Communities of practice

A Community of Practice is a network of individuals with common expertise or interests who get together to share knowledge and practice on an agreed theme.

You need knowledge to do what you need to do, you need people to have knowledge, you need practice to inform and apply knowledge. Communities of Practice solve these challenges through collaborative tools and engagement techniques.

Examples of innovative practice powered by communities include sharing lessons learned from workshops, mapping out research and practice on specific theme and creating "how to" toolkits. It also enables members to participate in job shadowing, call for volunteers, co-design of assessment tools and news of a major conference.

Benefits

• Joined up knowledge sharing and continuity - capturing learning and practice when and where it takes place - to avoid duplication and foster joined up working.
• Better user involvement by enabling frontline staff to provide the tools for users to feedback not only to them but also to each other in real-time.

Find out more

Visit the Communities of Practice website to find out more.