INSIGHT HLG
#AMillionDecisions: how you can get involved in an ongoing initiative
HE #AMillionDecisions initiative is an ongoing joint venture between CILIP Health Libraries Group and NHS England. It demonstrates and promotes the skills, roles and positive impact of health librarians and knowledge specialists upon healthcare outcomes.
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#AMillionDecisions (
www.cilip.org.uk/ AMillionDecisions) is a useful vehicle for engaging with senior leaders across healthcare, to advocate about the multiple benefits realised from employing the expertise of health librarians and knowledge specialists. It is eight years since launch and #AMillionDecsions remains one of CILIPs flagship advocacy campaigns.
Background
#AMillionDecisions started as a joint campaign devised by CILIP and what was then Health Education England, now NHS England, in 2016.
Building on the experience of the CILIP team, discussions were held to plan a short
six-month campaign on social media culminating in a roundtable event with political and senior leaders from across healthcare. The campaign was launched at the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Libraries in January 2016.
The campaign is based upon a political driver within the Health and Care Act to promote “the use in the health service of evidence obtained from research”. This focus on the use of evidence is combined with something that takes place multiple times a day throughout the health and care sector – decision making – hence #AMillionDecisions.
Librarians and knowledge specialists bring the evidence to inform over a million decisions a day across healthcare.
Every day across the healthcare sector in England more than a million decisions are made that have a pro- found and lasting impact on people’s lives and which influence the quality of healthcare and the cost of services. #AMillionDecisions calls for all deci- sions in the healthcare sector to be fully evidence-based, and for government and health service providers to employ and make use of the expertise of librarians and knowledge specialists in meeting their obligations under The Health and Care Act.
18 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
Aims of the campaign The primary aim of the campaign was to promote the skills and positive impact of librarians and knowledge specialists in supporting key health agendas. Secondly, to change senior management practice to routinely use the expertise of knowledge specialists to inform evidence-based care and thirdly to secure above the line investment in health librarian specialist skills to create sustainable roles. In addition, the campaign recruited key advocates from the health sector to be influential champions; created promotional materials with a shared, single message and developed CILIP’s understanding of the complex nature of the Health Service eco-system in England.
What worked well?
The campaign was successful in expressing a common purpose that all librarians and health leaders could get behind. It articulated the business- critical contribution of health librarians to employers and opened doors to senior decision makers. The campaign continues to raise the profile of health librarians.
Particularly effective was the use of endorsement quotes with photographs of well-respected leaders, combined with case studies that demonstrated the impact and value to the health service of work carried out by expert librarians and
Alison Day, Knowledge and Library Services Senior Manager, NHS England.
‘‘
The primary aim of the campaign was to promote the skills and positive impact of librarians and knowledge specialists in supporting key health agendas.
Lynsey Hawker, Co-Chair CILIP Health Libraries Group.
knowledge specialists. Opportunities have been taken to approach wider audiences and photographs of recognisable leaders have piqued people’s interest, helping with engagement, and using the case studies to illustrate the work of health librarians and their contribution to the healthcare system.
How you can get involved As an ongoing initiative you can get involved in #AMillionDecisions. For the 75th anniversary of HLG we ran a poster campaign (https://tinyurl. com/38z5ndxn) highlighting the impact of health librarians, and HLG encourage you to continue sharing good practice via their conference and newsletter. We have updated and extended our promotional materials to include posters and templates for impact case studies and endorsements for local use. Please use these to keep the message going, maintaining conversations with senior health leaders about the value of working with health librarians and knowledge specialists who bring the research evidence health and care staff need to inform all of their decisions. IP
March 2024
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