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Knowledge for Elfcare – 12 gifts from the Knowledge for Healthcare Programme
View the presentation, click once to reveal the gift and again to find out more 8 1 11 3 12 6

2. Gift 1 - Evidence and Knowledge Self-Assessment Tool aka “The Board Tool”
What is it?
A simple framework that has been developed to help health organisations to assess opportunities to make better use of knowledge as an asset. Often referred to as “The Board Tool” this framework enables a dialogue between a representative of a library and knowledge service and senior executives in a health organisation to see how they are currently using external evidence and organisational knowledge and to devise an action plan to help the organisations develop best practice with targeted support.
What should you use it for?
The tool can be used to help inform evidence and knowledge strategy and to support individuals to assess their use of evidence and knowledge.
Links and useful resources
Evidence and Knowledge Self-Assessment Tool | Help to use the tool | Guidance: How to use the Evidence and Knowledge Self-Assessment Tool
KfH Workstream
Mobilising Evidence and Organisational Knowledge

3. Gift 2 – the Learning Zone
What is it?
The Learning Zone signposts healthcare librarians and knowledge specialists to key online resources to support their professional and personal development. It is part of the Workforce Planning and Development work stream. Resources fall under three categories; Generic Skills, Specialist and Technical Skills and Career Pathway and Vocational Skills, and include blogs, books, courses, eLearning, journals, websites and more.
What should you use it for?
The purpose of the Learning Zone is to help NHS library staff “use the right knowledge and evidence, at the right time in the right place, enabling high-quality decision-making, learning, research and innovation to achieve excellent healthcare and health improvement.” Whether you want to brush up on existing skills or learn something new, the Learning Zone is sure to be a good place to start.
Links and Useful Resources
Generic Skills resources (everything from Advocacy to Teaching) |
Specialist and Technical Skills (everything from Apps to Web Design) | Career Pathway and Vocational
Skills (everything from applying for jobs to volunteering)
KfH Workstream
Workforce Planning and Development Working Group

4. Gift 3 – Talent Management Toolkit
What is it?
Talent Management is about ensuring organisations maximise their talent either through recruitment, developing existing employees and encouraging them to realise their potential or ensuring talented staff are motivated. The toolkit provides guidance, processes and resources to support you in managing talent.
What should you use it for?
The toolkit is aimed at individuals, managers and senior leaders who have an interest in developing talent. If you want to know more about what talent management is, and what it means for health libraries, or if you want to develop and retain talent, the toolkit is useful. It includes processes for identifying and attracting, developing and retaining staff as well as information for managers and individuals about getting started with a “talent conversation”.
Links and Useful Resources
Talent Management Toolkit | What is talent management? | A process for talent management | Talent conversation | Resources
KfH Workstream
Workforce Planning and Development Working Group

5. Gift 4 – PKSB for Health What is it?
The Professional Knowledge and Skills Base (PKSB) for Health outlines the broad range of knowledge and skills required by librarians and knowledge specialists working in health. It enriches the original Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) PKSB by adding examples from a health setting throughout.
What should you use it for?
The PKSB helps you map your knowledge and skills. You can use it as a self-assessment tool for professional development and to demonstrate your unique skill set to employers. It is also a framework for skills analysis, staff training and development plans.
Links and Useful Resources
PKSB for Health on the KfH Blog | More information on the PKSB for Health | PKSB for Health Brochure | Feedback on the PKSB for Health
KfH Wokrstream
Workforce Planning and Development Group

6. Gift 5 – Value and Impact Toolkit
What is it?
This toolkit provides access to a set of Impact Tools including a generic questionnaire and case study templates. There are also resources including a range of materials to help with measuring value and impact, together with a guide on what to use when. Included is a short questionnaire that can be used as a standard and systematic way for obtaining impact information, a basic suite of interview schedules to support the interview process for establishing impact, and case studies to capture and summarise the outcome of interviews. There is also a Value and Impact Mapping Tool.
What should you use it for?
The tools are designed as a best practice guide for local adaptation and includes several off the shelf resources that libraries can download and use. There are six areas of impact deemed high value for targeting messages; money, quality, public health/ safe care, efficiency, workforce and learners and service improvement. Once you’ve measured impact it can be used to raise the profile of your service and can be added to annual reports, committee meetings and social media. The Mapping Tool is designed to help you choose what approach to use to demonstrate value and impact. Before choosing a method, measure or tool you need to decide “what are you going to measure for whom?”
Links and Useful Resources
Value and Impact Tool | KfH Impact Tools | Mapping Tool | Definitions | Methods | Tools | References |
Presentation at EAHIL 2017
KfH Workstream
Quality and Impact Working Group

7. Gift 6 – Evaluation Framework
What is it?
The Evaluation Framework has been developed to meet the need to assess progress towards achieving the delivery of HEE’s vision for Knowledge for Healthcare and to demonstrate the significant contribution made by library and knowledge services. An Evaluation Framework is designed to provide a coherent approach to evaluating impact. It focuses on the difference a service wants, or needs to make, then works systematically to identify how you will know you are getting there and what you need to do to make this likely. The framework is based on the premise that it is usually very difficult to provide clear evidence of impact in complex systems such as healthcare. Therefore, the approach was taken to identify a series of indicators which, when taken together as a whole, would suggest that progress is being made in a particular area.
What should you use it for?
The Evaluation Framework is a good tool to support both service improvement and advocacy for your own service. Many of the indicators do relate to your own service and therefore will show how your service is contributing to the overall vision of Knowledge for Healthcare and against the six outcomes of the framework. The evidence you will be collecting for national submission will therefore also be valuable in the evaluation of your own service.
Links and Useful Resources
The Framework | More information about the Evaluation Framework | FAQs | Related Worksteams
KfH Workstream
Quality and Impact Working Group but covers the whole of the KfH programme

8. Gift 7 – Patient and Public Ideas Bank
What is it?
The Ideas Bank is just that – a bank of examples of best practice from around the regions looking at how libraries are currently engaging with the public and patients supporting their health information needs. It includes ideas grouped by theme e.g. ‘internal staff partnerships’, ‘engagement with public libraries’ or ‘information literacy’, guidance for each theme and links to useful websites and award-winning examples.
What should you use it for?
If you’re unsure how to get involved in this area of have queries it is worth having a look at the Ideas Bank for inspiration - you might just find something you can replicate in your trust or be inspired to try something after reading what others have done. It’s also useful if you want to do some research of your own as reliable websites for more information are included throughout.
Links and Useful Resources
Ideas Bank | More information about the Ideas Bank
KfH Workstream
Patient and Public Information (PPI)

9. Gift 8 – Best Practice Current Awareness
What is it?
Current Awareness services are highly valued, but time-consuming to do well. By sharing effort and expertise, we can continue to improve the quality, relevance and reach of the bulletins we produce. This simple guidance covers; current awareness basics, evaluating and reviewing, terminology, delivery format and design, evaluating information sources, content, abstracts and summaries, copyright and disclaimers.
What should you use it for?
These simple guidelines have been developed by librarians for librarians, to help ensure our current awareness outputs are both fit for purpose and good to share. If you’re embarking on a new current awareness service, or looking to refresh the ones you already deliver, it’s worth a look at the guide to ensure you’re producing something of the highest quality that meets your users needs in the most efficient way you can.
Links and Useful Resources
Best Practice Guidelines | Word version of the Guidelines
KfH Workstream
Resource Discovery Working Group (RDG)

10. Gift 9 – Making the case What is it?
The ‘Making the case’ page outlines the reasons it is important that NHS librarians play a key role in supporting patients to access quality and reliable health information. This includes the key drivers within patient information that can be used to develop your service offer. As NHS Librarians, we are used to playing a key role in providing evidence for patient care as part of our service to healthcare staff. We have skills in finding the evidence, appraising it and making it readily available in formats needed by our healthcare colleagues. We are already partners in patient care. We can use these same skills in our interactions patients, carers and the public.
What should you use it for?
If you need convincing that health libraries have a role to play in Patient and Public Information (PPI), take a look at “Making the case”. Hopefully you’ll be convinced health libraries can have a real impact on patient care and be inspired to get involved in your own organisations.
Links and Useful Resources
Making the case | Drivers | Ideas Bank
KfH Workstream
Patient and Public Information (PPI)

11. Gift 10 – Resources for role design
What is it?
A suite of resources from the Learning Zone (see Gift 2) to give a flavour of the knowledge and skills required for the wide-range of existing and emerging roles in health library and knowledge services. The list includes everything from Clinical Librarian to Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) manager. There are postcard examples of people working in the jobs explaining in their own words what the key aspects of their jobs are, and the impact.
What should you use it for?
The resources can be used to:
Support career development (assist individuals with the personal career development by understanding more about the knowledge and skills required for different roles)
Support managers (help managers develop a workforce with the correct skill mix including information to help assess staffing needs, write job descriptions and tips on recruitment)
Find out more about portfolio careers
Links and Useful Resources
Resources for Role Design | Portfolio Careers Resources form the University of Oxford Careers Service |
Examples of job descriptions from NHS jobs
KfH Workstream
Workforce Planning and Development Group

12. Gift 11 – For employers What is it?
The ‘For Employers’ page contains a range of resources available to assist employers in managing and developing their library and knowledge services staff. You can download ‘Guidance for Senior Managers’, the ‘Evidence and Knowledge Self-Assessment Tool’ (you heard more about this in Gift 1), ‘Resources for Role Design’ (featured as Gift 10), briefings for Academic Health Science Network Leads and the National Association of Primary Care. It’s also your first point of contact for key documents such as the Knowledge for Healthcare Framework, PKSB for Health and the #AMillionDecisions campaign.
What should you use it for?
If you’re an employer, you should use this page as your first point-of-call for workforce and staffing questions. If you want to read the policy for NHS funded library services in England or get some top tips on managing a library team - this is the place to go. The most useful links are grouped on this page. You might also want to familiarise yourself with narratives illustrating the impact of healthcare library and knowledge services (they’re great for social media and useful vignettes to have at hand when asked to show value and impact).
Links and Useful Resources
For Employers Page | Guidance for senior managers | Evidence and Knowledge Self-Assessment Tool (Board Tool) |
Resources for Role Design | Briefing for AHSN Leads | Briefing for National Association of Primary Care |
Policy for NHS LKS in England | KfH Framework | PKSB for Health | Talent Management Toolkit |
#AMillionDecisions | The Health & Social Care 2012 | Impacting on quality & productivity of healthcare
KfH Workstream Workforce Planning and Development Group

13. Gift 12 - Collaboration What is it?
The Collaboration page is the home of a toolkit to help services engaged in mergers, alliances, amalgamations, and other close working practices. Health library and knowledge services have a strong track-record of sharing expertise and working across boundaries. Resource sharing and collaboration is in our DNA. How do we take this a step further? The toolkit is not a definitive guide how (or how not!) to combine services but rather highlights some common issues which you might encounter. It includes; an ABC guide, a template for library merger and collaboration case studies, two lots of case studies, a reading list and evidence search results.
What should you use it for?
The toolkit is designed to help guide library and knowledge service staff through the process of any type of joining or merger. The resource aims to develop and support service redesign – perhaps the best way is to learn from the practical experience of peers whose experiences (good and not so good) provide pragmatic advice. If you’re about to go through service change, are in the middle of a merger or on the other side and want to share your experiences this toolkit is a great place to start.
Links and Useful Resources
Collaboration page | ABC Guide | Template for Library Merger and Collaboration Case Studies |
Library Merger and Collaboration Case Studies #1 | Library Merger and Collaboration Case Studies #2
Reading List | Evidence Search Results
KfH Workstream
Workforce Planning and Development Working Group