Evaluation of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Grants in English Further Education

The Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Grants, managed by the Skills Funding Agency (the Agency) and the Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS) aimed to support innovative and sustainable projects which developed the capacity of the sector to meet the public sector Equality Duty. This report evaluates three years of the EDI Grants, 2010-2011 (EDI-2), 2011-2012 (EDI-3) and 2012-2013 (EDI-4). The Grants were open to organisations in England whose primary function was to provide further education and training, and well as to National Careers Service prime providers

Exploring Preceptorship Programmes: Implications for Future Design

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Taylor, L. M., Eost‐Telling, C. L. & Ellerton, A. (2018). Exploring Preceptorship Programmes: Implications for Future Design. Journal of Clinical Nursing, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.14714. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving• Aims and objectives: To review and analyse current preceptorship programmes within NHS trusts in the North West of England. To evaluate the pedagogic rigour of the programme and suggest recommendations to inform the future design of preceptorship programmes. • Background: Enhancing the retention of newly qualified staff is of particular importance given that the journey from a new registrant to a competent healthcare professional poses a number of challenges, for both the individual staff member and organisations. • Design: A mixed methods evaluative approach was employed, using online questionnaires and content analysis of preceptorship documentation. • Methods: Forty-one NHS trusts across the North West region employing newly qualified nurses were invited to participate in the completion of an online questionnaire. In addition, preceptorship programme documentation was requested for inclusion in the content analysis. This study utilised the SQUIRE (Standards for Quality Improvement Reporting Excellence) guidelines. • Results: The response rate for the questionnaire was 56.1% (n=23). Eighteen trusts (43.9%) forwarded their programme documentation. Findings highlighted the wide variation in preceptorship programmes across the geographical footprint. • Conclusions: There were instances of outstanding preceptorship and preceptorship programmes where there was a clear link between the strategic vision, i.e., trust policy, and its delivery, i.e. preceptorship offering. There was no one framework that would universally meet the needs of all trusts, yet there are key components which should be included in all preceptorship programmes. Therefore, we would encourage innovation and creativity in preceptorship programmes, cognisant of local context. Relevance to clinical practice: The significant shortage of nursing staff in England is an ongoing issue. Recruitment and retention are key to ameliorating the shortfall, and formal support mechanisms like preceptorship, can improve the retention of newly qualified staff. Understanding current preceptorship programmes is an important first step in establishing the fundamental building blocks of successful preceptorship programmes and enabling the sharing of exemplary good practice across organisations

Inclusive learning, diversity and nurse education

Students embarking on undergraduate nursing programmes face many challenges. They must adapt to raised academic expectations, learn a bewildering new range of skills, values and behaviours, and begin to negotiate complex and emotionally demanding practice environments and relationships. In addition to practicalities such as moving away from support networks, constrained finances and perhaps being in a work environment for the first time, nursing students must incorporate changes into their personal identities and form a professional sense of self. How well students are supported to respond to these expectations via their own networks and through engagement and connection with their new profession and programme can shape their potential for achievement. The nursing profession advocates for non-discriminatory inclusive care for all, as well as advocating for a wider diversity of care professionals. This means actively promoting inclusion in programme recruitment and development strategies. However, these aims are hindered by student attrition which is a significant issue throughout higher education in Britain including nurse education. Data published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) in 2016/17 indicates that students facing multiple disadvantage are more likely to leave university in their first year than their peers. As well as being a clear example of social injustice, unequal completion rates reduce the projected workforce and disrupt supply and planning. Discounting gender disparities, nursing has a strong record for recruiting and training a broad range of students, but completion rates emerge as lower than for other subjects. An influencing factor here may be that as the professional demands of nursing have intensified, so has the academic rigour required to deliver corresponding competency requirements. Nurse educators need to be creative and flexible to enable students to engage with complex learning which ranges from higher order thinking skills, and philosophical and ethical understandings, to intricate physical tasks. This creates challenges for inclusive curriculum design as well as needing to effectively facilitate it, it must be accessible to a diverse body of nursing students who may have strengths in terms of life experience but who present across the range of academic competence and confidence. Inclusive learning and teaching is advocated as best practice in providing a response to these issues. However, inclusivity is a contested concept, with varied uptake and it sits within a higher education context of financial restrictions, larger class sizes and a push for more online provision. What is clear though is that academic outcomes across student groups are unacceptably varied with significant attainment gaps for those with multiple disadvantages. A key question for nurse educators is how best to develop an evidence base for the pedagogical approaches that are most likely to enable the completion of successful student nurse journeys for all, regardless of their starting point