Renewed Partnership: NHS in England and CLA secure 5-Year licence for healthcare content sharing

The NHS in England and Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) are pleased to announce that they have signed a five-year licence renewal. Carefully designed with both NHS staff and rights holders in mind, the continuation of this tailored licence is a testament to the long-lasting partnership and close collaboration between both organisations.

This agreement ensures that NHS staff throughout England can continue accessing and sharing vital healthcare research information and content seamlessly. Further to this, the 5-year licence deal with CLA takes away the labour-intensive and costly process of seeking direct permission for content reuse, resulting in significant cost and time savings for the NHS in England.

Under this renewed licence, the coverage remains comprehensive, allowing the reproduction and sharing of digital and print content from books and journals across the NHS, giving approximately 1.2 million NHS staff in England the permission to reproduce and share valuable content.

The CLA NHS in England Licence will continue to include access to Digital Rights Management (DRM)-free articles from the British Library, Royal Society of Medicine, and Reprints Desk, as well as permission for NHS in England to use abstracts from journal articles for current awareness bulletins that are posted on public websites.

To facilitate seamless access to this extensive repertoire, the licence includes the Licence Plus Document Delivery ordering service, (LPDD), which enables NHS in England staff to easily access thousands of peer-reviewed articles from the literature such as medical journals, technical reports, business books, and more.

Justin Manton, Commercial Director of CLA said:

“This collaborative five-year partnership with the NHS in England highlights what is possible when CLA and its customers work in partnership. We have developed a licence that is bespoke and streamlined for the needs of the NHS in England, empowering staff to access and share essential content across the entire organisation, while ensuring copyright compliance.”

Sue Lacey Bryant, Chief Knowledge Officer for NHS England added:

“The Licence allows us to make fullest possible use of the copyright materials for which the NHS has paid. Crucially this benefits patient care as well as optimising the return on investment in digital and printed information resources. To inform delivery of high-quality patient care, it is essential that copyright materials can be widely shared across all parts of the system. The Licence allows this by treating all NHS and affiliated bodies – including hospices—as a single organisation.”

This new licence agreement highlights the productive and beneficial relationship that the Workforce, Training and Education Directorate at NHS England, NICE, the UK Health Security Agency and CLA have forged and worked hard to nurture. CLA is committed to growing and developing our licences and services, ensuring efficient copyright workflows and improved access to valuable content that NHS staff need.

For information on this licence, make sure you visit the licence page.