A guide to NHS Networks

A guide to NHS Networks


Contents A Guide to NHS Networks............................................................................................................ 2 Register for an NHS Networks account: ................................................................................... 2 Finding existing Networks:........................................................................................................ 2 Joining Networks: ..................................................................................................................... 4 Creating a Network: .................................................................................................................. 6 Adding content (creating pages and section and uploading documents) ............................... 10 Adding a new section/ folder .................................................................................................. 11 Upload a document ................................................................................................................ 15 Creating a sub-section/ folder................................................................................................. 18 Creating a page ...................................................................................................................... 20 Adding an Event ..................................................................................................................... 21 Using the Message Board/ Discussions and creating a Forum .............................................. 22 Deleting an item or section ..................................................................................................... 25

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A Guide to NHS Networks Register for an NHS Networks account: To access all of the services available on NHS Networks or to create and join groups you’ll need to Register for an NHS Networks account – this takes a couple of minutes. We would recommend using your NHS email account though you can register with non-NHS domain accounts such as Gmail. You should avoid using Hotmail accounts as Microsoft are blocking some emails from NHS domains

Finding existing Networks: Once registered you can browse, join or apply to join existing Networks; these are like online Groups and Communities of Practice Click Create a network Click Find a network

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A guide to NHS Networks From here you can either browse through an alphabetical list of existing networks or search for a network using the search bar

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A guide to NHS Networks Joining Networks: Some Networks are ‘Open to all’ and can be accessed by anyone with a registered NHS Networks account, others will ask you to ‘Apply to Join’ and their content may be hidden until the Network administrator has approved your request When you find a network click on the name of the Network

From this screen you can see a brief description of the Network, how many members it currently has and the Network contact. You can also see if Network is ‘Open to all’ or not.

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A guide to NHS Networks If the Network is ‘Open to all’ click ‘Join this network’ to see the content, join conversations and access resources

If a network says ‘Apply to join’ the Network Administrator will need to approve your request before you can access all the content in the Network. Click either ‘Join this network’ or ‘Apply to join’ – an email notification will be sent to the administrator for approval. Once approved you will receive a notification via email

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A guide to NHS Networks Creating a Network: There are three main types of network each with their own level of visibility; 1) Network is ’Open to all’ – anyone can find and join the network 2) Network is ‘findable’ but with some content restricted – members ‘Apply to join’ 3) Network is entirely closed – the network admin must import members into the group so they can see content. The network cannot be found by non-members You can also set levels of visibility and permissions on each page, document, folder etc. within the network (more detail later in the guide) To create your own network click ‘Create a network’ then click ‘Create a new Network’

NHS Networks have created a page of short steps with more information on this process: https://www.networks.nhs.uk/help/setting-up-and-maintaining-a-network/creating-a-network This steps include naming your network, providing key words to help connect you to other similar networks (you can chose to skip this step), providing a description of your network and defining your ‘Membership Policy’ – this determines how people can access your network e.g. ‘Open to all’ or ‘Apply to join’

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A guide to NHS Networks These permissions can be changed at a later date using the Network Toolbox. To open the Toolbox click on ‘Your menu’ and click on ‘Your networks’ – select the network which you want to edit. Once in the network click on ‘Your menu’ again and select the ‘Toolbox’. An orange toolbox will appear allowing you to edit the network. There’s more guidance on using the Toolbox later in this guide.

Click on ‘Network admin tools’ and then ‘Information and membership policy’.

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A guide to NHS Networks From here you change the Membership policy from ‘Open to all’ to ‘Apply to join’ and vice versa. Don’t forget to save any changes using the button at the bottom of the page

Once you have completed the set up process you will be prompted to Publish the network – this makes the Network live and if you have permitted it, members will be able to join If you choose to skip this step and Publish your network later (you may want to add content etc. first) only the network administrator(s) can see the network - don’t forget to make the network visible when you’ve finished setting up!

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A guide to NHS Networks To ‘Publish’ the network at a later date use the Toolbox - select ‘Network admin tools’ and click ‘Hide/Show this network’ From here you can check and change the Visibility of your network – change the network to either ‘Visible to ALL’, ‘Visible to existing members ONLY’ or ‘Visible Network administrators ONLY’ Remember these are separate settings to the Membership permissions (e.g. ‘Open to all’ or ‘Apply to join’) you have already set up for example you can make the network ‘Visible to ALL’ but still ensure people ‘Apply to join’

1) If you want a Network that is ’Open to all’ – anyone can find and join the network. Select ‘Open to all’ when creating the network and ‘Make this Network Visible to ALL’ under ‘Network admin tools’ – ‘Hide/Show this network’ 2) If you want a Network that is ‘findable’ but with some content restricted – select ‘Apply to join’ when creating the network and ‘Make this Network Visible to ALL’ under ‘Network admin tools’ – ‘Hide/Show this network’. You can restrict the items within the network to members only separately. In this setting people can see the network, a description and the content you have specified that non-members can see (more on this later in the guide) 3) If you want a Network that is entirely closed so only network members and administrators can see the group – select ‘Apply to join’ when creating the network and ‘Make this network visible to existing members ONLY’ under ‘Network admin tools’ – ‘Hide/Show this network’. In this scenario the network admin must import members into the group and the network cannot be found by non-members (for help importing members email [email protected] for a guide)

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A guide to NHS Networks Adding content (creating pages and section and uploading documents) Make sure you are still logged in to NHS Networks - you can check this in the top right of the screen or log in again here Under your name click on ‘Your Menu’ – ‘Your Networks’ and select the Network you want to add content to

To add content you need to open the ‘Toolbox’. Click on ‘Your Menu’ again and select ‘Toolbox’ – an orange box will appear. You can drag and move this around the screen. Each title within the ‘Toolbox’ has subtitles with more options – to reveal the subtitles click on the main title

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A guide to NHS Networks NHS Networks uses pages and sections to build content. Sections are similar to the folders on your PC. Documents must be uploaded to a specific section. When setting up the network you can specify if you want certain sections to appear e.g. Home, News, Documents – if you specified certain sections you should see them here. If not don’t worry they can be added, deleted or amended at any time.

Adding a new section/ folder I want to create a section/folder for the Minutes from network meetings to sit in but I only want network members to be able to see this section Before creating a section you need to decide where you want it to sit within the network in the same way you create top-level folders and sub-folders on your PC. To create a top-level folder click on the ‘Home’ section of the network before you begin – you should see the network description. This area becomes the ‘Network feed’ when you start to add content. It is essentially a list of all the content within the network with newest content at the top.

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A guide to NHS Networks To add a new section use the ‘Toolbox’ – click ‘Advanced editor’, this will reveal more options. Click ‘Add a section (folder)’. This will prompt you to select where you would like the section to sit. If you select ‘Create new section here’ the section will be placed at the top level because you clicked on ‘Home’ previously. You can also create a sub-section or folder by clicking ‘Select where to add your new section’ (an example of this later in the guide).

To create a folder at the top level select ‘Create new section here’ and click Continue

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A guide to NHS Networks Give the section a title and brief summary and click Save

The section should now appear at the top level and be listed underneath the other existing sections

Whenever you add anything your network (e.g. a section/ folder, page, document, event or forum) you must always set the visibility so content can only be seen by those who you wish to see it e.g. network members. You can see the current visibility of the page or section at the top of the ‘Toolbox’

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To set the visibility of this section use the ‘Toolbox’ – Click ‘Viewing control’ – ‘Hide/Show page or section’

This page warns that when you apply Visibility settings to a section it applies to everything within that section. From here you can make the section ‘visible to ALL’, ‘visible to network members ONLY’ or ‘visible to Network administrators ONLY’. I want the Minutes I upload to this section to be restricted to network members only so I would select ‘Make visible to network members ONLY’. The settings are then updated.

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A guide to NHS Networks Upload a document I want to upload the minutes from my meeting and place them in the section I have just created To do this go back to your ‘Toolbox’ – click ‘Add’ and click ‘Document (PDF, Word etc.)’

You must select where you want your Document to be uploaded to. This will either be the ‘Documents’ section by default or, if you want to upload to another section, click ‘Select where to add your new document’. This will reveal all the available sections within your network – including any new ones you have created. Click the section you want the document to sit within.

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I have selected the Minutes section I created earlier

Give your document a name – click ‘Browse’ to find a file to upload then click Save

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A guide to NHS Networks Because the file has been uploaded to a section the visibility permissions for that section are applied to the file.

To add a document to the Documents sections follow the same as above but select ‘Add to Document folder’. Don’t forget you will need to set the Visibility permissions of the Documents folder for files you will upload here. In this case I don’t mind if non-network members see my ‘Test document’ file so I have uploaded it to ‘Documents’ which is ‘Visible to everyone’ but I still need to set the visibility for this file. To do this click on ‘Viewing control’ – ‘Hide/Show page or section’ and click ‘Make visible to ALL’. The web section and document within it is now ‘visible to everyone’. Each time you upload content you must set the visibility of that content using ‘Viewing control’

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Creating a sub-section/ folder To create a sub-section/ folder you follow much the same process as creating any other section. I want to create a ‘Network admin’ section within Documents that is only visible to Network administrators You can either click on the section in which you want the sub-folder to sit (e.g. Home for a top level section) or using the ‘Toolbox’ click ‘Advanced Editor’ ‘Add a new section (folder)’ and click ‘Select where to add your new section’ and click on the name of the section you want the subsection to sit within – in this case Documents. Click Continue.

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Give your section a name and summary – click Save

Again – you need to set the visibility permissions for the new sub-section. I want this section to only be visible to the network administrators so have clicked on ‘Viewing control’, ‘Hide or show page or section’ and selected ‘Make this page/section visible to network administrators ONLY’. There are also options to make the section ‘collaborative’ as well as visible.

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A guide to NHS Networks Creating a page To add a page use you the ‘Toolbox’. Select ‘Add’ and ‘Page’. Don’t forget if you want the page to appear at the top level click Home first then ‘Create new page here’. If you want the page to appear elsewhere click the name of the section you want it to appear in. Click Continue.

Give your page a Title and summary and include any content in the ‘body text’ section. Click Save. Don’t forget to check the Visibility of the page under ‘Viewing control’ - ‘Hide/Show this page’ and select the visibility you require. The page has now been created and should be visible to those you have requested it be visible to. If you wanted the page to appear at top level it will appear in the list of sections on the left. Please note documents cannot be uploaded to pages as attachments they must be added to ‘sections’.

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Adding an Event Use the ‘Toolbox’ and click ‘Add’ – ‘Event’. Again you can choose where you want to add the Event. To add the event to a dedicated Events folder select ‘Add to new network event folder’ – this creates a new Events folder on the left. To add the event to another section click ‘Select where to add your new network event’ and click on the name of the appropriate section.

Give your event a name, description, time and place. You can include web links, attendees and a named contact if you choose. Click Save.

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Don’t forget you need to check the Visibility of the Event after you have created it. To do this click on ‘Viewing Control’ – ‘Hide/Show this page or section’ and select a level of Visibility.

Using the Message Board/ Discussions and creating a Forum On NHS Networks you can create a ‘Message Board’ or ‘Discussions’ folder where registered NHS Networks members can have discussions. The discussion threads within the ‘Message Board’ are called ‘Forums’. The ‘Message Board/ Discussions’ folder can be ‘visible to EVERYONE’ or only ‘visible to NETWORK MEMBERS’. The visibility of individual ‘Forums’ or conversation threads can also be restricted. You may choose to have an open ‘Message Board/Discussions’ folder but have some ‘Forums’ or threads within it that are only visible to network members for example. To add a ‘Forum’ click ‘Add’ – ‘Forum’ using the ‘Toolbox’.

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If you do not already have a ‘Message Board’ or ‘Discussions’ folder the first time you do this a folder will be created for you. Click Add Forum.

You will then be able to name your ‘Forum’ – remember a forum is the conversation thread within the Message Board/ Discussions folder. Name your forum – you can also specify if you want users to be able to edit their own comments within the forum. Click Save.

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If you click on the Message Board/ Discussions folder you should now be able to see the Forum you have just created.

Don’t forget to set the visibility permissions for your Discussions and any Forums within it. For example I want the Forum I have just created to be for Network Members ONLY but am happy for the Message Board to be open to ALL. To do this click on the Forum you have just created. Under ‘Viewing Control’ click ‘Hide/Show Forum’ and select ‘Make Visible to existing members ONLY’

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A guide to NHS Networks Deleting an item or section From the Home section of the Network you will see the Network Feed - this includes everything added or uploaded to the Network in date order, newest at the top. You can delete any item from here by clicking on it.

In the ‘Toolbox’ click under ‘Edit/ Delete/ Replace’ click ‘Delete item’. This will prompt you to confirm what you are deleting – click Delete.

This guide was created by the HEE NW Knowledge Management Team. For more information or help with NHS Networks contact us on [email protected] 25