Department of Health

Website of the Department of Health

Please note that this website has a UK government access keys system.

You are here:

Working together with health information : summary briefing

  • Document type:
    Publication
  • Author:
    Department of Health
  • Published date:
    1 December 1999
  • Primary audience:
    Professionals
  • Gateway reference:
    1999
  • Pages:
    1
  • Copyright holder:
    Crown Copyright

Working Together with Health Information is a national Education, Training and Development (ETD)1 strategy to support the implementation of Information for Health in the NHS. It provides policy level guidance about what needs to be done to help develop new skills and change the culture of information management and use in the NHS. It will be followed by specific information about implementation from the NHS Information Authority and other sources.

Text of summary

Strategy details

The strategy is intended for anyone with responsibility for implementing Information for Health or mainstream ETD. It draws on existing work, builds on previous work and has been the subject of consultation with potential partners. It does not re-invent the wheel - but it does require strategic partnerships to be effective. The strategy:

  • Links with other ETD-related policy initiatives such as Continuing Professional Development (CPD), the NHS Learning Network, the  'Learning Zone' and NHS Leadership and Management Development programmes
  • Identifies roles and responsibilities for providing Education and Training in information management
  • Will develop over time to take into account local needs and the pace of change in the NHS
  • Will establish an Inter-Regional Forum (IRF) as part of the Information for Health partnership arrangements to advise on commissioning ETD programmes and help evaluate the impact of the programmes in the NHS. (The strategy will be evaluated using criteria agreed with the IRF. Some initial criteria are identified in the strategy)

Strategy approaches

ETD activities will be planned and delivered locally as part of Local Implementation Strategies. Each Local Implementation Strategy will include an ETD plan and identify a person to be responsible for it. Local health communities will audit, plan, develop and make best use of local health informatics services. Local ETD activities will be supported by the work of the NHS Information Authority and Information Education and Development Advisers (EDAs) based in each health region.

Three national ETD programmes will be commissioned by the NHS Executive's Information Policy Unit within the context of this strategy:

  • Programme A: Developing the right information and information management skills for the NHS.
    Aim: to work with a range of partners to ensure the NHS has the skills necessary to develop and manage information systems, and use information to provide the best possible care
  • Programme B: Finding the right help: support and guidance, problem solving, sharing, and learning across the NHS
    Aim: to research and develop physical and virtual ETD resources including learning networks in each region and a National Virtual Classroom. The Virtual Classroom will be a sub-project of the National Electronic Library for Health
  • Programme C: Getting ETD activities right at every level: learning to support local implementation strategies
    Aim: to ensure that ETD plays a full part in the implementation of Information for Health related programmes

To achieve Working Together with Health Information the NHS Information Policy Unit will work with other related areas of policy (e.g. Clinical Governance and National Service Frameworks) to identify and address relevant information management ETD gaps. In particular:

Each NHS Information Authority project will identify the ETD requirements for implementation and ensure that these are addressed in a holistic and co-ordinated way

Local Implementation Strategy planners will take into account in their ETD planning the information implications of Clinical Governance Development Plans and Health Improvement Programmes and integrate the output of national projects.

Strategy resources

Resources to help implement the strategy will come from a number of different sources:

  • Each year the NHS Information Authority will dedicate a portion of its funding to support a national ETD Information Management programme to help achieve Programmes A and B
  • Every national information management project will be expected to review the learning implications for successful implementation and allocate a component of its funding to ETD. This will ensure that the ETD needs of each project are appropriately addressed in the context of related work (Programme C)
  • Modernisation Fund monies will be made available to fill the gaps in local health informatics services identified in Local Implementation Strategies
  • Local organisations will ensure that ETD activities are included as part of the projected cost of development of Information Systems and implementing the Information for Health strategy
  • Education Consortia will be expected to support ETD activities contributing to greater competence in information handling and may contribute specialist and development resources to this end.

Key messages

The NHS Executive regards information management as a mainstream activity that underpins the work of the NHS. Making the transition to having an information management ETD component in 'everything' is a vital part of the culture change associated with a modernised NHS. Partnership working is essential to the success of this strategy.

Additional links

Related Links

Ordering publications

Contact details for obtaining hard-copy DH publications.

Help viewing PDFs

Help viewing PDFs

Useful tips to ensure you get the most from PDFs and the free Reader program. Topics covered include accessibility, troubleshooting and searching files.

Additional Links

Access keys