Why is change management important?

As part of Lord Darzi’s Next Stage Review (‘High Quality Care for All’) the ten SHAs in England have created their local visions for better health outcomes and better care for their local populations.

The published visions (see links below)  provide a foundation for transformational change: a change that is free from organisational boundaries; change that is life enhancing for patients and staff.

The National Health Informatics Review also identified change management skills as important:

“The review has identified a general shortage of the skills required to plan and implement change programmes in all their stages, from effective integrated planning, through technical deployment, business change and on to benefits realisation. This shortage, of appropriately experienced change … managers, is present in both the NHS and the independent sector.”

Advice and resources for change managers

A wide range of organisations offer advice and learning for those seeking to facilitate change.

• Resources and online tools
• Useful books

Local activities are often available to support your development in change management including:

• Mentoring
• Coaching

Courses and certification

It is possible to develop change management skills through a variety of courses and qualifications.

• The British Computer Society offers information on the ISEB Practitioner Certificate in Change Management. This qualification covers the Service Management discipline of Change Management as described in the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Service Support book. The qualification also covers ITIL Service Management principles in general, and the interdependencies between these and Change Management.
• The Association for Project Management (APM) also offers qualifications in project and programme management, which include elements of change management.
• Qualifications: Most MSc in Health Informatics or Health Information Management include optional modules on change and managing change. Some universities eg City University, London and University of Leeds have begun opening these electives up for CPD learning.
• Continuing Professional Development (CPD) modules

Related areas

Change management is closely related to other skill areas - change managers should also consider resources in these areas:

• Service improvement and quality improvement
• Leadership
• Project and programme management - including benefits realisation and stakeholder engagement
• Resource management
• Staff management

SHA Vision documents

• NHS South Central - http://www.southcentral.nhs.uk/page.php?id=249;
• NHS East of England - http://www.eoe.nhs.uk/page.php?area_id=2;
• NHS North East - http://www.northeast.nhs.uk/vision/future/;
• NHS South East Coast - http://www.southeastcoast.nhs.uk/hpec/;
• NHS North West - http://www.northwest.nhs.uk/projects/onof/from_good_to_great.html;
• NHS West Midlands - http://ifh2.westmidlands.nhs.uk/l;
• NHS Yorkshire and the Humber - http://www.yorksandhumber.nhs.uk/what_we_do/regional_vision/;
• NHS South West - http://www.southwest.nhs.uk/strategicframework.html;
• NHS East Midlands - http://www.eastmidlands.nhs.uk/home-page/next-stage-review/vision-document;
• NHS London - http://www.london.nhs.uk/what-we-do

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