Meeting Minutes

Present: Betsy Anagnostelis (BA) UCL (NCL), Paul Hockney (PH) QM (NEL), Angela Horrocks (AH) Kingston University (SWL), Richard Osborn (RO) NHS London, Ray Phillips (RP) NHS London, Janet Smith (JS) Imperial College and CPD25 (NWL), Anne Weist (AW) NHS London
Jane Williamson (JW) NHS London, John Wolstenholme (JIW)  Chair  TVU (NWL)

Apologies: Melanie Brocklehurst (MB) LSBU (SEL), Ruth Fosker (RF) NHS London, Gary Horrocks (GH) KCL (SEL), Cheryl Twomey (CT) NHS London - eKAT

1. Update on NHS London

RO gave an update on the current situation.  There was still a lack of clarity around the future strategic leadership of library services across NHS London.  A knowledge post in the published structure for the new organisation (under the Directorate of Public Health) had not been advertised with other posts and no-one seemed able to confirm whether this role would be filled.

RO confirmed that the new organisation would have 132 employees, 53 of whom would be in “core” roles and 79 in a “flexible resource pool”. A voluntary redundancy scheme had been launched – 147 staff out of the 500 still employed by the SHA had their applications accepted, including JW and RF.  Various options were being explored for hosting the strategic library function (including eKAT) beyond March, including the London Deanery, Connecting for Health London and a PCT. However, confirmation of a budget for 2007/8 was essential before these negotiations could be taken any further.

Two workshops – “Preparing for an Uncertain Future” - had been organised and were well attended, with good representation from HEI libraries.  Two follow-up days were now planned to take the work forward.  Initial feedback from local library staff showed that there was enthusiasm for this joint M25/LHL working group to continue.

PH asked about the key people within NHS London whom it would be useful to contact to press home the case for strategic leadership of libraries.  RO said that Rob Smith, Head of Education, and Sheila Adam, Director of Public Health, would be the best people to approach; but it was agreed that initially JIW would write to Rob Smith on behalf of the group along the same lines as his letter to Paul Pugh earlier in the year.  ACTION: RO to liaise with JIW about this letter.

RO also reported that the newly created National Library for Health Co-ordinating Group would include a Higher Education representative, to be agreed with SCONUL.

2. Update from M25 Consortium

JIW reported that Inform 25 had recently been re-launched.  A new M25 administrator had been appointed – Genin Cox.  An annual report had been produced and sent to members of this joint working group.   The networking event in September at Imperial College had proved a success; photographs of the occasion were on the M25 website.  The M25 AGM would take place on 23rd January at the British Library with the theme of “Print to digital: managing the transformation”.

JS mentioned that CPD25 would be brokering applications from chartership candidates for placements of 2 weeks in HE libraries (for shadowing and training). 

3. London Health Libraries / M25 procurement sub-group

BA gave a report on the work of the group and highlighted the following :

• The trial of the Social Policy and Practice (SPP) database was drawing to a close.  Disappointing pricing information had been received from Ovid, which essentially ruled out the idea of joint procurement of this resource.  BA would approach JISC to discuss this further; RO would be putting in a bid to Skills for Care, to see what funding might be available on the NHS / social care side.  Questionnaires would be circulated to get some feedback on the database.  The usage statistics for the trial were a little disappointing.  It was felt that it may be worth re-considering this database once the interface had changed.   ACTION: BA and RO
• After Christmas, BA and AH would be investigating the issue of a “pick and mix” of individual journals from Internurse.   It was noted that the British Journal of Midwifery had broken away from Internurse.     ACTION: BA and AH
• BA would be issuing a Dialog questionnaire to HEI librarians and proposed a trial of EmCare in January.  ACTION: BA
• It was agreed that a deal for London Medical Schools for Clinical Evidence should be pursued with BMJ, including Best Treatments and the Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin.  ACTION: BA

4. Minutes of previous meeting (4th September 2006)

The minutes of the last meeting were approved.

5. Matters arising from minutes

• RO would check with Ian Snowley to see whether the issue of NHS funding of education and libraries had been discussed by the Health Strategy Group.       ACTION: RO
• JS mentioned that CPD25 was organising a one day conference on 23rd April 2007 at the Hatton Conference Centre, entitled “The library and the learning environment: using new technologies”. This would include a session on RSS feeds and health.
• JW reported that the London Health Libraries Staff Development Framework was to be scaled up nationally by the LKDN Workforce Development Group.  Guidance documents on various topics would be available by March 2007. 
• AW mentioned that participants in the next Learner Support programme in early 2007 would receive an accredited qualification.  There was a good mix of NHS and HEI staff who had registered.  There was potential for this programme to be more formally linked to CPD25.  ACTION: JS to discuss this with AW and take issue to the CPD25 Steering Group.
• It was not clear whether the new standard education contract had been formally agreed. This explained why it had not been circulated to the group.  RO would circulate the document as soon as possible.  ACTION: RO

6. Future of the group

As the picture across NHS London was still very unclear, it was difficult to take this matter forward.  This would be discussed at the next meeting.  In principle, the HEI representatives were happy with the idea of representatives from the local sector groups joining this joint working group.

7. Date of next meeting

The next meeting would be held on Monday 5th February.  RO would chair.

8. Any other business  

JIW agreed to draw up a questionnaire about HEI policies on chasing up outstanding loans between Trusts and HEIs.

The meeting concluded with JIW, on behalf of the group, wishing JW and RF all the best for a long and happy retirement, and thanking them for their work in fostering collaborative working between the NHS and Higher Education.