How does the NHS in England Work An Alternative Guide

Impact on library policy/practice:

  • Library Services need to understand the NHS structure and the roles of organisations like NHS England and NHS Improvement, whom may release plans and directives to guide the work of the NHS impact on library services.
  • As organisations work more closely together and boundaries change, the demands on library services and resources may change; meaning libraries may have to reassess the resources they purchase to take this into account. New organisations being bought in to work with the NHS /developed within the NHS may have different or greater requirements.
  • The library’s current scope of which organisations they work with and provide services too may be challenged; as due to the formation of new partnerships, teams from other organisations may expect or require access to resources which may not originally have been provided or procured for them.
  • There may be an increased need to make use of collaborative inter-library loan schemes or collaborative purchasing to address the greater demands of serving more organisations whilst balancing budget constraints and, in many organisations, the need to make savings.
  • New service level agreements may also need to be considered to formalise provision of services to other, potentially not NHS, organisations or allow reference access to those not eligible for full access rights.
  • As new networks are developed there may be an increase in demand for business/ management information resources to support these developments.
  • Partnerships with previously unknown organisations; may mean library staff may find it challenging to ascertain if a non-NHS organisation or individual is eligible to access NHS core content, or to identify and recommend a suitable library service if their own service is not best suited to meet the requester’s needs.

Source: The Kings’ Fund

Link to main document https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/audio-video/how-does-nhs-in-england-work

Publication format: Animation video.

Date of publication: October 2017

Summary of driver:

  • This video is an update on the structure of the NHS (original video released in 2013 – see The King’s Fund Map to the NHS  ).
  • Lays out the structure of the NHS that was introduced with the Health and Social Care Act on 2012; and highlights how further developments to change this structure have, and are continuing to take place.
  • Explains the current development of new types of networks and systems – STPs, ACSs and what their intended roles are.
  • NHS and other organisations are looking to join up the provision of healthcare and change how services are provided; and deal with constrained budgets.
  • This has resulted in a range of different types of partnerships/ organisational set ups being considered or implemented in different geographical areas.
  • Highlights that the different oversight organisations that exist which over lap and that in some cases the guidance they give can be contradictory.

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