The majority of educators plan to deliver courses to groups of four to six participants. As with face to face DAFNE there are some course drop outs so centres are recruiting one or two people more than they expect to attend, for example recruit six and expect four to attend. Many educators feel that groups of six are manageable while others feel that four is a large enough group. This may relate to educator experience of course delivery.

There is around a 50:50 split between delivering Remote DAFNE calls alone or delivering them with another educator.

Educators who deliver to larger groups tend to run the courses with two educators and sometimes extend all the calls to 3.5 hours to accommodate the diary discussions with a larger group. Those who deliver alone tend to have smaller groups of 4 participants and delivery is achievable within the timings outlined.

There are pros and cons to delivering alone or with a colleague. Many educators report that delivering alone is not a problem and suits their current staffing situation. Others report it is challenging but achievable with some additional support outside the calls, for example a de-brief after a call or a contact for answers to questions they are not sure about. Again, this may be related to an educator’s level of experience of Remote DAFNE. The number of courses delivered varied between no courses yet and 13 courses.

Feedback from those delivering jointly was that delivering with someone else takes the pressure off when caseloads are busy and allows for peer support and learning from each other, particularly when supporting newly trained colleagues. Educators felt that it’s less stressful if you can focus on your specialist area, one educator can make notes or complete the paperwork, pick up on non-verbal cues or help with IT issues while the other is delivering, and it gives the group a break from one voice.

One centre fed back that it is their policy to deliver as a pair where one educator is a non-medical prescriber. Having two educators allocated to a course can help to keep courses running if one educator has to isolate or is off sick and it shares out the preparation and admin tasks.