Reflecting on facilitation: a new sector survey and community updates

We hope you’re enjoying the summer and finding some time to pause and recharge.

We’re excited to launch our new Facilitation Sector Survey 2026, exploring the current state of facilitation practice, learning and work across the sector. We’d love to hear your experiences and perspectives.

Read more about the survey and click the link below to share your views.

In this month’s newsletter, we’re also exploring whether there is interest in setting up some new peer groups for facilitators in our community, inviting your thoughts and interest, as well as looking ahead to our September events and opportunities to reconnect with the community.

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Launching our Facilitation Sector Survey 2026

Following our 2023 survey, this new sector survey aims to better understand how facilitation is evolving, including changes in working practices, professional development, delivery, rates of pay, and the wider challenges and opportunities affecting facilitators today.

We welcome responses from:

  • Facilitators
  • Trainers and consultants
  • Organisational practitioners
  • Those who commission or buy facilitation services

You don’t need to be actively working in facilitation at the moment to take part. If you are retired, taking a break from facilitation, or no longer working in the sector, we’d still really value your perspective and encourage you to complete the survey.

The survey should take approximately 10–15 minutes to complete and will remain open until the end of September.

Your insights will help us build a clearer picture of the sector and ensure our work continues to respond to the needs and experiences of our community.

Complete the survey here.

If you know other facilitators, trainers, consultants or practitioners who may be interested in sharing their experiences, we’d be grateful if you could pass the survey on to them too.

Exploring Facilitation Peer Groups

We’re exploring the idea of setting up some new peer groups for facilitators and would love to hear your thoughts.

The first is a general peer group/community of practice for facilitators in our network looking for a space to connect with others, reflect on practice, share experiences and support one another between courses and events.

We’re also exploring the possibility of a peer group specifically for facilitators working in the NHS, recognising that we have a growing number of NHS colleagues within our community and membership who may value connecting with others working in similar contexts.

At this stage, we’re simply gauging interest. If either of these sounds like something you’d find helpful, we’d love to hear from you.

Please get in touch and let us know your thoughts, or whether you would be interested in being part of these groups.

Looking ahead to September...

Lastly, we’re looking forward to reconnecting with our community after the summer and coming up in September, we have:

You can explore all upcoming events and book your place via the calendar on our website.

As always, if you have any questions or would like to connect, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

To find out more, please email
info@associationoffacilitators.co.uk
or call us on 020 3282 7128

Bella Mehta & Brian Watts
Association of Facilitators (AoF)