Design
This is an ongoing, voluntary, observational questionnaire study. It uses repeated cross-sectional reporting: each report describes the submissions received in a given period. Individuals are not followed over time.
Data are collected through a single short online questionnaire. There are no interviews. The questionnaire takes an estimated five minutes; this is an estimate, not a tested figure.
Who can take part
- Adults (18 or over) currently working as health or wellness practitioners in the UK, or who did so within the previous 12 months.
- A broad range of disciplines is included. Grouping them together makes no claim that their qualifications, regulation or evidence bases are equivalent.
- People who give support, receive support, do both or experience neither are all eligible.
Recruitment and sample
Recruitment is continuous and voluntary-response, through channels such as professional bodies, training providers, other practitioners, public social-media posts and GROW’s own channels. This is non-probability sampling. Respondents are self-selected and are not a representative sample of UK practitioners. There is no fixed final sample size. Recruitment channels are logged so that their influence on the sample can be described.
Repeat participation
Participants are asked not to respond more than once in any 12-month period, and the first question screens out anyone who says they responded less than 12 months ago. Responses are not linked between submissions, so reports describe submissions rather than guaranteed unique individuals.
Reporting schedule
- Public reports are proposed every six months from launch.
- Each report separates cumulative findings (all submissions to date) from findings for the non-overlapping six-month period just ended.
- Submission dates show when answers were received. Questions ask about the past 12 months, so recall windows overlap between reports.
- Before interpreting any change between periods, sample composition is compared by profession, career stage, working arrangement and recruitment source.
Analysis principles
- Findings describe patterns among respondents. They do not claim representative sector trends or causation.
- Every figure is reported with an explicit denominator, the number of missing answers and the route that showed the question.
- People who both give and receive support appear in both the provider and recipient groups; this overlap is reported.
- Usefulness is reported as ordered categories. “Too soon to tell” and “Unable to judge” are reported separately and not scored.
- There is no composite score, coach-readiness assessment, routine significance testing or population margin of error.
- Exclusions are documented with reasons; raw answers are never overwritten.
Versioning and transparency
Questionnaire versions are maintained, and changes that affect comparability are disclosed in the relevant report. Reports state the sponsor’s interests and include negative or commercially inconvenient findings.
Sponsor interests
The study is run and funded by GROW (Sole Trader Courses Ltd, trading as GROW Formula), which also sells business education and support to practitioners. Research responses are never used to identify prospective customers or GROW Coaches.
Confidentiality and retention
Responses are confidential but not guaranteed anonymous: combinations of answers could in principle identify someone. No names or contact details are requested. The proposed retention period for research data is up to five years from each submission. Optional email contact is entirely separate from research participation.
References and how they are used
- Eby, L. T. et al. (2008). Does mentoring matter? A multidisciplinary meta-analysis comparing mentored and non-mentored individuals. The review found generally small favourable associations in youth, academic and workplace mentoring. It excluded studies of exclusively peer or group mentoring and does not establish the effectiveness of the informal support studied here.
- AAPOR Disclosure Standards. Used as guidance for transparency about sampling, recruitment, question wording and analysis.
- CHERRIES: Checklist for Reporting Results of Internet E-Surveys. Used as guidance for reporting online survey administration, completion and duplicate handling.
- STROBE checklist for cross-sectional studies. Used as reporting guidance only, not as evidence of approval or study quality.