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The committee is reviewing recommendations from the 2014 to 2015 year.

The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) yesterday (9 December 2015) hosted its first ever stakeholder conference: Delivering world-class recommendations, in London.

One of the main aims of this inaugural event was to review some of the key screening recommendations that the UK NSC made during 2014 to 2015.

These recommendations include:

• atrial fibrillation screening in adults
• expanded newborn blood spot screening (with the addition of GA1, HCU,IVA and MSUD and recommendation not to recommend the addition ofLCHADD)
• preterm labour screening in pregnancy

The event, which was attended by key stakeholders, including health charities, consultants, patient advisory groups, commissioners and GPs, provided an excellent opportunity for delegates to hear about the role the UK NSC and its stakeholders play in shaping recommendations on screening. In addition, it enabled delegates to find out more about the UK NSC in terms of:

• who we are
• the reasons for the recommendations we made on those 3 reviews
• other recommendations we made in 2014 and 2015
• the process we follow and future screening reviews
• how we hope to improve and involve stakeholders going forward

Dr Anne Mackie, Director of Programmes for the UK NSC, said yesterday:

We are delighted to be hosting the first ever UK NSC stakeholder conference.

This event is a great opportunity to spend a day with some of our stakeholders. We hope that the day will help them to get a clearer understanding of the evidence-based process used by the UK NSC when deciding on screening recommendations.

It will also, equally importantly, provide us with the opportunity to hear from and listen to some of our stakeholders. We are fully expecting an informative and lively debate.

Also at the event, the UK NSC launched its 2 annual reports: NHSScreening Programmes in England 2014 to 2015 and Screening in the UK: making effective recommendations 2014 to 2015.

The NHS Screening Programmes in England 2014 to 2015 report includes high level national screening data for each of the three cancer and eight non-cancer screening programmes, which were brought together for the first time in 2014 to 2015 into the Public Health England screening division.

The Screening in the UK: making effective recommendations 2014 to 2015 report summarises the committee’s work during a year when it made recommendations on 17 topics.

Background information

PHE screening press office

Email screeningpressoffice@phe.gov.uk

Phone 020 7654 8120

Out of hours 020 8200 4400

The UK National Screening Committee is independent of, but supported by, Public Health England.

The UK National Screening Committee conference: UK National Screening Committee: Delivering world-class recommendations, is for invited stakeholders only and is not a media event.