A Summary of the Umbrella 5 session: Creating an accreditation tool for health libraries
Erica Dixon, student representative, sponsored to IFM Healthcare
Standards
The toolkit
Accreditation in practice
The challenges
Benefits of accreditation
The session was split into two sections, the first was presented by
Valerie Trinder. Valerie is the library services manager at Plymouth
Hospital Trust and accreditation advisor for the NHS South West Region.
She is also a member of the LINC Health Accreditation Working Group, and
gained her fellowship of the Library Association for her work on accreditation
guidance documents.
Valerie's section focused on the how, why and what aspects of LINC accreditation.
She began by looking at how the standards have developed. A working
group was convened with representatives from all regions and sectors with
an interest in the standards. This was to ensure that the standards
could be applied across the whole sector. The LINC panel then took
up the initiative. The standards were then tested in the Trent and
in Oxford region, leading to a checklist and toolkit being published about
twelve months ago, with a national seminar for assessors.
Standards
The need for rationalisation of current standards and the desire for
a generic tool for the whole of the health information field, were identified
as the main reasons for the development of the standards. It is hoped
that these standards will also gain the endorsement from other accrediting
bodies across the health field. Although the point was made during
discussions that this will be a slow process, especially with libraries
often featuring so low in the priorities of many of these organisations.
The standards can also be used for other applications such as assessment
of how well managers are performing or the development of a business plan.
The standards themselves take the form of a set of generic statements.
Accreditation will be given using a starred system of three levels: achievement
is determined by the level and number of statements judged to have been
attained. Requirements that are necessary for a basic level accreditation
are denoted by three stars and should be attainable by most libraries with
relatively little action. The greatest emphasis is placed on strategic
planning: this is not just aims and objectives, business and development
plans need to be submitted. Application of the standards is strict
and rigorous in order to make accreditation have meaning and represent
an achievement. It is therefore necessary to provide
evidence both on paper and via observation to meet the standard.
Following the assessment a report is written. A copy of the report
will go to the library manager, the chief executive of the organisation
concerned, the regional library unit, the regional head of information
library services development, the post-graduate dean, and the consortium
if there is one. A certificate is then issued.
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The toolkit
In order to help applicants apply the generic statements to their own
situation sector specific toolkits (e.g. for trusts, health authorities,
higher education) have been produced, identifying examples and giving guidance.
The publications offer interpretation of the statements and explain how
they should be applied to the sector in question. They will define
acceptable and best practice (e.g. what is meant by a business plan) and
also include 'how to do it' guides.
In the South West initial experiences of the visit process found that
at least two, preferably three, assessors are needed. These assessors
need to meet both before and after the assessment as assessor views will
vary. It was considered that combining the views of a number of assessors
provided a fairer view of the service. The reports produced purposely
discard the use of exception reporting. Recommendations and praise
should be contained in the final report.
With regard to the evidence submitted, a number of points were raised.
A complete checklist and selected evidence, such as the business plan,
should be submitted in advance. Only a sample of the evidence needs
to be seen, e.g. a selection of user leaflets. Limited staff and
user sampling on the day also contributed to the process. The lack of recent
user surveys was found to be a problem.
The advice given to assessees was to regard the process as a weapon.
This is particularly true for failed services. The outcome can help
put over the issues and points that you have been making for years.
Other recommendations were to: get your team on board; read through the
checklist well in advance; understand the requirements (use the toolkit);
be clear about the star rating system; start early with the three star
statements; ask for advice or a pre visit; and start to collate a file
of evidence.
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Accreditation
in practice
With this in mind the session was handed over to Stephen Sharp.
Stephen is Assistant Librarian at Heatherwood and Wrexham Park Hospitals
Trust. The trust was one of the first library services to
undergo accreditation and as such he provided some insights into
the process. He began by explaining why the service had decided
there was a need for accreditation. It was felt that the process
of accreditation would help the service analyse and deal with many
of the problems arising from the increasing demand for information
with limited resources. It would also be a way of demonstrating
value, and help with the drive for efficiency and effectiveness.
Having decided to go for accreditation the decision of when to apply
for accreditation then needed to be taken. The point was made
that there is never an ideal time for this type of process, and
that reasons for not going ahead can always be found. Therefore
it is important to remember that accreditation will mean an improvement
to the service and therefore the quicker it is done the quicker
improvements will take place.
The challenges
Two main challenges for accreditation were identified: interpretation
of the statements, and compilation of the evidence. The generic nature
of the statements led to a lot of time being spent on interpretation, which
led to considerable pressure on time and resources. His advice here
was to remember to use the toolkit for clarification of the requirements,
and focus efforts on the three star statements.
Benefits
of accreditation
Following the report the true benefits of the accreditation became clear.
There was a positive force for change and a customer focus had been gained.
The process had raised staff motivation and helped team building.
Every member of staff had been involved allowing creativity and the integration
of the branches. The profile of the service within the Directorate
and Trust as a whole was improved, helping to justify the existence of
the service and the push for extra funds. The three-year rolling
programme also created an on-going process of development. The process
is time consuming and there are no short cuts to accreditation, however
with hindsight it was felt that this was beneficial and necessary in order
to identify problems and make real improvements.
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Last updated July 2000.
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