New managers' checklist

Complete any mandatory training and local orientation.

Schedule a meeting with your manager.  This should encompass a local induction to ask about:

• their expectations of you and your team
• get their vision/take of where the library fits into the department
• ask a probing question, e.g., ‘What two or three things could I do this year that would make the biggest difference to the organisation?’
• the department’s long and short-term strategic plan
• their perception of the quality of the work in your department and where they think there needs to be changed

Familiarise yourself with the relevant documents for the service: strategy, annual plan, annual report, etc.

Make sure you aware of the baseline report, service improvement plan and recommendations relating to The Quality Improvement Outcomes Framework - and make a note of any key dates for the next step in the process.

Take time to understand the organisation structure and where your team fits in. Start to develop a list of people that you will need to build and develop relationships within the organisation.  Your team and manager can help you with this, but you will have your own ideas too.

Identify any internal leadership email distribution lists which will ensure you are included in any communications or events specifically targeted at leaders in the organisation.

Familiarise yourself with any Service Level Agreements your service may have with other organisations.

Take the time to read through and bookmark for future reference:

• Knowledge for Healthcare
• the various NHS England policies for Knowledge and Library Services
• the requirements of the NHS Education Funding Agreement as it relates to Knowledge and Library Services

Sign up to the two NHS England Knowledge Services Briefings.

Read through the Quick Guide to Resource Discovery.

Read through Roles and Responsibilities.

Meet with each staff member. Let them know that that you are interested in their perspective of how things are going in the department and that you would like to meet with them individually within the next few weeks.

Spend time observing how your department works, ask questions and learn how things operate now.

Begin your one-to-one meetings with staff by asking each person questions such as:

• what parts of your job do you enjoy?
• what are the key areas I need improvement in?
• what training do I require in my role?
• what is working well here?
• what is not working well here?
• what do I want to do / am I already doing for my health and wellbeing?

Ensure you have been set up with manager’s approval rights for any key systems including:

• finance
• travel expense claims
• any rostering systems used in your organisations including sickness reporting
• appraisal and learning systems
• any systems to report IT issues

Sign up to the library managers’ mailing list.

Identify which other mailing lists, networks, communities of practice, blogs, and social media it would be useful to join/follow.

Begin to put together a list of your priorities for the first 6 months based on your learning e.g. contacts to follow-up, documents to read and key deadlines for example contract renewals.

Schedule a regular meeting time with your manager and at the first meeting run your impressions and priorities list past them for feedback.

Schedule your first team meeting – this should include:

• a thank you to all individuals for sharing their ideas and thoughts with you
• a summary of the things you have learned and some of the actions you plan to take as a result

Develop or review the communication plan for the department and share it with the team. Ensure that any intranet or website pages have your name displayed as the service manager if applicable.

Find out as much as you can about organisational policies, processes and procedures e.g. HR, Finance, staff development, health and safety.

Arrange to meet with key Trust staff, such as:

• Divisional Director
• Head of Postgraduate Medical Education/Director for Medical Education
• Head of Undergraduate Medical Education/Foundation Lead
• Education, Training and Development Lead
• QI Lead
• HR Business Partner
• Chief Nurse and/or Deputy
• Medical Director
• Preceptorship Lead
• IT team
• Research and Innovation Lead
• Procurement contact for your division (if separate from finance)
• Key clinical education leads, tutors and practice educators
• Head of Communications
• Education Centre Manager
• Wellbeing team

Ask managers in other Trusts for examples of key documents when preparing your own e.g. library strategy, annual report, service improvement plans. The managers email list ([email protected]) is a good place to ask as others are usually very responsive and helpful.

Meet with your accountant to run through your budget and financial processes. Some organisations may offer internal training on financial procedures and its worth identifying opportunities to attend.

Arrange a 1-2-1 with your regional Resource Discovery representative.

Familiarise yourself with ILDS and the best practice guidance, and copyright guidance.

Ensure that someone in your team has designated responsibility, and appropriate administrative accounts, for all Resource Discovery content and systems infrastructure.

Arrange to meet with peers e.g., managers of other Knowledge and Library Services in your area – maybe from similar services e.g. mental health/acute, but a mixture is probably good for context.  If you are completely new to working in the NHS you may wish to arrange a couple of days shadowing.

Attend the regular NHS Knowledge and Library Service Managers meetings – they are good for networking and keeping abreast with news and developments. Meeting invites are usually sent via the library manager mailing list.

You may also be able to tap into other meetings between library managers in your local area. Your contact at NHS England may be able to signpost you to these.

Sign up to the FutureNHS platform to access the NHS Knowledge and Library Service Communities of Practice including the NHS Knowledge for Healthcare Workspace where you can find management and promotional resources.

In consultation with the team develop your vision, strategy and work plan for the department.

Set up a calendar of key dates such as:

• renewal dates for resources
• submission date for NHS England Statistics Parts 1 and 2
• development and review dates for Quality Improvement Outcomes Framework Service Improvement Plans
• annual report for the service – aim to get this completed by June/July – it is a good idea to look at other services’ reports as there are different styles
• dates for the NHS Knowledge and Library Service Managers meetings
• awareness events, both local and national, such as Health Information Week, Knowvember, Nurses & Midwives Day, Learning at Work week, Health Literacy Month, etc. You can then begin planning activities to tie into these
• Trust and local education initiatives e.g. exam periods, celebration events, quality improvement events

Ensure you have a plan for the next steps for the Quality Improvement Outcomes Framework and / or reviewed progress with the service improvement plan.

Make contact with key resource suppliers to review services and identify areas for further development.

Ensure you are familiar with the structure of your local Integrated Care System and identify key contacts.

Ensure that all members of staff have individual objectives and a personal development plan. Be clear on the appraisal cycle and any relevant pay progression dates.

Identify any locally based external partners for example local University health librarian, public libraries, Academic Health Science Networks and relevant meetings.