APs during COVID, Thriving or Surviving? By Colin Forrest

New! ‘Advanced Practitioners during COVID, Thriving or Surviving?’ Research Report now published.

This research was commissioned by the Education and Training Foundation in March 2021 to explore how the COVID pandemic affected the ways in which Advanced Practitioners (APs) were working and, particularly, if they were ‘thriving or surviving’. The touchconsulting Ltd team of Colin Forrest, Joss Kang, Fraser Mycroft, Lou Mycroft and Sammy White drew on the experience of over 160 advanced practitioners in further education settings to source the data that underpinned the research.

The research was grounded in an ethics of care and used both qualitative and quantitative methods. From the complex data that emerged three conditions appeared as essential to APs’ success: strong communities of practice for both social and professional purposes, organisational cultures centred on shared values and, a deliberately curated, virtual architecture. The relationships between these areas are shown in the figure below.

These themes led us to five overarching findings from the research:

• Pan organisational communities strengthened collaboration and reduced isolation during the pandemic
• Deliberately curated virtual spaces were important in fostering a sense of care and professional dialogue between APs
• The positive resolution of tensions/dualities between different spaces that APs inhabit was important in securing their identity and purpose.
• In many instances supportive organisational cultures were strengthened during the pandemic. This was not a given and required significant investment by those supporting APs.
• Trust emerged as a critical value for APs to thrive during the pandemic.

The research would not have been possible without the engagement of so many APs during the most difficult of times. The team are also grateful to colleagues at the Research Colleges Group for feedback as the research evolved.

Advanced Practitioners during COVID, Thriving or Surviving.’ Research Report by Colin Forrest, Joss Kang, Fraser Mycroft, Lou Mycroft and Sammy White.

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