knowledge and experience of their staff. They find, synthesise and summarise evidence; saving staff time, placing evidence at the fingertips of health pro- fessionals, and at the heart of healthcare “Knowledge services are an essential part of the decision-making infra- structure of the NHS, as well as of its education and training infrastructure. I am tremendously proud to work for the NHS and it’s a real privilege to be lead- ing the work to ensure that the value that our incredible library services can bring to healthcare is fully realised.”
Equal benefit
The Knowledge for Healthcare strategy sets direction, providing a common development framework across the country.
“Knowledge for Healthcare is a change programme, at a really funda- mental level. The ambition is to enable all NHS staff and learners to benefit equally from high-quality knowledge services, and to optimise the expertise of knowledge service teams to inform decision-making from board to bedside, and in community and primary care settings,” explains Sue.
The NHS employs 1,200 library staff across 183 services in England. And it is their work that has delivered the signifi- cant progress made through Knowledge for Healthcare. There is a raised profile and respect for these services across the NHS and this is absolutely at the door of the work that library teams do, day in day out, to support their colleagues on the frontline.
“It is about taking library services that are highly respected and trusted by frontline teams, through decades of work focused on education and on clinicians, and moving that forward in a way that establishes knowledge services as a business-critical basis of decision
June 2021
making. It’s an evolution of our services, ensuring that we maximise the return on investment in knowledge.”
Sue’s team recently developed a value proposition for NHS knowledge and library services – ‘The Gift of Time’ – work designed to help healthcare profes- sionals understand the tangible impact the service can have on their practise.
Demonstrating value
Undertaken by an independent health economist, the study homes in on the real impact of knowledge and library services, producing a value proposition that cap- tures the unique benefits of knowledge and library services to the NHS. Thereport focuses on two key strands: meeting the duty that the NHS has – under the Health and Social Care Act 2012 – to use evidence from research; and understand- ing how clinical librarian roles, and other embedded roles within clinical practise – impact on outcomes.
“Well, it’s the Holy Grail. Having a value proposition that really captures the difference we’re making to healthcare,” says Sue.
“We were able to see very clearly, the expert skills that knowledge specialists have in finding and presenting evidence
Sue Lacey Bryant.
and synthesised information and the real impact of this. The health economist reported that the service provides healthcare pro- fessional staff with time saving, accelerated access to better quality evidence which in turn allows the NHS to meet its statu- tory obligations to utilise evidence from research. There is, of course, enormous value in this.
“It found that our fantastic knowledge and library teams help healthcare profes- sionals use their time more effectively to drive improvements against the quadru- ple aim of the health service - improving the health of populations, enhancing the experience of care for patients, reducing the per capita cost of healthcare and improving the staff experience of provid- ing care. The study reported that NHS library services deliver a net economic benefit of £77m per annum, and were the staff ratio for qualified librarians improved in line with Health Education England’s recommendations, that number could be rather greater.
“It is an incredible demonstration of the value of the work of knowledge special- ists, knowledge managers, everyone who works in our NHS libraries. I see their impact. I see the difference our service makes, but to have an objective view on
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