An evaluation of the Islington community education provider network super hub

‘Super Hubs’ are novel initiatives which have arisen in order to aid various workforce developments and service improvements for promoting creative thinking and practice. The Islington Super Hub is a workstream of the Islington Community Education Provider Network (CEPN) which aids the learning and development of community nursing and new apprenticeships (Health Education North Central and East London 2015). In this paper we report on the findings from a realist evaluation of the Islington Super Hub (Pawson and Tilley 1997) using data from a range of provider organisations. The following areas of direct relevance to the Super Hub’s activity will be analysed: i) the factors enabling nursing staff to transfer between sectors; ii) the variety of current preceptorship and induction programmes supporting newly registered nurses moving into community roles; iii) the current links between primary/secondary care for strengthening inter-sectoral working and the core training needed for hospital-based nurses to support patient journeys; iv) the practice learning experiences of specialist practice community nurses, such as General Practice Nurses, District Nurses and Health Visitors as well as non-specialist practitioners and health care assistants; v) the current approaches for sustaining practice-based learning for enhanced learning/development; vi) the current approaches to multi-professional education across localities which contribute to establishing robust community focussed multi-professional collaborative educational approaches; vii) the availability of student nurse placements in community settings and the associated mentorship capacity. Our analysis concludes with critical reflection on the relative merits of the Super Hub’s programme of learning and development which aims to promote creative thought/practice and the contextual factors surrounding the newly emerging apprenticeship roles.