National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence

Baroness Sharp of Guildford Excerpts

Wednesday 14th December 2011 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, I fully agree with the noble Lord, who puts the case very well. That is why NICE will be at the heart of our work to improve quality in the NHS. We are re-establishing it, as the noble Lord knows, in the Health and Social Care Bill, extending its role to social care and embedding the role of NICE quality standards in statute. Of course, it will still be there to provide independent advice to support clinicians in the way that we know it has over the last few years.

[Baroness Sharp of Guildford]

My Lords, the White Paper talks about establishing a NICE implementation collaborative. Could the Minister explain to the House precisely what is meant by this?

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, the NICE implementation collaborative is a collaboration between NICE and representatives or stakeholder groups, including the chief pharmaceutical officer, the main industry bodies, the NHS Confederation, the Clinical Commissioning Coalition, the Royal Colleges and, if Parliament approves, the NHS Commissioning Board. The idea is that its members are going to work together to identify where support is needed and to identify solutions for the NHS through the development of implementation guidance—in other words, to improve the uptake of new and innovative technologies in the NHS.