The information needs of Commissioners
Providing information for the staff of Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) isn’t as hard as it seems! Rest assured that you already have the search skills you need, you just need to use them wisely, and be prepared to ‘think out of the box’. Whilst it’s true that they may ask for something out of your comfort zone there’s lots of help, resources and inspiration available. To find out more about ICBs
Bear in mind that Clinicians are busy people, they’re often practicing GPs who’ve been co-opted on to the team and don’t want to be overwhelmed with information, so if you’ve got reviewing and summarising skills so much the better.
Commissioners themselves use the term ‘Evidence’ to mean Data, and sometimes don’t understand why they would need other types of information. Here’s where we can use our powers of persuasion to emphasise that evidence from the Literature helps to put that data into context. ICBs have lots and lots of Data about their local population and its health needs, and lots of Analysts to help them use it accordingly! But what they lack is the requisite knowledge, skills and access to dependable sources of information that can really bring the story to life. We can still use our traditional sources for this, as well as encourage them to register for OpenAthens, teach them how to use the NHS Knowledge and Library Hub, advanced Google searching and help them use the library to obtain seemingly ‘unobtainable’ articles and other material.
Ideally, Commissioners want to see what other organisations around the country are doing, or have done successfully, so they can ‘borrow’ their ideas, or find a contact they can talk to. So the type of information less familiar to us might include:
Service models - new/innovative/redesigns
Service specifications
Best Practice examples
Examples of innovation
Case studies
Trust Board Papers
Internal meetings briefings
Business cases
Tender documents (Contracts)
Someone to contact in an exemplar service
Commissioning resources – Benchmarking tools, Costing tools (available from NICE)
Horizon scanning - what's the next big thing!
And you need to Google to find them! Use domain searches such as site: .ics.nhs.uk in your search string.
Or, contact Liz Bridge for help at liz.bridge@nhs.uk