The Care Services Improvement Partnership (CSIP) was created inthe United Kingdom to support improvement and development in arange of services across health and local government, for children,adults, and older people, including those experiencing mentaldistress, physical disability, or learning disability. CSIP have asuccessful track record in providing developmental support forprovider organizations and commissioners across the UK NationalHealth Service (NHS), local authorities, regional agencies, andvoluntary and private organizations. In doing this CSIP can drawnot only on the diverse background of the experienced clinicians,practitioners, and senior managers within the CSIP Team but also onspecialists working for CSIP nationally as well as networks ofpeople who use services and their caregivers.

CSIP is a knowledge organization and supports localorganizations to ensure that their service improvement activitiesare based on the most up-to-date and complete evidence of goodpractice. CSIP has been well positioned to provide an "honestbroker" and facilitative role between the NHS and local governmentand between both of these and the Department of Health, helping toforge the active partnerships that are critical to successfulreduction of health and social care inequalities. CSIP takes aholistic, “whole-system” approach, involving health, social care,third-sector (voluntary and community) organizations, as well asthe users of care services and their caregivers. CSIP employs arange of specialists, approximately 70 people, from a wide range ofbackgrounds. Many of the Program Leads are seconded from or alsohold key roles with in local organizations, ensuring that theirexpertise and knowledge are based on current service delivery,issues, and practices.

CSIP has long recognized that it is a “Knowledge Organization.”The ways in which it helps its client and partner organizations tobring about service improvements relies heavily on its knowledgeof, for example, the latest developments in new policyimplementation and emerging good practice. Equally, CSIP isstriving to “keep its own house in order” by making its internalmanagement of key knowledge and information as effective andefficient as it can.

Therefore CSIP decided that it needed to continually develop andimprove its working practices, working culture and environment,systems, and tools by implementing knowledge management initiativesand developing a knowledge management strategy to more formallyidentify, manage, and apply its knowledge assets. CSIP identifiedseveral key knowledge needs:

“We need to feel genuinely happy that we are getting best valuefrom our knowledge, as we build on and share this within our teamand the wider Health and Social Care community.”

“Knowledge is our business. We are ‘honest brokers’ of keyknowledge for implementing policy, sharing good practice andeffecting improvement and innovation in the design, commissioning,and delivery of a range of priority services in Health and SocialCare across England.”

In terms of a more formal KM Process, the nature of the CSIPbusiness requires them to excel in capturing, storing, sharing,collaborating, and harvesting key business knowledge. The same istrue of making use of (or being!) leading experts and working inand with leading Communities of Practice.

“Prior to learning about formal KM approaches, it’s fair to saythat we weren’t so explicitly aware of each of theseaspects/elements of an overall process and what each one means orentails. Other elements of a formal process—measuring andmaintaining and improving a KM system itself—were quite naturallynot in our consideration before we began formally ‘doing KM’.”

CSIP also recognized the need to facilitate the above byencouraging and enabling those people involved to “tell theirstory”; sharing knowledge and communicating through as wide avariety of channels as possible.

“We need to be much better at telling our own story; because bydoing so we better achieve our own organisational goals, wedemonstrate our own value (to our funding organisations; to thetaxpayer).”

CSIP undertook some specific programs

• KM awareness-raising and education across the wholeorganization.

• Establishing a KM Working Group (members trained in a KMConsulting Methodology to the level of Knowledge Practitioners tosupport the KM) lead, plan, and help manage the KM program ofwork.

• KM assessment surveys to determine the current level ofmaturity.

• Identification of key knowledge areas and critical knowledgeassets.

• Development of a KM strategy.

• Training people in knowledge-working skills and using relevanttools.

• Creating knowledge roles across the organization.

• Linking fulfilment of knowledge roles with training and othersupport, and with the organizational (NHS-wide) framework forpersonal knowledge and skills development.

• (Before and after establishing a formal KM program) Stronglyfocusing on innovative developments in flexible and collaborativeIT tools and systems. Particularly high technological freedom isensured by using web-based, open-source technologies.

Program Implementation and keyresults

2006: Initial cohort of Knowledge Practitioner trainees(senior management team and IT manager); great enthusiasm for andengagement with ideas of KM and some organization-wideawareness-raising and education.

2007: Funding of first full-time dedicated KM post beganearly 2007; early successes included:

More awareness-raising sessions open to the whole team,widespread training and uptake of devolved website contentmanagement system, redevelopment of main external communicationsorgan: a monthly e-bulletin (for the first time making use of nowmuch more extensively populated website),

Publication of various Success Stories, drawing on the work ofthe whole organization.

More concerted development of web-based database andaccompanying tool for management of work and corporate contacts,performance reporting, and early CRM-type facilities.

Training of those who then became the KM Working Group tookplace in early 2008: The first CSIPWM KM Strategy was written andapproved in April 2008. The KM Working Group planned and carriedout three formal pilot projects (analysis and enhancing ofknowledge-based networks, processes, and IT tools) and variousother work, The KMWG consists of at least one Director, the HRManager, the Finance Manager, an IT representative, a Program Leadrepresentative, and the KM Lead. This group reports regularly tothe Senior Management Team, as well as reporting regulardevelopments to the whole organization.

Throughout the period, more training was carried out on KMawareness and explanation of the KM strategy, and what it means toindividuals, teams, the organization, and beyond. Furthermore, workcontinued to create knowledge roles, and more supporting systemsdevelopment was commissioned (ongoing) of custom software formanaging work delivery and performance reporting, contacts, events,CRM, etc.

The clear key results that CSIP is now experiencing fromimplementing the KM initiatives, so far, are:

1. Increased, team-wide awareness of KM and its benefits.

2. Training in knowledge-application skills; results includemuch greater use of a highly devolved website Content ManagementSystem, Confluence (Wiki), Skype, and other smarter features of theweb and email systems. CSIP is now exploring narrative techniquesas tools not only for enhanced communication but also fororganizational development—both for the organization and as aservice Improvement tool for its clients.

3. Adoption of knowledge roles, with much better management ofknowledge bases in various areas as a result.

4. Clear increases in publication of stories of CSIP work, and asteadily increasing volume of visits to the website.

5. Enhancements to the way CSIP has been managing and reportingon the delivery of work.

6. Improved cross-visibility and shared knowledge of completedand current work all across the team, leading to more collaborationin planning and delivery of the work.

7. Building an asset of “learning logs” from completed pieces ofwork.

8. Positive description, analysis, and measurement of KMmaturity from questionnaires and measurement tools between 2006 and2009.

Explain the key results experienced and lessonslearned by CSIP from implementing the knowledge managementinitiatives.??

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