Levers for change

About the levers for change we can all use to promote the difference that your knowledge and library services make to healthcare

I recently compiled a synopsis of policy recommendations by Health Education England on NHS funded knowledge and library services.

This was prepared to support ongoing discussions with one of the regulators about the vital contribution that you and your teams make in underpinning decision-making, quality and performance.  

With two iterations of Knowledge for Healthcare and four policy statements published over the past 7 years, plus input into the new Education contract, we have covered a lot of ground.

We are making headway in shaping new levers which we can, together, use to help to build the case to expand the reach of NHS knowledge services.  

The Gift of Time makes a powerful case in its own right, articulating the value proposition for investment in health libraries. We aim to build on this work with further research in the years ahead.   

Schedule 1 of the Education contract 2021-2024 requires that Placement Providers ensure that the clinical decision support tool, funded and provided nationally by HEE for all learners and NHS staff, is actively promoted to underpin clinical decision-making. 

Publication of  What Good Looks Like, the framework for digital transformation from NHS X, is another new development. It sets as a success measure that each ICS will “ensure that organisations across your ICS employ decision support and other tools to help clinicians follow best practice and eliminate quality variation across the entire pathway”.

This is another helpful lever for promoting uptake of BMJ Best Practice. 

I’m really interested to hear how you are using these various statements, and whether there are other themes it would be useful for us to address if we can? Let me know.  

In the wider policy context, the draft Health and Care Bill confers a duty in respect of research. Each integrated care board must, in the exercise of its functions, promote the use in the health service of evidence obtained from research.

Following several discussions with DHSC, it is reassuring that we will be able to cite the Bill as part of our continuing #AMillionDecisions campaign. This is a joint Health Education England - CILIP Health Libraries Group initiative.  

The establishment of the ICS creates a new landscape, new opportunities. We are currently drawing up a modular outline business case. This will provide a ‘template’ that you can use, adapt and improve to support your local plans to deliver knowledge and library services across the ICS footprint. It will be coming out to you in a matter of weeks.  

You may also link to levers for change which we can all use to promote the difference that your knowledge and library services make to healthcare.