Athens passwords for social care pilot
From the 1st November 2008 local authority social care staff in five regions and several London boroughs will be able to access a wide range of e-journals and databases free of charge as part of a ten month pilot. These resources are on the National Library for Health (NLH) and are called the NHS national core content. In the past they have only been available to people working in the NHS. However, the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) and Skills for Care have successfully argued that those working in government-funded social care organisations should be given equality of access.
- About Athens
- The pilot
- Resources and training
- Participating authorities and eligibility
- Apply for an Athens account
- Login to your Athens account
- Promotional material
- Pilot contact
About Athens
The Athens Access Management System (AMS) controls access to web-based subscription services. The service has been in active use since 1996 in the UK higher education community, providing the means of controlling access to many centrally-funded web-based services. Athens has also been in use by the UK National Health Service since 2000 and is currently used to control access to the National Library for Health. Staffs working with NHS patients are entitled to a password in order to access the NHS national core content collection. This is called the ‘Athens’ password.
To find out more about Athens visit the Athens website (external website).
The pilot
In April 2008 the NHS national core content collection on the National Library for Health (NLH) became accessible to “Government funded bodies providing social care” and SCIE was asked to take on the password and account administration for the social care workforce that are now eligible to access and use the online collection. To this end SCIE have set up a pilot where local authority staff has volunteered to become Athens password and account administrators for certain social care staff in their region (see list of participating regions). The pilot will last for ten months and at the end of this period we hope take up and usage will enable us to identify administrators for other regions and roll out national access. NHS librarians will be acting as “buddies” for the regional social care administrators. SCIE is also hosting a national administrator for the period of the pilot. The pilot will also include enhancing the collection by procuring and adding key social care e-journals.
Resources and training
The NHS national core content collection, as you would expect holds resources which primarily have a health focus. However, there are already several social care related resources and SCIE is adding a number of key social care e-journals over the next couple of months.
- National Library for Health content relevant to social care
- NLH content relevant to social care (38kb PDF file)
- User training section on the National Library for Health website (external website).
Participating authorities and eligibility
Eligibility for an Athens password depends on two factors:
- You work for a participating Local Authority.
- Your occupation or social care employment type is included in the pilot for that authority.
| Areas Covered | Types of worker included |
|---|---|
| East of England | |
| Bedfordshire, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Luton, Norfolk, Peterborough, Southend and Suffolk. | Social workers, OT's and business support |
| London (Metropolitan Boroughs) | |
| Barking and Dagenham, Barnet, Camden, Croydon, Ealing, Enfield, Hammersmith and Fulham, Haringey, Havering, Hounslow, Islington, Lambeth, Merton, Redbridge, Southwark, Sutton, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest, Wandsworth and Westminster. | Registered Social Workers |
North
West |
|
| RIPFA members (Cheshire, Cumbria, Lancashire, Liverpool, Warrington and Wigan) initially for the first 5 months of the pilot, but with the possibility of extension to all 22 LAs in the North West for the second 5 months. | Registered social workers, social care staff (e.g. social care workers, support workers, rehabilitation officers, service brokers, transition workers, senior practitioners, support, time and recovery workers, team managers, LA employed OTs, etc.), social care service development staff (e.g. researchers, development managers, Heads of Service). |
| South Central | |
| Bracknell Forest, Buckinghamshire, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Oxfordshire, Portsmouth, Reading, Slough and Southampton, West Berkshire, Windsor & Maidenhead and Wokingham. | All social services staff in local authorities, including registered social workers, nurses, OTs, etc. |
South
East |
|
| Kent | LA Social work/care staff |
| West Midlands | |
| Birmingham City Council, Coventry City Council, Dudley MC, Sandwell MBC, Metropolitan Borough of Solihull, Walsall MBC and Wolverhampton City Council. | Social Workers registered with GSCC and employed by one of the local authorities listed, as evidenced by having a local authority email address. |
Apply for an Athens account
If you think you are eligible for an Athens password, apply for an Athens account now. As part of this process you will be asked to login / register with Social Care Online before you can apply for an Athens account.
Login to your Athens account
If your local Athens administrator has issued you with your Athens account details, you can use these details to log into the National Library for Health (NLH).
Promotional material
- Read the media release (on the SCIE website) (external website)
- Flyer (74kb PDF file)
- Email text for Athens administrators (357kb Word file)
- Email text for Athens administrators (40kb PDF file)
Pilot contact
Diane Gwynne-Smith, Head of Knowledge Management, SCIE