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TYAC Good Practice Guide Development Grants

TYAC produces Good Practice Guidance (GPG) on key areas of professional practice for health professionals working with teenagers and young adults with cancer.

We are now looking to commission further GPGs and have grants available for up to £2,000 to support professionals to produce any new GPG document. Grant funds may be used to support relevant research, backfill time, hold meetings to develop guidance etc.

Background

The aim of TYAC GPGs are to provide recommendations for good practice for health and social care and other professionals working with teenagers and young adults with cancer. The content of good practice guidance is developed according to the best available evidence, and shared experience aiming to be thorough, effective, and appropriate to the target audience, with an emphasis on the implications for national practice.

The key activities for the production of good practice guidance are:

  • Justification for the topic selection
  • Identifying and selecting the most relevant evidence from a range of sources, including published evidence and current examples of good practice
  •  Summarising the evidence
  • Critically reviewing the strengths and weaknesses of the evidence
  • Using evidence to make recommendations for good practice

We are looking to commission Good Practice Guides on new topics.

  • Current Good Practice Guides are 
    • Bereavement support for young people experiencing the death of peers
    • Pregnancy assessment and testing in teenage and young adult females
    • Physical activity
    • Transition
    • Fertility
    • Social media tools for community
  • Good Practice Guides currently in development are
    • Sleep
    • Communication
    • Treatment adherence
    • Ambulatory care
  • We will consider any relevant new topic, although we would have a particular interest in Good Practice Guides that focus on improving TYA participation in research, and that focus on diversity, equality and inclusion, for example supporting patients from ethnic minority backgrounds or the LGBTQ+ community

Process

While the specific process will depend on the topic, broadly speaking development of TYAC GPG will involve:

  • Forming a working group bringing together relevant professionals and where possible involving service users
  • A scoping exercise to ascertain the scope of the issue, target audience, engagement of appropriate experts to support the project
  • A rapid review of current published evidence
  • Gathering additional evidence, usually through a survey of TYAC members (the TYAC staff team can facilitate this)
  • Draft a document conveying the background, evidence base, suggested practice and limitations of the exercise.
  • The lead author produces a final first draft and submits to TYAC. The content on the document will vary by topic, but is likely to include a scope, relevant definitions, a summary of the evidence and examples of good practice, good practice recommendations, tips for implementing good practice, and references.
  • The draft will be reviewed by the TYAC Practice Development Group (PDG) with feedback provided at each stage until final draft is agreed.
  • When finalised it will be approved by the TYAC executive board
  • The final version will be typeset and design by the TYAC team ready for publication prior to a final round of feedback from the PDG and lead author.
  • The document will be published online and in print.

Grants

Grants of up to £2000 are available to relevant professionals (for example health care, social care or working in a relevant charity). The grant will be made to the professional’s institution. We are flexible about how the grant is used, for example to backfill time to release the professional to carry out the work, to cover the costs of evidence search and review, to hold meetings of the working group, etc.

  • Application for the grant should be made on no more than 2 pages of A4 and outline the following:
    • Applicant name and any co-applicants
    • Job roles and work in relation to TYAC care
    • Proposed Topic(s)
    • Justification for choosing this topic
    • Proposed cost - not to exceed £2000 per topic. This will not include the purchase of any equipment such as laptop etc.
    • Requests for any additional support from TYAC such as to arrange or facilitate writing group meetings
    • Action plan and timescale of the GPG proposed. The maximum timescale for delivery of a final draft should be six months.
    • Conflict of interests declared
    •  Approval of manager/head of department
  • We encourage a collaborative approach and applicants should indicate in their application any relevant collaborators that will support them to deliver the work. We also encourage service-user involvement where possible and relevant.
  • We would particularly like to hear from those who have been involved in TYA Cancer research or other academic work.
  • Grants proposals should be submitted by email to info@tyac.org.uk with the subject line 'GPG Grant Proposal'
  • The deadline for applications will be Sunday 11 December 2022, 23:59.
  • Following the awarding of a grant, our expectation is that the first draft of the good practice guideline would be delivered to TYAC within four months of the grant award.
  • The GPG will remain the intellectual property and copyright of TYAC (Children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Group). The authors may use the work or the research contributing to the work for other purposes (e.g. publishing an academic paper) and should acknowledge TYAC’s support in any other use of the work.
  • The TYAC staff team will be available to support the development of the guideline, for example support with surveying TYAC members, collating review comments, etc.
  • We will consider any topic relevant to TYA cancer care.
  • Applications will be judged on:
    • Information gap/need
    • Quality of proposal
    • Likely impact of work

If you would like to make informal enquiries about your proposal, please email ashley.gamble@cclg.org.uk