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Professional Issues

Assessed Coursework 2012/13

For this assignment you are asked to write a report, in English, of between 1,500 and 2,000 words on the following topic:

In 2009 the public accounts committee of the UK government produced a report entitled NPfIT: Progress since 2006. In that report, the implementers of the National Programme for IT (aka Connecting for Health) are criticised for 13 perceived failings in the implementation process. These are enumerated in the main conclusions of the report. You should read the report since it is the main source for your essay. In 2011 the committee published another report entitled The National Programme for IT in the NHS: an update on the delivery of detailed care records systems You need only read the main body of the reports, however, you may find the evidence, contained in the appendix, interesting (and occasionally disturbing and amusing). A good starting resource for background articles on NPfIT is the NHS 23 page.

Assignment:

You should choose one of the recommendations of the committee to concentrate on. Your essay should comprise:

• An explanation of the circumstances that caused the recommendation to be included in the report. This should be readable by a non-expert in this area. In particular you should take care to explain all the technical terms you use. In writing this part carefully identify any background knowledge you assume and provide a brief overview of the assumed knowledge in your report.
• Suggest how it might be possible to improve the delivery of NPfIT in your chosen recommendation area. For this you might need to provide some analysis of the causes of the problem and what might be done to change those causal factiors. If you do not believe this is possible, suggest how NHS management might proceed.
• Review the behaviour of the contractors and other professionals involved in your choice of recommendation with respect to the BCS Code of Practice and Code of Conduct. Provide three or four examples of good compliance and breaches of the code in the recommendation area you are considering?
• Provide a brief update on the situation relating to the recommendation you have chosen. Has anything changed since the date of the PAC report? What positive changes have taken place? What negative changes have taken place? This will require some research to see what has been done to address the recommendations of the report. You may find the update report useful in assessing progress.

Submission

Submission of the completed essay will be via the turnitin system. The system will be configured so you can test draft essays to check whether the system identifies some of your text as an unattributed quotation. This means your essay will be stored in the turnitin system. Details of how to submit your essay will be issued shortly. The University statment on turnitin is:

The plagiarism detection service is an online service that enables institutions and staff to carry out electronic comparison of students' work against electronic sources including other students' work.

The service is managed by The University of Northumbria on behalf of the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) and is available to all UK tertiary education institutions by subscription.

The plagiarism detection service works by executing searches of the world wide web, and extensive databases of reference material, as well as content previously submitted by other users.

Each new submission is compared with all the existing information.

The software makes no decisions as to whether a student has plagiarised, it simply highlights sections of text that are duplicated in other sources. All work will continue to be reviewed by the course tutor.

Once work has been submitted to the system it becomes part of the ever growing database of material against which subsequent submissions are checked.

The software is used as a tool to highlight any instance where there is a possible case of plagiarism. Passages copied directly or very closely from existing sources will be identified by the software and both the original and the potential copy will be displayed for the tutor to view. Where any direct quotations are relevant and appropriately referenced, the course tutor will be able to see this and will continue to consider the next highlighted case. There is an on-line demonstration of the system available at https://www.submit.ac.uk/

Deadline

The deadline for this assignment is: 4pm, Thursday, 8th November 2012. You should submit your essay to turnitin before that time. The essay should take you 15-20 hours to complete so please try to get it finished and submitted soon.

Essay Feedback Form

The essay feedback form provides the outline marking scheme for the essay. It should help you direct your efforts. The main sections of the scheme cover: your ability accurately to summarise a complex situation, your analysis of that situation, your recommendations for how the situation might be improved and your use of evidence to support your analysis.

Up to one week before the final deadline I will comment on draft versions of your essays. In the final week before the deadline I will not provide feedback on draft essays.

You should try to ensure your document is clear and easy to read. You may like to consider the following:

• Syntax: Are grammar, spelling, and punctuation correct? Does every pronoun have a referent?
• Style: Do sentences read smoothly? Are sentences unambiguous? Do paragraphs hang together? Is jargon kept to a minimum? Are examples used well? Does the writing address its audience?
• Structure: Is it well organised? Have you used structuring mechanisms like section headings, bulleted lists etc. Are terms defined before they are used? Do the important points stand out? Are all relevant points covered?