NHS brushes up on Itil

Case study: How to invest in training without breaking the bank...

NHS IT delivery organisation Sussex Health Informatics Services (HIS) has implemented an extensive Itil (IT infrastructure library) training programme for staff and kept costs down by partnering with the training company to resell places on the courses.

Marion Pavitt, operational Itil manager for Sussex HIS, which provides an IT service for all the NHS Trusts in Sussex, said the organisation was not simply looking for a 'low cost training solution' but wanted to find a company that would work with it to create an innovative, tailored solution.

While some Itil training had already been undertaken by staff at Sussex HIS, it was not a comprehensive programme, said Pavitt, and HIS wanted all staff to have at least a basic grasp of Itil "so they all understood the direction of travel for the organisation and understand that we want to be an excellent service organisation not just technical IT". Around 80 per cent would also take an Itil foundation course.

Itil refers to a set of enterprise IT best practice guidelines aimed at helping organisations deliver quality IT services. Pavitt explained: "Itil provides us with a tried and tested framework. It's a lot of common sense. And it's a common language that everybody can share.

"In terms of it being important to the NHS it's for the same reasons it would be for anybody else really. It shares good practice, enables the organisations to work across teams - which is something that's difficult for most organisations but particularly difficult for large organisations like the NHS. It just provides that very positive framework."

However, getting so much training on the south coast was tricky, as Pavitt said there are no large training companies located there - and she was keen to avoid everyone having to travel up to London. "It would have cost us a fortune and it would have been really inconvenient for our staff," she said.

Pink Elephant, one of the four training companies bidding for the contract, suggested making use of the NHS' large estate of buildings to bring the training to staff, rather than having them travel elsewhere. The company was also innovative in offering a training partnership which enables Sussex HIS to sell places on the courses to recoup some of the training costs.

Pavitt explained: "We resell courses ourselves to other NHS Trusts and other local government organisations - we can resell our courses to anybody so we actually make some money on them. But also Pink Elephant are reselling the courses so the idea is to have each course up to capacity. And we get money back for every course that's sold… We still end up paying some money for the courses but it is significantly reduced."

Sussex HIS reserves 12 places on the course and Pink Elephant can sell up to four, said Pavitt. "Having the courses here cuts the cost, not having to pay for the expenses cuts the cost, so all in all we're making huge savings," she added.

The first training courses took place last September and Sussex HIS has training booked right up until the end of the year, said Pavitt. Feedback from staff has been good - and there is around a 95 per cent pass rate on exams they take at the end of the course.

The training has also had a positive impact on staff attitudes to work processes, according to Pavitt. "The language has changed especially round things that are quite controversial - like change processes," she said. "We've definitely got a much greater buy-in for a lot of the things that we've been trying to do. Now that the staff understand what the end goal is and why we're doing it."