experts of the group visited the community agencies in Vermont before the development process. Twenty-six eligible agencies were identified using snowball sampling, and 14 agencies of them agreed and participated at T1. We conducted three cross-sectional surveys (T1, T2 and T3), using the new scale. The first evaluation period (T1) was between September 2013 and February 2014, the second (T2) between September 2014 and February 2015, and the third (T3) between October 2015 and February 2016. High inter-rater reliability (ICC = 0.98 for the entire scale) was confirmed from T1 data. The total score and the service subscale total were positively correlated with employment rate (P < 0.05). A new fidelity scale, J-ISEF, is developed as a quality assessment tool for evidence-based supported employment programs in Japan. The evidence for its inter-rater reliability and criterion-related validity is promising.