WIREDGOV

NICE, the health and social care guidance body, is streamlining two of its committees which focus on improving the quality of care provided by family doctors, and supporting the NHS in commissioning better quality healthcare.

The single new NICE Indicator Advisory Committee will replace the current two separate committees: the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) Advisory Committee and the Clinical Commissioning Group Outcome Indicator Set (CCG OIS) Advisory Committee. The new single core committee will be made up of GPs, hospital clinicians, lay members, and a range of experts representing nursing, pharmacy, public health, social care and other areas. The committee will draw on additional expertise depending on the topic under discussion.  This means it can ensure there is an appropriate level of input from GPs and other colleagues working in primary care for discussions that focus on QOF indicators.  When considering the CCG OIS indicators, extra input from experts such as hospital doctors and commissioners will be included. 

The QOF is an incentive scheme for GP practices in the UK to help improve quality of care by rewarding practices on how well they care for patients.  The QOF contains groups of indicators, against which practices score points according to their level of achievement. The NICE QOF committee developedindicators for the clinical and public health domains in the QOF, which include areas such as coronary heart disease and hypertension.  NICE and the QOF Advisory Committee are not involved in the decisions on which indicators should be added to and taken out of the QOF.

The CCG OIS aims to improve the quality of commissioning and patient care.  The NICE CCG OIS committee developed indicators to help CCGs to commission NHS services that will improve the quality of people’s lives. Examples are a number of indicators to support antenatal and maternity care, and a process-based indicator to support high quality care for people with a hip fracture.

The new Indicator Advisory Committee will be asked to consider indicators for a large range of applications including the QOF and CCG OIS frameworks.  In the future the Committee may also consider indicators to support safe staffing and social care, and  potentially other new areas as NICE’s work programme develops. The first meeting of the new Indicator Advisory Committee is expected in June 2015.  Ahead of recruiting committee members the committee chair, Professor Danny Keenan, has just been appointed. 

Professor David Haslam CBE, Chair of NICE, said: “The new Indicator Advisory Committee will support NICE’s future work on developing indicators across a range of health areas, to improve the quality of care provided. The establishment of this single committee recognises the need for NICE indicators to reflect the increasing need for better integration between service commissioning and care provision.

“As a former GP, I’m completely reassured that the planned high level of GP and practice staff input for QOF discussions will result in workable indicators that enhance patient care, whilst being sensitive to the pressures on GPs. Likewise, additional inputs from commissioners and hospital clinicians for the CCG OIS discussions will also be very valuable. This new way of working will bring together more closely the QOF and commissioning of secondary care, which absolutely fits with everyone’s desire for better integration between both services.

“I am very pleased to announce that Professor Danny Keenan has been appointed as the new Indicator Advisory Committee’s first Chair. He is a consultant cardiothoracic surgeon, and brings a wealth of skills and experience to the post including extensive knowledge of using measurement to improve services. The new NICE Indicator Advisory Committee will work across a spectrum of care.  Professor Keenan has significant experience of working with NICE in a number of different roles, including having chaired the CCG OIS Advisory Committee. His expertise will ensure the new Committee is able to support a wide and growing programme of work.

“I would also like to thank the previous members of both the QOF and CCG OIS committees for their hard work over many years in developing robust sets of indicators to help improve healthcare provision.”

Professor Danny Keenan, Chair of the new Indicators Advisory Committee, commented: “I’m delighted to be the chair for the new Indicators Advisory committee, and to be able to use my experience from chairing the CCG OIS committee for the last 3 years.  A single Advisory Committee with commissioning and provider representation from across primary and secondary care, public health and social care, will be well placed to develop indicators that reflect how services are being commissioned and provided.  I look forward to working with the new committee to produce indicators that will continue to help set high standards of care and commissioning, and improve the care that all clinicians provide for their patients.”  

For more information call Dr Tonya Gillis at the NICE press office on 0300 323 0142 or out of hours on 07775 583 813.

Notes to Editors

About the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF)

1. Introduced in 2004, the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) is a voluntary annual incentive scheme that rewards GP practices in the UK for implementing systematic improvements in quality of care for patients. The QOF operates through a points system which rewards GPs for their performance in relation to groups of indicators. NICE’s role is only concerned with the clinical and health improvement indicators. More information about the QOF domains is available here: http://qof.hscic.gov.uk/.

2. NICE took over the arrangements for managing the new process of developing indicators and reviewing the existing indicators in April 2009. It established a Quality and Outcomes Framework Indicator Advisory Committee responsible for reviewing existing QOF indicators and recommending new ones before producing a national “menu” of approved indicators which is made available through the NICE website at: http://www.nice.org.uk/standards-and-indicators.

3. The decision on which indicators should be added to and taken out of the QOF is decided through negotiations. In England, NHS Employers on behalf of NHS England, and the General Practitioners Committee on behalf of the British Medical Association decide which indicators are included within the QOF, and similar negotiations are carried out within Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. NICE and the QOF Advisory Committee are not involved in these negotiations.

About the Clinical Commissioning Group Outcome Indicator Set (CCG OIS)
4. Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) took over responsibility for commissioning the majority of NHS services in England from April 2013. This includes the services in secondary care and community care. All GP practices in England are required to join one of the CCGs. NHS England, supported by NICE and working with professional and patient groups, has developed a CCG OIS that measures the health outcomes and quality of care (including patient-reported outcome measures and patient experience) commissioned by CCGs.

5. NICE was originally commissioned by the Department of Health to develop indicators for the CCG OIS. The CCG OIS is now the responsibility of NHS England. The CCG OIS indicators focus on quality and reducing health inequalities, in particular the quality of the health services commissioned, but not on how they are commissioned. The range of clinical topics covered by the indicators will reflect the available quality standards topics. As more quality standards are developed, the breadth of clinical topics covered by CCG OIS indicators is expected to increase accordingly. The core library of quality standards is at http://www.nice.org.uk/Standards-and-Indicators/Developing-NICE-quality-standards-/Quality-standards-topic-library.

About Professor Danny Keenan
6. Professor Danny Keenan is Associate Medical Director at Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, part-time Medical Director at the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) and Chair of a National Clinical Reference Group that advises NHS England on cardiac surgery. Professor Keenan also chaired the NICE CCG OIS Committee.

About NICE

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body responsible for driving improvement and excellence in the health and social care system. We develop guidance, standards and information on high-quality health and social care. We also advise on ways to promote healthy living and prevent ill health.

Our aim is to help practitioners deliver the best possible care and give people the most effective treatments, which are based on the most up-to-date evidence and provide value for money, in order to reduce inequalities and variation.

Our products and resources are produced for the NHS, local authorities, care providers, charities, and anyone who has a responsibility for commissioning or providing healthcare, public health or social care services.

To find out more about what we do, visit our website:www.nice.org.uk and follow us on Twitter: @NICEComms.