Deep sector expertise & technology-driven quality improvement

SDN has a close, longstanding partnership with Mesma – quality assurance experts who provide online software, tools and in-depth support for UK providers. SDN and Mesma bring together a unique blend of strengths to form a powerful alliance. At the heart of this collaboration is a shared commitment to helping providers achieve excellence in quality improvement and compliance.

Our partnership, combine deep sector expertise in education, workforce development and employment support services. Organisations work with us to achieve excellence in delivery for learners and job seekers. We help them to navigate, with confidence, the changeable demands of the sectors.

Seamless and streamlined: The breadth and depth of our solutions mean you don’t have to shop around for specialist support, freeing you up to focus on improving outcomes.
Gain confidence: Our experience becomes your expertise.
Achieve more: You can mix and match relevant, adaptable, and results-driven solutions to advance excellence across every aspect of your organisation.

Diagnosis

With our combined expertise, knowledge and experience we quickly pinpoint your challenges and opportunities. Whether identifying gaps in quality improvement, compliance or delivery models, our specialist experience guarantees a structured evaluation process.

Solutions

We create practical, results-focused solutions, giving you the right mix of resources and guidance to make lasting improvements. We’ll build a tailored package that can combine consultancy, CPD, and software to align with your goals and deliver the best value for your budget

Implementation

Effective change takes more than great ideas. We work alongside your team, offering hands-on guidance to embed best practices and secure long-term impact. You can also add the Mesma software to track progress, refine your approach, and make lasting improvements.

How we support you together

  • Launch, adapt & improve your provision
  • Strategy & planning
  • Leadership & management
  • Staff Training & CPD
  • Tailored to your organisational needs

  • Quality & Inspection
  • Funding & Compliance
  • Safeguarding & Prevent
  • Curriculum Design & Delivery
  • Coaching & Mentoring

  • Evaluation support
  • Development
  • Improvement processes
  • Tools & resources
  • Reduce administrative burden

  • Current trends
  • Policy changes
  • Regulatory news
  • Quality and compliance strategies
  • CPD opportunities

Tailored consultancy

SDN and Mesma have a comprehensive and complimentary consultancy offer.

SDN specialise in apprenticeships, technical education and workforce development. The SDN team is at the forefront across all aspects of delivery, from strategy to compliance, governance to end-point assessment.

Mesma specialises in quality assurance and improvement in further education and employment support. 100% of the organisations that have engaged with Mesma’s consultancy support go on to achieve Good or Outstanding inspection grades. Mesma software is used across the sector to underpin robust quality improvement practices.

1000+ organisations have already worked with SDN and Mesma, many on a repeat basis, through trusted relationships. From leadership and strategy, compliance and curriculum design, to employer engagement and teaching, learning and assessment – all our support is impartial, practical and delivered by top-quality specialists. We are agile teams drawing together leading experts from education and skills. We deploy our team to make sure you are supported by the best.

We can help you:

  • Establish robust compliance and audit systems
  • Develop curriculum and delivery materials for new standards
  • Design robust initial and formative assessments, and progress reviews
  • Prepare apprentices for the gateway and end-point assessment

We can help you:

  • Train front-line staff and managers for their changing roles
  • Develop effective business development and marketing approaches
  • Improve the quality of your provision
  • Set up and become an approved apprenticeship provider

Visit our ‘contact us’ page to get in touch, speak to one of our sector experts and find out more about how we can help your organisation achieve excellence.

Quality & Inspection webinars & workshops

Delivered by industry-leading specialists, SDN-Mesma CPD is intensely practical, giving you the insights, tools and examples you need to drive improvements in your role and organisation.

Take a look at some of our most popular sessions below, or visit our events page for the full range of support.

We offer both online sessions and in-house delivery – a bespoke version for your organisation with content tailored to suit your needs. If you have a group of individuals interested, we can offer discounted group tickets for some of our event – it’s a great option to make sure your team are all on the same page.

“I have attended a lot of webinar training sessions and this was by far one of the best ones. Very engaging and informative.”

“Excellent training. Thanks to those in the background who make it all work. Great teams at SDN & Mesma. Highly recommend your training!”

– Webinar attendees

Mesma quality assurance software

The Mesma software platform provides industry-leading quality assurance and improvement management for education and employment services. Its features support evaluation, development, and improvement processes while reducing administrative burden. Find out more about this world-class quality assurance software on the Mesma website.

Evaluate

Coordinate, produce and link your self-assessment report and deep dive enquiries more quickly and easily than ever before.

Build a richer picture of quality that informs confident, timely decision-making. Anticipate where support for quality improvement is needed, faster.

Popular features​:

  • Benchmarking to chosen standards
  • Clear insights and analytics
  • Bank of enquiry templates developed by QA specialists

Don’t simply collect periodic QA data through the same channels – widen the net, involve more colleagues, and use it to improve.

Cut the time you spend on administration of quality assurance activity by half.

Develop

Give your colleagues the capability and confidence to become their best and give their best.

Develop supports collaborative, trusted and developmental observations of practice in any format including learning walks, peer support and personal reflection.

Popular features​:

  • Template builder and template library
  • Dashboards for practitioners and observers
  • Auto-scheduling activity

Develop makes light work of creating, coordinating and analysing observational activity. Your focus can be on sharing good practice and support where needed.

Improve

A core part of Mesma Quality Assurance Software. Comes with Evaluate and Develop

Drives your quality improvement plans to deliver better results, faster. With clear oversight and accountability.

Popular features​:

  • Links to self-evaluation and deep dive enquiries
  • Monitors progress and impact
  • User reminder notifications

Improve is a whole organisation collaborative approach to improvement planning. It allows you to allocate and manage ownership for improvement activity with people across your organisation. You can easily set deadlines, report on progress and capture the desired & actual impact.

Resources

A core part of Mesma Quality Assurance Software. Comes with Evaluate and Develop.

Users can now access the first collections within the Resources drawer in the main menu

Popular features​:

  • Exclusive resources to advance excellence in quality assurance and improvement
  • Collections cover various aspects of quality assurance and improvement
  • Supports personal development and colleague engagement

Users can now access the first collections within the Resources drawer in the main menu.

Resources is part of the Mesma roadmap to supercharge clarity and confidence in quality assurance and improvement. These developments include new features, AI enhancement, as well as launching the not-for-profit Quality Professionals Awards.

Library

A core part of Mesma Quality Assurance Software. Comes with Evaluate and Develop

All your quality management evidence and documents can be securely stored and managed in one central place. Your library helps you manage relevant reports, policies, quality assurance processes and reference files simply and easily. Access from key locations throughout the platform and link to the relevant places to ensure that your quality management practices are well evidenced.

Popular features​:

  • Create your filing structure to suit your organisation
  • Allocate the relevant permissions to the right people
  • Link the relevant documents to the right areas

Library is provided as part of the package for all Mesma platform users. It allows your users to link various evidence sources to multiple key questions within your self-assessment report and as evidence in observations and thematic reviews. Library is provided as part of the package for all Mesma platform users. It allows your users to link various evidence sources to multiple key questions within your self-assessment report and as evidence in observations and thematic reviews.

Find out more about the Mesma Software Platform

Online community for quality and compliance professionals

Mesma and SDN have joined forces to create a brand-new Community for quality and compliance professionals on WhatsApp. You’ll get weekly updates (usually on a Wednesday) from the SDN-Mesma team of specialists. We will also share the best of our many years of experience so you can apply tried and tested strategies to boost your quality and compliance practices.

We will share:

  • Current trends
  • Policy changes
  • Regulatory news
  • Quality and compliance strategies
  • CPD opportunities
  • & more directly to your phone!

Join the community

Quality Professional Awards

The Quality Professional Awards, founded by Mesma, honour the outstanding contributions made by quality improvement practitioners and leaders in further education and employability. These are the people who play a critical role working alongside delivery teams to pave the way for a bright future for learners and job seekers. In an era where both sectors continue to define and support personal and societal success, the pursuit of quality improvement has never been more important.

These awards celebrate the individuals and teams whose unwavering commitment to quality and compliance has made a significant impact towards achieving their organisation’s ambitions. Mesma’s aim in creating the awards is to elevate the status of quality assurance and compliance as a rewarding career path and demonstrate the professionalism of the many people in these roles who make a difference to our sectors.

Take a look at the awards ceremony and lucky winners from 2024, and find out how you can get involved in the upcoming QPA in 2025.

Meet your team of experts

Louise specialises in change leadership continuous improvement, quality assurance and governance. She is the Chief Executive Officer of Mesma, and has previously held senior positions in education, after holding management positions in multinational businesses. She has worked extensively with colleges, universities and independent training providers to enhance the quality of provision. Louise holds a number of education governance roles and is both a T Level and Apprenticeship Ambassador. She has a Masters in Educational Leadership.

Lou Doyle

Strategic Associate

Carole has been working in the FE sector for over 20 years. She has a strong track record in quality standards and supporting organisations to improve. As part of this, she has extensive experience of Ofsted inspections and has managed a number of large-scale projects. Carole is also the co-owner of Mesma (self-assessment and improvement software).

Carole Loader

Senior Associate

David has over 20 years’ experience in FE as a specialist consultant in funding compliance and quality. Having represented some of the leading stakeholders in the sector, including at Director-Level, David’s compliance consultancy Lockhart-Hawkins has supported providers of all scale in developing compliant, effective and efficient evidence systems and policy including leading on apprenticeship reforms and funding risk management.

David Lockhart-Hawkins

Strategic Associate