Presentation to tfpl health SIG, London, November 2011

1. Information needs of
commissioners
Anne Gray
Strategic Change Directorate
NHS Milton Keynes
Evidence support for commissioning…
www.qualitymk.nhs.uk/knowledge_zone.htm

2. – What evidence is there about….?
– What’s new?
– You should know about this…
What’s changed? (H&SC bill/ Public Health white paper)
– NHS reorganisation /Job security
– Systems and processes

3. What evidence is there about….?
• How is this done elsewhere?
– Service specifications, business cases and models already in
use
– Benchmarking, KPIs, outcomes
– Commissioning support resources (NICE, Royal Colleges,
professional organisations)
• Will it work here?
– Summaries of evidence/ impact analysis
– Case finding studies
• Key topics
– Hot Topics – resource collections on current topics
– www.qualitymk.nhs.uk/hot_topics.htm

4. References are not enough
• Attend the meetings and talk to people
• Understand the significance of particular
pieces of research / reports / case
studies / tools
• Highlight relevant sections
• Summarise if possible

5. What’s new?
– Resources you should know about
• Knowledge@lerts for Commissioners – fortnightly
email bulletin to commissioning staff & others
• FYI – emails to individuals/teams
• GP Briefing – supporting local CCG development
• Bulletins for key teams
– I need to keep up to date with….
• Key alerting services brought together on Quality
MK website

6. Commissioning Handbook for Librarians
http://commissioning.pbworks.com/
• A live, collaborative, wiki based initiative developed by
information professionals across NHS England
• Organised to reflects the stages of the commissioning
cycle
• Section on Information needs of commissioners
• “Ask an Expert” – PCC initiative including LIS input –
putting library services up there with other
commissioning support services

7. The need for clarity in evidence based
commissioning. HSJ 26 May 2011 p23-25
“Using evidence is not an open
and shut case. Producing
evidence to aid commissioning
is not enough”