Project Initiation Document

CILIP Ethics Review

Version: 1.0 (draft), 03/02/2017

Author: Nick Poole, CEO, CILIP

Owner: CILIP Ethics Committee

1. Summary information

Project name: CILIP Ethics Review

Short description: An initiative to review the current state-of-play in professional ethics for the information, library and knowledge management community and to make recommendations for revisions to the CILIP Ethical Principles and Code of Professional Practice.

Due date: End of Q2 2018

2. Business Case

2.1 CILIP is the UK’s library and information association. We operate under Royal Charter, which sets our charitable objective to “work for the benefit of the public to promote education and knowledge through the establishment and development of libraries and information services and to advance information science.”

2.2 CILIP’s Charter provides the organisation with the mandate to “represent and act as the professional body for persons working in or interested in library and information services”. This mandate extends to the maintenance of a Professional Knowledge and Skills Base (PKSB) on behalf of the sector.

2.3 At the heart of all aspects of the PKSB are the Ethical Principles and Code of Professional Practice, which CILIP maintains on behalf of library and information professionals. These documents relate specifically to the professional ethics of individuals, as opposed to the institutional ethics of their sector or employer.

2.4 CILIP’s Action Plan 2016-2020 notes that the library and information profession is changing very significantly in response both to digital disruption and wider trends. As a result, information professionals are increasingly part of an embedded workforce working across the public, private and 3rd sector.

2.5 This recognition has prompted the need to review:

 How professional ethics is currently operating in the library and information profession  The level of awareness of professional ethics amongst information professionals  The extent to which CILIP’s Ethical Principles reflect the wider range of professional contexts  The extent to which ethics play an active and positive role in sector development  The interaction between the professional ethics of individuals and institutional ethics

1 2.6 This Project Initiation Document sets out the scope of this review and a methodology by which it will be achieved.

3. Deliverables

3.1 See the schedule of outputs and deliverables in section [4] below.

3.2 More generally, it is expected that the deliverables of the Ethics Review will address:

 A platform or channel for access to the revised documents themselves  Awareness-raising activities  Training and professional development resources  ‘Affirmation’ of the Ethical Principles when joining CILIP  A consideration of sanction for violations of the Ethical Principles  Practical tools to promote ‘applied ethics’ in the workplace  Recommendations for future action

4. Work Programme

4.1 The work programme for this project is designed around a series of phases. At the end of each phase, the Ethics Committee (in their capacity as Project Board) will meet, review the outcomes against the ‘design principles’, sign off the outcomes and approve the project’s moving into the subsequent phase.

Phase Title Description Output/deliverable(s)

1 Initiation Initial planning of the project,  Business case including agreement of business  Project Initiation Document case, project initiation documents  Project Budget and approval of budget & resources.

2 Scoping Situational analysis, shaping the  ‘Landscape’ report proposition and methodology,  Engagement Plan identifying key audiences and  Survey developing the tools for evidence- gathering.

3 Evidence gathering Engagement with the sector to  Survey data secure evidence, critical reflections  Narratives from interviews and perspectives through a  Blog & other content combination of online surveying, group discussion and ongoing communications.

4 Synthesis Production of a full Ethics Review  Ethics Review Report and Report analysing outcomes of the Summary Recommendations evidence-gathering phase, alongside recommendations for improvements and actions to be put to the CILIP Board for agreement.

2 5 Production Production of the revised Ethical  Revised Ethical Principles and Principles and Code of Professional Code of Professional Practice Practice for agreement by the CILIP  Supporting content and Board. materials

6 Implementation Implementation of any supporting TBC actions recommended by the Ethics Committee and agreed by the CILIP Board, most likely to cover promotion and embedding of Revised Ethical Principles etc in the Information, library and knowledge management community

7 Review Summative evaluation and review,  Evaluation Report including presentation of  Timeline for future reviews of recommendations for the future role the Ethical Principles of the Ethics Committee following the conclusion of the project.

4.2 These phases are set out more fully in the project timeline (Gantt Chart overleaf).

5. Design principles

5.1 The work of the Ethics Review should be conducted with due regard to the following ‘design principles’:

Accessibility All outcomes of the Ethics Review should be made as widely accessible as possible (in terms of availability, format, associated licensing) to encourage engagement by both information professionals and non-professionals, whether or not they are CILIP members.

Inclusivity The outcomes of the Ethics Review should explicitly connect to and reinforce CILIP’s commitments around diversity, inclusion, equalities and representation. They should be of universal relevance, but also proactively address issues of exclusion.

Hospitality The outcomes of the Ethics Review should be explicitly ‘hospitable’ and relevant to the full extent of the sectors in which CILIP members (and more widely, information professionals) work. For the sake of clarity, this means ensuring that they are widely accepted as being of equal relevance to information professionals whether they are working in a corporate, public or charitable environment. It does not mean that every principle will be relevant to every practitioner at every stage of their career.

Pro-activity In CILIP’s view, ethics should be active rather than passive. They ought to provide a framework for active and positive improvement rather than reactive defence of specific principles. The outcomes should emphasise proactive engagement with ethics over passive adoption.

Effectiveness The outcomes of the Ethics Review should be effective both in raising awareness of and engagement with professional ethics and in improving ethics-based decision making in the sector.

3 Practicality The outcomes of the Ethics Review should be practical, equipping information professionals with real, workable tools with which to approach ethical issues. All outputs should be of practical use to information professionals in their daily work.

5.2 These principles will act as ‘quality criteria’ during the implementation of the project, so that the Project Board can use them as a reference when decided on stage signoff and review.

6. Team

6.1 The project will be overseen and managed by the following personnel/stakeholders:

Role Description Personnel

Project Manager Accountable for management of  Guy Daines, Head of Policy the project according to the Project Plan (as set out in the Project Initiation Document).

Project Team (CILIP) Accountable for the provision of  Chris Bacon (IT and systems) additional support and capacity  Bose Dada (Finance) in the implementation of the  Cat Cooper (Communications) Project Plan.  Lisa Goldsmith (Data & compliance)  Brian Statton (Membership Officer)  Matthew Wheeler (Member Networks)  Sonia Ramdhian (Member Networks)  Yvonne Morris (Policy Unit)  Jacqueline May (Policy Unit)

Project Board Accountable for the overall  CILIP Ethics Committee management and oversight of the project, including the provision of expert guidance and review and signoff of project phases.

Senior stakeholder Accountable for the overall  CILIP Board (internal) outcome of the project, including reviewing and deciding on the recommendations of the Project Board.

Stakeholder (internal) Accountable for supporting the  Devolved Nations representatives project through  Regional Member Networks communications, coordinating  Subject Specialist Groups engagement and providing expert insight according to their professional specialisms.

Stakeholder (external) Accountable for the provision of  External parties (eg. invited experts)

4 additional expertise and capacity in the implementation of the Project Plan.

7. Resources

7.1 A total of £2,500 is available for the Ethics Review in CILIP’s 2017 Budget. This does not include personnel time and overheads, which have been costed elsewhere.

7.2 An, itemised Project Budget will be produced as part of the initiation phase. Further funding will be necessary in 2018 to produce and promote the Revised Ethical Principles/Code of Professional Practice and appropriate provision will need to be negotiated in the 2018 forecast budget.

8. Communications Plan

8.1 Effective, timely communications are an essential factor in the success of the Ethics Review project. Accordingly, a detailed Communications Plan will be drawn up as part of the ‘Scoping’ phase of the project, to include:

 Key audiences  Top-level messaging about the purpose and outcomes of the project  Communication materials and collateral  A ‘visual identity’ for the Review, connected to the CILIP brand identity

9. Change Management

9.1 Due to the scale of this project and the limited resources available, scope creep represents a significant risk factor in the overall project.

9.2 We will therefore adopt a formal Change Management approach which ensures that:

 All substantive changes (ie. those which materially affect the budget, quality or delivery of the deliverables) will be communicated to the Project Board, who will evaluate their likely impact on the project before deciding whether or not to agree them.

10. Risk Management

10.1 In keeping with CILIP’s overall Risk Management framework, a risk register for the Ethics Review project will be maintained and reviewed by the Project Board as part of evaluation and signoff.

10.2 Key risk factors are identified below:

Factor Likelihood Impact Control Residual

Scope creep Medium High Phase review and signoff provides Low a mechanism to identify and Scope of review extends correct scope creep at each stage beyond the remit of the project. identified in the Business Case

5 Lack of engagement Medium High Engagement Plan and active Medium communications will promote Sector does not engage engagement across different with the Ethics Review, or sectors. engagement is partial in specific sectors Review will be integrated into related activities eg. events and conferences.

Deliverables not adopted Medium High Final phases of project are Medium designed to deliver an The outputs and ‘implementation plan’ including deliverables are not the embedding of outputs into accepted by the sector, or ongoing CILIP projects and the sector fails to engage programmes. meaningfully with them.

6 Appendix A: Project Gantt Chart

2017 2018 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D Phase 1: Initiation PID approved Budget & resources approved Ethics Committee meeting Project Board signoff Electronic update to CILIP Board

Phase 2: Scoping ‘Landscape’ research Landscape report Engagement Plan developed Survey implemented Project Board signoff Electronic update to CILIP Board

Phase 3: Evidence-gathering Consultation launched Online survey Face-to-face events/presentations CILIP 2017 Conference session Ethics Committee meeting Survey closes

Phase 4: Synthesis Production of survey report Full Report produced Ethics Committee meeting Project Board signoff Recommendations to CILIP Board

7 2017 2018 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D Phase 5: Production Production of revised Principles Communications Plan Project Board signoff

Phase 6: Implementation Implementation of recommendations Launch Promotion

Phase 7: Review Summative evaluation Ethics Committee meeting Recommendations to CILIP Board

Ethics Committee meetings

Based on the above timeline, we propose that the Ethics Committee should meet 4 times during the Review, at key decision/stage review/signoff points:

 In March 2017 to signoff the PID and run a workshop to shape the survey instrument/inform evidence-gathering

 In August 2017 for a mid-point review of the outcomes of the survey & to start planning launch and implementation

 In March 2018 to receive the full report and agree recommendations to the CILIP Board, and finally

 In September 2018 to undertake a summative evaluation of the project, review implementation and make recommendations to the CILIP Board for future operation

8 Appendix B: Key considerations/questions

In the process of developing this Project Initiation Document, an initial discussion was held concerning the ‘scope’ of the review and the areas it will investigate. This Appendix captures an overview of these, in case they are relevant during the implementation of the survey.

Awareness

To what extent are you:

 Aware of other ethical frameworks (eg. Nolan Principles, Cadbury)?  Aware of the CILIP Ethical Principles and Code of Professional Practice?

Applied ethics/problems

 To what extent do you engage in ‘ethical’ decisions at work?  Do you work in a regulated profession?  Have you had to compromise your personal ethics or values as a requirement of your job?

Ethical ‘needs’

 I work in [x] sector and CILIP’s Ethical Principles do/don’t work for me because...