Update on Regional Faculty for Advancing Practice
My name is Natalie Ruscoe and as of the 27th January 2025, I joined the Midlands team as the Regional Faculty Lead for Advancing Practice. Prior to this role I’ve worked within the Centre for Advancing Practice as the Lead Deputy Centre Lead and Programme Accreditation Lead. More recently, as the North-East and Yorkshire’s Regional Faculty Lead for Advancing Practice.
I’m a nurse by profession and my clinical background was as an Advanced Practitioner in Emergency Care. I’ve also worked as a Programme Lead for a university advanced practice programme. I’m delighted join the team and look forward to meeting you as I settle in.
Karen Swift, who worked in the team as one of our Supervision and Assessment Leads has sadly left to join the South-East Faculty. We are wishing her all the best. Karen will be greatly missed in the Midlands, but it’s good to know she’s only over the border.
Sarah Meenan, who has been the interim Faculty Lead for Advancing Practice for the past few months, remains with us as our Supervision and Assessment Lead. I’d like to thank her and the team for their warm welcome and for their support.
I look forward to working with you and thank you for your time, patience and support.
Midlands Regional Commissioning Process for Advancing Practice
As you are already aware the responsibility of commissioning for advancing practice has transferred to the Midlands Regional Faculty. As a result, we will be making some adjustments and changes to the existing processes for 2025/2026 onwards. These minor changes are to ensure continued accurate reporting, accountability, and compliance in relation to NHS England Advancing Practice funding.
To support these changes, we will be holding information sessions where we will outline the process and confirm timelines. We will then aim to open the funding window shortly after these sessions.
- Wednesday 26th February 2025 – link to register
- Thursday 6th March 2025 – link to register
The information sessions will take place for Advanced Practice Leads / Training Hub Leads / nominated points of contacts. If you are an Advanced Practice Lead, Training Hub lead or person responsible for Advancing practice within your organisation and you haven’t received information about these sessions please let us know.
Identifying and Supporting Learners Experiencing Difficulties
The Midlands Faculty recently hosted a webinar event focussing on the identification and support of learners in difficulty. We would like to thank our key speakers, Kerri Douglas, Adele Parsons, and the trainee who shared their experience.
We were joined by a trainee that described his experience on his late diagnosis of autism, dyslexia and dyspraxia. He described how this helped him to understand and accept his previous struggles with academic work. His diagnosis brought a sense of relief and enabled him to openly discuss his learning needs with his clinical supervisors and request support. He acknowledged some daily challenges he faces, including interacting with others, and taking longer to gain mastery of particular topics, and adapt to different learning environments. He described the trusting relationship he had developed with his mentors. They demonstrated compassion and patience to adapt their style of supervision for him. He emphasised the importance of psychological safety in the workplace and the ability of his mentors to provide open and timely feedback. This helps him to recognise when he might be experiencing difficulties.
Kerri Douglas is the MSc Advanced Clinical Practice Programme Lead at Keele University. She provided an overview of the role of Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) in supporting learners with additional learning needs. Kerri highlighted that specific groups of students are at particular risk. Examples included, mature students who have had breaks in academic study, those who speak English as a second language, and those with recognised or undiagnosed additional learning needs. She identified that some learners experience challenges with mastering different types of assessments which is compounded by inconsistency of assessors. She described some innovative strategies recently introduced at Keele University for helping to overcome these. These include offering a choice of different assessment options for certain modules to suit the requirements of learners. The early identification of learners at risk can facilitate an assessment of their specific learning needs. This enables reasonable adjustments to be made such as advance planning of an extension to assignment deadlines. Kerri also highlighted the importance of pastoral support including buddying systems and maintaining close monitoring from a lead.
Adele Parsons is a Senior Lecturer in Advanced Clinical Practice at the University of Lincoln and Lead for the Professional Nurse Advocate programme. She explored how models of clinical supervision can promote psychological safety in the workplace and reduce decision fatigue and paralysis. She described how Proctor’s model of supervision had been developed beyond the triad of normative, formative and restorative functions to include personal action and quality improvement. The Advocacy for Education and Quality Improvement (A-EQUIP) model of clinical supervision encompasses professional development, self-reflection, and stress management, whilst encouraging innovation in practice. The model underpins the role of the Professional Nurse Advocate and lends itself well to the multi-professional role of Advanced Practitioners with high autonomy and accountability across the four pillars of practice. This model aims to reduce stress and burnout whilst promoting job satisfaction.
An interesting question was posed to the panel regarding the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education. How this can support learners and, also, how the HEIs are adapting to this. Academic colleagues discussed how they are using this in innovative ways within classroom teaching and supporting students to prepare for assessments. The discussion continued to consider how AI can also be useful when summarising notes taken during consultation for learners with additional learning needs. They all reiterated that all submitted assessments such as assignments continue to go through rigorous processes during marking and systems abilities to identify work that is generated by AI.
Thank you to all those who attended the event and to our speakers for sharing their experiences and insights. We are looking to write some additional guidance to help supervisors prevent, identify, escalate and respond to learners experiencing difficulties. We will keep you updated as this progresses.
Midlands Advanced Practice Forum
Our next exciting event is our third regional Conference. We hope you will join us on Friday 21st March 2025 at The Studio, Birmingham for a whole-day in-person event. We will address contemporary issues for multi-professional practitioners, educators and employers.
Buy tickets for Gaining Momentum – Advancing Practice Together 2025
If you, or your organisation, wish to purchase multiple/bulk tickets for this event, please email midadpracforum@gmail.com separately and we will accommodate this, subject to availability. Otherwise, please use the link above and join us at what we promise to be an incredible in-person event.
As with all our roadshow/conference events, our goal is to bring together speakers who are experts in their field and of relevance to Advanced Practitioners in diverse care settings, to foster learning and inspiration.
This year we are hosting our conference with support from commercial sponsors to whom we are grateful for providing informative exhibits of their products and services. We continue to bring you updates from the Centre for Advancing Practice and celebrate a great working relationship with NHS England’s Midlands Regional Advanced Practice Faculty and the new faculty lead, Natalie Ruscoe.
We welcome posters to display at this event that will showcase the many facets of advanced practice across the Midlands. Please see our poster submission guidance for more information.