Agreements for providing knowledge and library services to other organisations.
Service level agreements (SLAs) are written agreements outlining the service to be provided by one party (often referred to as the provider or supplier) to another.
Within the context of NHS knowledge and library services they are often used to facilitate the delivery of library services from one organisation to another.
In this context the provider or supplier will be an existing library service, usually within the NHS or higher education, and the commissioner (requesting and receiving the service) will be another NHS organisation.
SLAs can be commissioned by organisations where they currently have no internal knowledge and library service in place. They may also be used to enhance existing internal knowledge and library provision in order to fill skills, resource or capacity gaps which have been identified.
The ability to negotiate, design, and deliver Service Level Agreements is a useful skill for NHS knowledge and library service managers. CILIP’s Professional Knowledge and Skills Base (PKSB) recognises the importance of SLA management skills within Section 12 (Strategy, Planning and Management):
Information:Managing pre and post contractual matters which include bidding, tendering, and review, drafting, negotiation and monitoring of contracts. Includes an understanding of procurement, due diligence, licences and SLAs.
CILIP PKSB 12.9 Contract Management
SLAs will differ from organisation to organisation but in general will contain details of the following elements as a minimum:
The SLA is a contract between the parties involved in providing and commissioning services. Pantry and Griffiths in their 2001 book, Complete Guide to Preparing and Implementing Service Level Agreements, suggest the SLA:
Click on the expander for each section of the SLA.
Parties involvedThis section will make clear who is involved in the agreement. More specifically it should detail clearly who is commissioning or contracting the service and who is providing the service.
This will cover the names of the organisations involved but should also name individuals who will be involved in ongoing reporting and communications around the SLA to aid transparency for both parties.
A consequence of not being clear on those responsible for reporting and communicating about the SLA may well be that no communication takes place and the SLA either fails in its purpose, cannot be effectively reported on, and/or becomes much more difficult to renegotiate over time as priorities change.
Although it may be necessary to involve other stakeholders in the sign-off process, it may be useful if there is an opportunity for the named individuals involved in the reporting process to sign the document to enhance their ownership of the process.
Services covered by the agreementThis section can often be the most detailed and will require negotiation between the supplier and commissioner to agree the specifics of what is required and explore the ability of the supplier to deliver what is required within the finances available from the commissioner. This can be referred to as the “service specification”.
It will rarely be possible for NHS knowledge and library specialists to deliver a fully comprehensive service identical to that available to their host organisation unless substantial funding is available attached to the SLA. Therefore, it is crucial to agree the specific deliverables and document these within the SLA to prevent any misunderstanding.
What services are expected to be delivered as part of the SLA? This could include borrowing rights and access to physical space and resources, access to information skills training, evidence searching, current awareness and so on. It is important to factor in the costs associated with negotiating, managing and reporting on the contract.
Consideration should be given to the anticipated levels of service demand. For example, if evidence searches are part of the agreement, how many are likely to be required each year. If document supply and inter-lending is included, how many instances are expected per year, and so on. This then provides a trigger for renegotiation later should the demand exceed expected levels.
If quality measures and key performance indicators (KPIs) are to be included in the agreement, then these will also need to be negotiated and detailed here. In the context of NHS knowledge and library services this might include details such as responding to email queries from staff within x days, or delivering evidence searches within X days. Further ideas are available on the metrics page.
There may be a provision included for what happens in circumstances where the provider is unable to deliver the agreed service.
Financial value of the agreementIt is important that the services and resources covered by the SLA are deliverable within the financial envelope attached to the agreement. The service manager supplying the service is encouraged to use NHS costing tools or speak to the local finance team to provide an evidence base for any estimates and decisions around the cost of the SLA.
Rather than denoting fixed overall costs for the agreement, sometimes a “pay-as-you-go" approach is offered. The agreement may designate a fixed fee for each literature search, training session, or document supply request, for example.
Whilst the commissioning organisation may feel more confident about not paying for services which might not be fully used, they may however have less control over usage and costs. Careful monitoring and capping is required to avoid over-spending.
For the provider pay-as-you-go offers less certainty around the level of the income stream and restricts the ability to offer a full service. This is particularly challenging if additional staff are being recruited or funded to deliver the SLA.
Duration of the agreementConsideration should be given to the duration of the agreement and any arrangements for renewal. Long standing agreements may run for several years at a time. New agreements might be piloted for 3-6 months in the first instance and then reviewed and refreshed with any changes made.
The commencement and termination date/renewal date for the agreement should be included in the document.
Reporting and review arrangementsThe SLA should be an evolving and live document with opportunities to make changes as new priorities emerge and organisational needs arise. With this in mind it is important to agree review periods in the document where both parties can get together and discuss the arrangements and any successes and challenges associated with it.
Where key performance indicators (KPIs) or other performance measures have been agreed these should form part of the reporting process and be included in any review meeting discussions.
In circumstances where any changes to the agreement are proposed, stakeholders with the appropriate level of authority to agree such changes should be involved in the discussions.
The success of SLAs between NHS organisations and external knowledge and library services is dependent on detailed and realistic negotiation on the services expected and the finances available to support those services.
Potential problems with SLAs for NHS knowledge and library services may include:
In some cases, financial resources not covering the expected services may be because the knowledge and library service manager is not involved in the negotiations, or their input is overruled by senior colleagues.
Pantry, S. and Griffiths, L. (2001) Complete Guide to Preparing and Implementing Service Level Agreements (2nd ed) Library Association Publishing
This book offers librarians and information managers practical, step-by-step guidance to constructing and implementing an SLA. It is available from Surrey and Sussex Health Libraries.
This pocket guide identifies some of the benefits and the pitfalls that an organisation can encounter when negotiating and drafting SLAs.
It gives an overview of SLAs, highlighting typical scenarios that can arise, and provides information on typical solutions that have been adopted by other organisations.
You can view some examples of knowledge and library service SLAs, or contribute to them, by contacting the Knowledge for Healthcare team on [email protected] .
Page last reviewed: 20 October 2023