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The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) welcomes the referral of four clinical areas by the Department of Health following advice from the National Quality Board and will now begin work on setting NICE quality standards for the NHS using a pilot process.

The Darzi report, High Quality Care For All (June 2008), expanded NICE’s role to include setting and approving more independent quality standards for the NHS. The report highlighted the difficulties clinicians faced in keeping up with the best evidence. It stated that standards should clarify what high quality care looks like with regard to:

• clinical effectiveness
• patient safety
• patient experience.

This work is a key part of making quality the organising principle of the NHS and supporting the drive to improve standards of care.

NICE quality standards are a set of specific, concise statements which act as markers of high quality, cost effective care across a pathway or a clinical area. They are derived from the best available evidence and are to be produced by NICE in collaboration with the NHS and social care, along with their partners and service users, for use by clinicians, patients, service providers and commissioners. The statements in each NICE quality standard will be accompanied by a measurable element or indicator in order to enable an assessment of quality and quality improvement to be made.

The National Quality Board has referred the following clinical areas for NICE quality standards to be developed:

• Stroke
• Dementia
• Neonatal Care
• Venous Thromboembolism (VTE)

NICE quality standards are to be developed by a group of relevant clinical and public health experts, appropriate professional groups and generalists (including commissioners), and lay representatives who will form time-limited Topic Expert Groups (TEGs). Draft NICE quality standards will be based on relevant evidence and formalised by the TEGs who are to consider the cost impact of the standards to the NHS before consulting and field testing the statements prior to final publication.

Where the topic referrals identify a clear social care or preventive interface these aspects can be included in the quality standards.

NICE has established a pilot process to develop its first quality standards and plans to consult on the ongoing development process later this summer. The first NICE quality standards developed from the pilot process are expected to be published in early 2010.

Val Moore, NICE Implementation Director said: “Quality is at the heart of the care delivered by all parts of the NHS and this is an exciting opportunity for NICE to set the standards by which this quality can be measured. We have set out an interim process to develop the NICE quality standards which will draw on expertise from clinical and public health experts, Royal Colleges and Specialist Societies, lay members, commissioners and service providers. NICE will also consult on and field test the draft standards before publishing them. We expect that the first NICE quality standards developed from the pilot process to be available in early 2010.”

Bruce Keogh, NHS Medical Director said: "The quality standards that are being developed by NICE will give patients and NHS and Social Care staff absolute clarity on what high quality care in these four areas looks like. They will set the course for the development of a library of quality standards."