Last week we blogged about our Governing the Police collection, in which we managed to capture a complete set of the sites of the police authorities, due to be abolished in November 2012 and superseded by elected Police and Crime Commissioners. It was a major change in public administration, which we could see coming, and could plan for.

And there is an even bigger change coming very soon: the reorganisation of the National Health Service, under the terms of the Health and Social Care Act 2012. The change is due at the end of this month.

At that point in time, several organisations within the NHS will cease to exist. These include the regional Strategic Health Authorities, approximately 150 Primary Care Trusts, the Health Protection Agency, and  c.150 Local Involvement Networks (LINks).

We are currently working with these bodies to secure permission to archive their sites before the beginning of April, when they will no longer be obliged to keep them live, thus saving a wealth of vital documentary material. We hope to make the collection publicly available later in the year.

Peter Webster