Meeting Minutes

Present: Betsy Anagnostelis (BA) UCL (NCL), Melanie Brocklehurst (MB) LSBU (SEL), Ruth Fosker (RF) NHS London, Paul Hockney (PH) QM (NEL), Angela Horrocks (AH) Kingston University (SWL), Gary Horrocks (GH) KCL (SEL), Richard Osborn (RO) NHS London, Janet Smith (JS) Imperial College and CPD25 (NWL), Cheryl Twomey (CT) NHS London - eKAT, Anne Weist (AW) NHS London, Jane Williamson (JW) NHS London, John Wolstenholme (JIW)  Chair  TVU (NWL)

Apologies:  Ray Phillips (RP) NHS London

In attendance: Ian Snowley (IS) Chair of the CILIP/SCONUL Health Strategy Group

1. CILIP/SCONUL Health Strategy Group

RO welcomed IS to the meeting.  IS explained that the group had evolved out of previous structures and had picked up the actions arising out of the Health Executive Advisory Group (HEAG) report – “Future Proofing the Profession”.  The group reported to the joint CILIP/SCONUL group and also to the CILIP policy group.  It was a representative group, with Paul Ayris representing the NHS/HE Forum and Alan Fricker the Health Libraries Group.  Sir Muir Gray was replacing Ben Toth as the NLH representative on the group.  LKDN would be identifying an additional health library representative (Helen Bingham has been confirmed in this role since the meeting).  CILIP and SCONUL representatives rotated the Chair on an annual basis, with the secretariat provided by CILIP and SCONUL.  IS noted that the membership of the group had been kept deliberately small.

IS went through the Terms of Reference which had been circulated prior to the meeting.  He emphasised that it was not a delivery group in areas such as CPD; the group focused on strategic issues and did not wish to duplicate any work undertaken by other groups.  The current work plan focused on three areas:

• responding to consultation exercises, e.g.”Informing Healthier Choices”, Cooksey Review of Health Research Funding, “Our health, our care, our say”
• continuing the work of the HEAG, e.g. horizon scanning, research.  Funds needed to be sourced for research, as CILIP had no funds available
• collaborative working with other national and international groups

IS mentioned that a panel would be useful for consultation exercises and it was agreed that the members of the joint working group would be happy to act in this capacity.  RO would supply IS with the e-mail addresses of group members. ACTION: RO

BA asked if the issue of NHS funding of education and libraries could be considered by the group and taken to a higher level.  IS agreed to raise this at the October meeting.  ACTION: IS

IS encouraged group members to e-mail him with any issues that should be considered by the CILIP/SCONUL Health Strategy Group.  RO thanked IS for his presentation.

2. Update on NHS London

RO gave an update on the current situation.  There was still a lack of clarity, especially after the appointment of David Nicholson as Chief Executive of the NHS.  Ruth Carnall had been appointed as Interim Chief Executive for NHS London, with Interim Directors appointed for the 7 directorates.  These included a directorate of “People and Organisation Development”, headed by Anne Rainsberry.  The new organisation would be highly strategic, with only 120-150 staff.  No decision had been made about the location of the headquarters.  Despite lobbying, the strategic management of library and knowledge services was not yet on the radar of the Chief Executive and Directors, though RO reported that the letter from JIW to Paul Pugh on behalf of the group had been well received.  It was hoped that the picture would be clearer by October.

MPET funding had suffered severe cuts (around 8% in London); the confirmed figures were still awaited.   BA felt the issue of cuts to educational funding should be raised with higher-level bodies such as the Council of the Heads of Medical Schools.

3. Update from M25 Consortium

JIW reported that the Heads of M25 Consortium working groups were reviewing the work of the groups.  JIW had given a presentation on the work of the joint working group to the M25 Conference which had been well received.

4. London Health Libraries / M25 procurement sub-group

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

• The Internurse questionnaires had been analysed and it was generally felt that the package was rather expensive.  AH commented that a “pick and mix” of individual journals would be the favoured option.  BA and AH would discuss this option with Internurse, sharing the results of the survey. ACTION: BA and AH
• NCC was interested in the EMCare initiative via Dialog, as an alternative to CINAHL.  BA would consider a trial of this resource for library staff and suggested including a question about this on the proposed Dialog questionnaire to HEI librarians.  ACTION: BA – to investigate the possibility of a trial and issue questionnaire
• The 2 month trial of the Social Policy and Practice (SPP) database had started and would run until the end of October.  Access had been arranged for those HEIs who had registered an interest in being involved.  RO noted that if, as a result of this trial, a decision was made to proceed with a joint procurement, there would be a need for a wide licence, to embrace the wider social care community.  BA reported that JISC had just announced a deal for SPP and this would need to be investigated.    ACTION: BA and the procurement sub-group
• The existing contract for the Cochrane Library had been renewed.

5. Minutes of previous meeting (8th May 2006)

The minutes of the last meeting were approved.

6. Matters arising from minutes

• GH would investigate the matter of the paper produced by KCL on walk-in access to e-resources.  In the discussion which followed, it was re-affirmed that this was a far from straightforward issue. ACTION: GH
• JS reported that the proposed event on VLEs would now be part of a bigger event on Web 2.0, probably in Spring 2007.
• CT would discuss with RO the proposed event on NCC resources for HEI staff. ACTION: CT and RO
• AW had circulated details of the next Learner Support programme which would take place in early 2007.
• GH agreed to send CT details of the qualitative analysis of e-journal statistics. ACTION: GH
• The new standard education contract was still in draft form, but it was pleasing to report that the draft did make reference to the pan-London student charter.  Once the contract had been agreed, RO and RF would investigate whether it could be circulated to the group. ACTION: RO and RF

7. Date of next meeting

The next meeting would be held on Monday 27th November at 12.30 pm.  JW would chair and BA would investigate a room at UCL. ACTION:  BA