National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE)
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NICE announces its Collaborating Centre for Social Care
Developing social care guidance and quality standards is a new responsibility for NICE, as outlined in the government's Health and Social Care Act (2012).
From 1 April, NICE will expand its remit and to reflect this, will be known as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).
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 Centre will also support the adoption and dissemination of these quality standards.
NICE will commission its Collaborating Centre for Social Care to develop its social care guidance on up to six topics at a time. The scheduling of these topics is currently underway.
The first two NICE quality standards for social care will be published in April, as part of a pilot programme to test its methods and processes. These will cover priority areas for quality improvement for care services for people with dementia and for the health and wellbeing of looked-after children and young people.
A further nine social care topics have been referred to NICE by The Department of Health and the Department for Education for the development of quality standards. These include the transition between child and adult services, medicines management in care homes, and the mental wellbeing of older people in residential care.
Professor Gillian Leng, Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Health and Social Care at NICE said: “We are very pleased to work with SCIE and its partner organisations in a formal capacity as our NICE Collaborating Centre for Social Care.
“With SCIE's track-record in promoting and facilitating quality improvement and information-sharing across the UK's care services, we are confident that they have the relevant expertise to support us in this new and important area of work.”
Andrea Sutcliffe, Chief Executive of SCIE, added: “SCIE and our partners are delighted to be taking on this exciting new project. It is vital that people who use, manage and commission care services have reliable evidence and guidance on which to base their decisions. The NICE Collaborating Centre will be essential to ensuring this happens.
“Locating the Centre at SCIE will enable us to link the work of the Centre with our other activities. We have brought together some of the most respected and experienced research and implementation support agencies to provide the sector with practical, evidence-based guidance and support. Our immediate priority is to ensure that we have systems in place to make the Centre fully operational by April 2013.”
The contract has been awarded to SCIE and its partner organisations for three years following an open procurement process.
SCIE's partner organisations are; Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Coordinating Centre (EPPI-Centre), The Personal Social Services Research Unit (PSSRU) at the London School of Economics and Political Science and the University of Kent, Research in Practice (RIP), and Research in Practice for Adults (RIPfA).
