HI Career Framework - Case Studies

Supporting New NHS Wales Organisations

The first phase of NHS Wales restructuring has involved the move to a considerably reduced number of NHS Trusts. Some existing trusts have been going through a merger process. The HI Professional Development Team (primarily Jackie Barker, IHC) have been involved in supporting some merging Health Informatics services in scoping the new functions.

The process in 'Trust A' involved facilitating workshops and consultations using a mapping document that underpins the HICF and the Health Informatics National Occupational Standards. The work involved scoping the future health informatics service requirement. The range of required functions and ways of working were then linked to existing functions and structures, identifying:

• similarities between the merging organisations
• differences in current provision and
• a systematic and objective way of identifying the way forward.

Following several workshops and consultation, a new departmental structure has been proposed. The HICF has been used to define the responsibilities and competences of the required senior roles. New job descriptions and person specifications have been developed using the career framework model and senior posts will be advertised shortly. It is anticipated that the HICF will then support both the definition of workforce requirements within the new department, and the development individual members of staff appointed to those posts.

The team is now involved in a similar exercise in another merging trust.

Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Health Informatics Service (BEHHIS)

Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Health Informatics Service (BEHHIS) is a shared Information and IT service supporting four partners in North London:

• Barnet PCT
• Enfield PCT
• Haringey TPCT
• Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health Trust

The service was established in 2001 as a result of organisational change within the sector, and has grown with the merger of Barnet PCT in July 2007.

BEHHIS has been working closely with the NHS Connecting for Health and the Capability and Capacity Programme since 2008, to develop the skills, knowledge and experience to plan, deploy and maximise the benefits that are realised from IM&T enabled change.

To that end the partners outlined above have completed the Local Health Community Informatics Strategic Assessment (LISA) tool. This tool has been designed to provide PCTs and local health community leaders with a means of determining their collective preparedness to deliver informatics enabled service improvements. It is a means of helping PCT CEO's deliver against their accountabilities, which have been reinforced in the NHS Operating Framework for 2009/10.

The C&C programme also focuses on building the capacity and capability of people who work in health informatics, through a number of different projects. BEHHIS has been involved in the evaluation of the Health Informatics Career Framework (HICF) and received authorisation from the governing body of the partners, the HIS Board to pilot this framework within the service. The NHS CFH HI team have developed Professionalising Health Informatics (PHI) which provides a one-stop shop providing information and links about professional development opportunities. BEHHIS are working closely with PHI to identify key analytical courses that will bring accreditation to those staff working with the analytical and modelling environments.

In the summer of 2008 the Informatics Service was expanded at the request of two of its partners to deliver a new service known as 'Intelligent Commissioning'. This resulted in significant extra investment within this service and the need to restructure to deliver the expected benefits associated with the increased investment.

The Health Informatics Professional Development, Framing your Future model was used in creating a new structure within the team to ensure a structure which could support career development, through the KSF process.

The proposed Information Service Structure shows the implemented organisational structure of Informatics within BEHHIS. This can be said to mirror the HICF job specification from Analyst level at CF5 Practitioner level to the CF8 Head of Information level.

To summarise, the benefits that have been delivered through the use of these tools are;

• Supports individuals in managing career and development
• Provides employers with a tool to support development and career progression
• Provides a tool for workforce planning

The next stages will be for BEHHIS, HICF England Lead and PHI Project Team to work closely to identify a course to provide accreditation for Informaticians working with the NHS to develop their skills to more effectively deliver World Class Commissioning and support the NHS Planning round.

Informing Healthcare

After consideration at a senior level and also through consultation with various teams and individuals, including the Human Resources Manager, it became clear that there were several ways the HICF could contribute to IHC's organisational and professional development and in helping deliver its objectives.

IHC is using the HICF as follows:

Recruitment and selection

The HICF is built into the recruitment process at IHC. When a job vacancy arises the role profiles on the HICF are used to define the scope, build the job description and person specification for the new post and assist in the development of KSF outlines. The HICF adds value to this process by providing a consistent language for describing key functions which are based on National Occupational Standards. This will lead to more systematic analysis of gaps in the IHC workforce as its needs change over time, clearer definitions of roles, more consistent job descriptions and more transparent career opportunities.

Personal development

All staff and managers in post are aware of the HICF and how to use it. The on-line tool is used to underpin the development of KSF outlines and is used during personal development reviews to assist in providing evidence for personal appraisal, to discuss development in the current role and plan future career opportunities and development.

Development of teams

The successful development and roll out of IHC products to NHS Wales organisations is dependent on having the right numbers and skill mix of staff in local organisations. IHC is using the HICF to identify the appropriate knowledge and skills requirement to achieve a successful end roll out.

Appointment of external consultants

On occasion IHC needs to recruit external consultant to supplement its capacity and capability and also when procuring external products and services the necessary knowledge and skills of suppliers needs to be defined and assured. The HICF is used to identify knowledge and skills required which can then be included in specifications and tender evaluations.

This model is being advocated for use by other organisations and is currently being endorsed and used by the following organisations:

• Welsh Cancer Intelligence Surveillance Unit (WCISU)

  The HICF team were invited to facilitate a workshop for all WCISU staff and the General Manager has identified it as the way in which she will plan workforce development to meet the future needs of the organisation. In the meantime, WCISU is committed to using the HICF for the personal development of staff. Members of staff have already submitted case studies and career paths to enhance the information of the HICF and contribute to its wider implementation.

• Business Service Centre (BSC)

  Following a number of workshops with the BSC sites throughout Wales senior managers are committed to endorsing HICF for all their IM&T staff. All their job descriptions are being mapped to the HICF to ensure consistency and alignment to the national standard.

• North Wales Centre of Expertise

  A workshop with the whole team of the Centre of Expertise based on the HICF roles has enabled them to use the HICF to identify their collective learning needs and for their manager to develop a learning and development programme which is now underway.

• National Survey of Design and Development Capability in Wales

  The HICF was used to scope the function of design and development and identify indicative roles for inclusion in a survey to determine current design and development capacity and capability in Wales, Comparison of results with HICF highlighted the wide variation in descriptions, pay bands and other inconsistencies. It is being considered as a way of moving towards a consensus driven, consistent approach to recruitment, retention, workforce planning and development across Wales.

Development of Information Governance Qualifications

Magi Nwolie is the Information Governance Policy Support Manager at Connecting for Health. Magi's aim in using the HICF was to develop Information Governance (IG) qualifications. Her starting point was to create the outline for a Foundation Degree in IG. Completing an IG Foundation Degree will facilitate the progression of staff from IG Assistant, or other junior informatics roles, to move into IG Officer roles. It will also enable the 'sideways' movement of practitioner level staff from non-IG roles. In addition, such IG qualifications will assist organisations to meet challenges with regard to recruitment and retention issues, and the maintenance and improvement of IG performance.

The Digital Information Policy team (at Connecting for Health) carried out an IG resourcing project which identified a skills shortage in this area, as well as recruitment and retention problems within the field of IG, particularly within PCTs and SHAs in many areas of the country. Recruiting IG managers that meet all requirements has proved to be extremely difficult. There is a need to promote and develop IG as a profession and Magi believes the HICF can help achieve this.

When Magi began developing the Foundation Degree outline, the first thing she did was to search the HICF for job roles relating to IG staff and discovered there are several. She used these roles to identify the competences and expectations of someone who had successfully undertaken a Foundation Degree. This highlighted a gap between the job roles of Information Governance Officer set at career framework level 6 and Information Governance Assistant set at career framework level 4.

It was apparent to Magi that, if an individual wished to progress within IG from level 4 to level 6 there was a large hurdle between the competences required for the two roles. However, if students were to successfully complete the Foundation Degree they will achieve competences, skills and qualifications somewhere between the two levels outlined above. This will provide a progressive and achievable route for staff already working at level 4, whether within or outside of IG roles.

The HICF defines level 5 Practitioners as those that:

• Use broad theoretical and practical knowledge that is often specialised within a field and shows awareness of limits to knowledge base AND demonstrates ability to transfer theoretical and practical knowledge in creating solutions to problems OR
  
  
• Use broad theoretical and practical knowledge that is often specialised within a field and shows awareness of limits to knowledge base AND develops planned and creative responses in researching solutions to well defined concrete and abstract problems.

These descriptions would appropriately reflect the qualities of a member of staff that has undertaken a Foundation Degree in IG, this led to the initial work to develop a new job role, that of the Junior Information Governance Officer with linked competences at level 5 on the HICF.

Magi looked at the competences for the Level 6 and Level 4 job roles in more depth to see which competences were necessary to enable staff to bridge the gap between them, she also looked at other level 5 job roles to identify whether there were any common competences that should be reflected in the new job role.

Magi found identification of the required competences for the new job role was very straight-forward using the HICF and found the tool easy to use and intuitive. She plans to continue using the HICF in future for:

• Work-force planning, including making the case for better structure and skills within information governance teams.
• Preparing Agenda for Change job profiles for information governance team members.

Health Informatics Graduate Management Training (GMTS)

Radhika Rangaraju is a participant on the Health Informatics Graduate Management Training (GMTS) Scheme prior to which she was a Service Specialist with Edexcel, an examinations and qualification provider. She also studied for an MSc in Managing Business with IT whilst employed in her previous role. Radhika was keen to use the knowledge picked up during her MSc, so applied and gained a place on the GMTS.

To enable them to obtain the benefit of a broader experience, the graduates undertake several placements whilst on the scheme at different NHS organisations.

The HICF programme manager introduced the HICF to the GMTS participants as a useful tool that can help them with career planning and identification of future development needs to help them achieve their career aspirations. Radhika has used the HICF to help her identify a suitable progression route and plan a career pathway upon completion of the GTMS:

"I used the HICF to map my career and to identify the senior posts at the level I was aiming for, and what development I would need to get there. I did get a good sense of what potential jobs I could aim for and also who my potential competitors would be. It also provided some assurance on the career progression prospects via the Health Informatics route."

Radhika confirmed she will use the HICF in future and is keen to see further developments. She also plans to use it to review the competences defined for each role to help her prepare for interviews.

Staff Development, NHS East of England

Val Taylor-Rowe is the ETD and Capability and Capacity Lead at NHS East of England. Val's role sits across 2 distinct career paths: Programme Manager and a Training Lead.

Val has recently recruited an assistant, Kate Leebetter, to work with her on a number of projects. As Kate was completely new to this line of work, Val wanted to use the HICF to help her decide which direction she wanted to concentrate on, Project Management or Training, and by doing so, identify her development needs.

They discussed the two roles in detail and used the HICF to support their discussion, as well as to identify career progression in both areas. Using the HICF enabled Kate to see clearly how her role could develop over time, as well as demonstrating other opportunities that might lie ahead of her, depending upon which route she decided to take. Referring to the HICF also provided Kate with a wider vision of these pathways, rather than basing her decision merely on the local application of the roles.

Following discussion of Kate's options, they agreed a way forward which identified a number of development needs, some immediate, some long term. They are now preparing and agreeing a personal development plan to address these needs, together with a more long term career plan.

Val and Kate said having all the information in one place was extremely useful and the visual, honeycomb format made it easy to understand. They also said that the HICF showed Kate the wider opportunities that were open to her, rather than just following the one career route. Both found the information under the job specifications really useful and it has prompted Kate to have in-depth discussion with Val and with other staff members who were in that role.

Val confirms that she will continue to use the HICF to assist her own, her team's and organisation's needs, such as career progression, workforce and succession planning, recruitment and retention; and will recommend it to others.

Recruitment and Retention of Information Analysts

Like many NHS organisations, those across the South East Coast have struggled to recruit and retain Information Analysts. The SHA is trying to help improve this situation. They have approached Universities to explain and promote Information Analysis in the NHS to graduates. Through this work they have emphasised the rewarding career opportunities available in Health Informatics as a whole. In addition, they have explained that graduates can move into Information Analysis from a wide variety of backgrounds. Having the Health Informatics Career Framework (HICF) in place has helped support them in this process. It clearly outlines both the breadth of roles available and the potential to move through these roles into more senior positions. The SHA has helped to recruit two new graduates into Information Analysis and the HICF was a great help in this process.

Looking to the future, development and recruitment of analytical capacity in the South East Coast will continue to be informed and promoted using the HICF. It will be used to illustrate career pathways to attract high calibre candidates of all levels.

Promoting Careers Health Informatics in Wales

The HIProFILE Team is using the career framework to promote health informatics as a career of choice to schoolchildren and students, the team is actively engaged in:

• Working with the Education Business Partnerships initially in South Wales, visiting schools to promote careers in informatics
• Undertaking work experience pupils and promoting the career framework to them
• Running stands at the NHS Wales Open week to promote careers in informatics

Team Development

Amanda Grindall is a Senior Project Manager within the SHA Programme team for Health Informatics. Amanda has used the HICF with individual members of the Programme Team.

The Programme Manager used the HICF to be better informed with regard to managing staff, appraisals etc, and departmental development. He found it useful to understand levels of roles within Informatics. The programme manager also successfully used the HICF to update his own KSF, as well as to check the KSF levels of his role against that of Programme Manager.

The Project Manager used the HICF to give an outline of what skills and experience would be required to further her career within Health Informatics. She felt this would also provide her with the confidence to apply for senior roles and increase the likelihood of being successful, as she would be better informed about what competences employers are seeking. She focused on the project and programme management section as that was the particular area of interest. She also used the HICF to find out more about the various staff groups the framework covered and the different levels to see the career pathway for project and programme management. The project manager also reported that using the HICF had given her food for thought on the type of development and additional experience needed to progress her career in project management.

The Project Support Officer used the HICF to complete her KSF form, plan a potential career path, plan future training (based on the list of relevant qualifications).

Designing an IM&T Department – Hypothetical Case Study

The HICF provides the 'building blocks' for the structuring of teams, departments and services. These 'building blocks' are in the shape of HI job roles and also the National Occupational Standards that underpin them. They can be put together into an organisation chart to show accountabilities and levels of individual responsibility.

An emerging Trust required the formation of a new IM&T Department. A management team was put in place to design and structure the new department. A workshop was held to draw on examples of good practice, and also lessons learnt from previous experience. A clear strategy was also put in place and agreed at top level for the new IM&T Department.

Using the HICF, the management team put together an organisational chart showing the roles and accountabilities required to meet the agreed strategy. The necessary HI job roles within the team were informed by many of the HI job roles contained within the HICF. However, the management team also needed to identify additional HI job roles that were not included in the HICF. The management team assembled outline job descriptions for all members of staff within the new Department using the information and approach provided in the HICF. This entailed working through each of the HI job roles and adding specific detail to the content.

The management team have now begun recruiting individuals to the IM&T Department based on the organisational chart and detailed descriptions of the roles.

Creating 'Hybrid' Health Informatics Roles – Hypothetical Case Study

Managers in a North of England SHA had identified the need for someone to work across information and knowledge management, with project management type skills. Essentially the role required a mix of skills to support the implementation of new knowledge based systems across health and social care.

Using the HICF, the HR manager was able to review the skills, qualifications and knowledge required for a Librarian, as well as those required for a Project Manager. These were taken as the basis for developing a 'hybrid' HI role which required a range of skills. As a result of this approach the HR manager was able to use this information as the basis for the recruitment and selection of a suitable individual for the post. The successful job applicant came from outside the NHS and had worked in a Local Government initiative to join up library services across a region.