National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE)
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Have your say on NICE's social care work

The Department of Health has launched a 12 week consultation to gather views on the topics for NICE's new quality standards and guidance for social care.

From April this year, NICE will start producing guidance and standards on social care in adults and children. To reflect the move into social care, NICE will become known as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.

Ministers are seeking ideas from care users, their families and carers, service commissioners, care providers and front line staff to help decide on future topics.

The aim is to establish a full set of NICE quality standards and guidance in order to improve the quality of social care.

Some of the potential NICE standards for discussion in the consultation include: falls, deprivation of liberty safeguards, medicines management in home-based settings, and supporting the social care needs of people with learning disabilities in care homes and the community.

NICE is already piloting two social care quality standards on the care of people with dementia and the health and wellbeing of looked-after children.

Eight further topics were referred last year from the Department of Health for NICE to begin work on from April 2013. They are;

• autism in adults and children

• mental well-being of older people in residential care

• the transition between health and social care, including discharge planning, admission avoidance, reducing readmissions and reducing unnecessary bed occupancy

• medicines management in care homes

• management of physical and mental co-morbidities of older people in community and residential care settings.

• domiciliary care

• transition between children and adult services

• child maltreatment.

Norman Lamb, the Care and Support Minister, said: “Improving the standard and quality of care and support services is one of our top priorities. From April of next year, NICE will join us in this challenge and take on an important role in driving up the quality of care.

“That is why we have started a consultation in which everyone can have their say on which topics NICE should focus on for future work. So please do get involved.”

Last month, NICE awarded a contract to the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), and its partner organisations, to help support the development, adoption and dissemination of its social care guidance and quality standards, as the NICE Collaborating Centre for Social Care.

The NICE Collaborating Centre for Social Care will use NICE's methods and processes to develop social care guidance for NICE, which NICE will use as a basis for its quality standards for social care.

The consultation ends on 26 April 2013.

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