Membership

Terms of reference

• To advocate the value of library and information services within healthcare and social care with leading organisations and influencers in the sector, including the Department of Health, Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy and the NHS Executive. In so doing to produce policy statements, responses and other advocacy material as appropriate
• To engage with relevant bodies in relation to cross-sectoral policy development affecting health libraries such as common procurement and licensing of electronic content, accreditation, information literacy etc
• To identify future developments and trends within the healthcare and social care sectors that will impact on library and information services and to facilitate knowledge sharing amongst members of the Health Strategy Group, their sponsoring organisations and more widely in the sector
• To be sensitive to any differences across the home nations in relation to health policy and libraries or NHS/HE engagement and to ensure adequate communication with such bodies as the Devolved Nations Forum and higher education bodies in these countries
• To disseminate information useful to SCONUL and other membership networks on the work of the joint Health Strategy Group particularly in relation to key policy developments and issues in the health sector

Responses to consultations

• Consultation response: Accessible information standards, NHS England, October 2014
• Consultation document – Knowledge strategy: harnessing the power of information to improve the public’s health. October 2013
• Shape of Training Review 2013
• NHS Listening Exercise 2011 - Health Libraries response
• Liberating the NHS 2011: an Information Revolution- Health Libraries response
• Liberating the NHS 2010: Healthcare Workforce - Health Libraries response
• National Review of NHS Library Services in England 2008 - Health Libraries response
• The NHS library policy review 2004 – developing the strategic roadmap
• Funding of HE Library Services to Support the NHS: report of a survey 2003

Bakground to the group

Formerly the Joint Health Strategy Group, the Health and Social Care Strategy Group has constituent members from a number of significant library organisations who have health interests.  The founding members are SCONUL, CILIP and RLUK.  In addition, the group also has representation from the British Library Health Care Information Service; CILIP Health Libraries Group; NHS Strategic Health Authority Library Leads Group (SHALL); University Health and Medical Librarians Group (UHMLG)  and the Consortium of Health Independent Libraries in London (CHILL). Meetings are held in London usually three times per year and are currently hosted by SCONUL. The meetings are chaired by a representative of RLUK and SCONUL.

The group has existed in many forms over a considerable number of years, having worked in a previous incarnation as the SCONUL Advisory Committee on Health Services (ACHS) which was established in 1993.  The group was re-established in its current form as the Health Strategy Group in May 2004. The HSG agreed from its inception to include in its membership, those individuals who had extensive and wide-ranging experience of working with the NHS. In 2008, the HSG agreed to develop into a tripartite group of SCONUL, Research Libraries UK and CILIP to further strengthen its advocacy and engagement scope. The enlarged Joint Health Strategy Group continues to respond and to advocate at the highest levels on behalf of its constituent members.