NHS Knowledge and Library Services (KLS) in England policy

People should be cared for by competent and capable staff, receptive to innovation and able to use evidence from research. All NHS bodies and staff should be able to access the expertise and resources offered by healthcare librarians and knowledge specialists.

The NHS is experiencing a period of unrivalled change. Globally, economies are experiencing a shift from the ‘white heat of technology’ of the mid-twentieth-century into today’s digital age. This new landscape is one in which information is the currency of healthcare.

Healthcare is a knowledge industry. It is not enough to have the right teams in the right place, collaborating to deliver high quality, efficient patient care. It is essential that they use the right knowledge and evidence at the right time. The knowledge and know-how of staff are precious assets. Health Education England is committed to building a flexible workforce, responsive to innovation and new technologies with knowledge about best practice, research and innovation, which promotes adoption and dissemination of better quality service delivery. Applying and embedding knowledge into action is the currency of successful organisations.

The Carter Review identified a need to “Improve the decision making process using factual data and evidence”.[4] Librarians can make a critical contribution to improving quality outcomes and meeting the productivity and performance challenge by ensuring teams are sighted on evidence from research to inform decision-making, targeting and tailoring information to manage information overload, organising that body of knowledge and keeping colleagues updated.

Evidence does not speak for itself but needs to be mobilised at the right time, and through the right people, to make a difference in decision making.[5]

Health Education England has identified a priority for NHS library services to mobilise the evidence base, bringing it the boardroom and the bedside.

Librarians comprise a small, specialised workforce in the NHS. Their contribution to education and research is highly valued. Increasingly, they are called upon to take a more active role as knowledge brokers. Health Education England recognises the value of these enhanced roles in which librarians share their expertise with teams in the workplace, enabling staff to find, evaluate and use evidence.

In this Knowledge Age it has never been more essential for the service to promote the use of research evidence and for all NHS bodies to ensure their staff can capitalise on the specialist expertise of healthcare librarians and knowledge specialists.

Health Education England is working with CILIP, the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals to realise these aims, and to more strongly profile the positive impact of NHS Library and Knowledge Services.

It provides high quality care that is safe, effective and focused on patient experience; in the people it employs, and in the support, education, training and development they receive; in the leadership and management of its organisations; and through its commitment to innovation and to the promotion, conduct and use of research to improve the current and future health and care of the population.

It is committed to providing the most effective, fair and sustainable use of finite resources.