The Commissioning Handbook Innovation through Collaboration Alison Price, Librarian NHS Lincolnshire

As Commissioning has gained momentum in the NHS, so has the need for information professionals to gain confidence in identifying and navigating relevant information resources. This presentation describes a collaborative project which has resulted in the Wiki Commissioning Handbook – a dynamic, shared online resource that is being developed by - and for - the health library community.

Background to the Handbook In , the National Library for Health sponsored two workshops on the opportunities for “Bringing knowledge to bear: informing the commissioning process in primary care”. Recurrent themes emerged - How do we know we are delivering ‘best practice’ of our own, as librarians in the commissioning field? How should we navigate the resources we have available to us when answering enquiries, providing current awareness and undertaking literature searches? How can we be sure we are not missing vital resources?

Pooling Our Knowledge Librarians have been responding individually to the unique information needs of their own organisations, developing service approaches to Retrieving information and building up their own resource lists to answer commissioning enquiries. To address the Workshop themes, a small band of librarians from various NHS regions, all with experience of supporting Commissioning, were approached to work together on pooling their working knowledge, experience, ideas and ‘favourites’ lists.

Nuts & Bolts Aims To help information professionals to support NHS staff involved in the commissioning cycle by bringing together information resources and examples of library service best practice. To support information professionals at all levels of involvement with commissioning, from those entirely new to the subject to those with considerable experience. To provide an understanding of the information needs of Commissioners by including examples of search requests.

WebEx and Wiki How did a small group of geographically dispersed health librarians work together to pool their collective knowledge? Sponsorship & Leadership. The World of Wiki.

What commissioning involves and the stages of the commissioning cycle; Key areas in which those involved in commissioning need and want information; How to locate the best available evidence for commissioners; Advice on best practice in providing library services to support commissioners.

Collaboration, Collaboration, Collaboration. This project has been about collaboration at all levels – from the ‘Do Once and Share’ approach to the delegation of tasks.

The Commissioning Handbook Goes Live! Accessing the wiki is simple and requires no registration or logging in – just head to the homepage and dive in!

Introduction Defining “World Class Commissioning” The roles and information needs of those involved in commissioning Leading the NHS; engaging with partners Disinvestment Benchmarking, Best Practice and Innovation Information resources to support commissioning 8.1 In priority areas 8.2 For specific populations 8.3 For specific diseases or conditions 8.4 For specific service sectors Legal information Organisations that support commissioners Professional development for commissioners

Detail Introductory Comment Advice on Searching Search Strategies Links to Relevant Resources

Librarians’ Best Practice Searching for information for commissioning Tips on searching the web Examples of search strategies Information services for commissioning Managing libraries, knowledge and data Information supply; collaboration or competition Professional development for librarians

Work in Progress The Handbook is a ‘work in progress’. As the commissioning agenda evolves, so will the Commissioning Handbook. The Handbook reflects the availability of resources in specific subject areas. Some of the pages are bursting with links and information, others are rather sparse. With time we hope to see them filled with resources and experience.

Resources have not yet been identified for this section. Can you make a recommendation? No matter how experienced, or how new, we are to supporting commissioning, there will always be someone who finds a new resource, develops a new searching strategy, or has best practice to share. Share what you know!

Flexible & Adaptable! Goodbye World Class Commissioning! Hello Practice Based Commissioning! The names may change, but the information needs, and the information retrieval skills and resources required to meet them, remain constant. With just a little tweeking of the terminology used, the Commissioning Handbook is being updated to support the Commissioning agenda of the new Coalition government.