About the Commissioning Outcomes Framework (COF)
The NICE COF Indicator Programme
The NICE COF Advisory Committee
What is the COF?
The NHS Commissioning Board, supported by NICE and working with professional and patient groups, will develop a Commissioning Outcomes Framework (COF) that measures the health outcomes and quality of care (including patient reported outcome measures and patient experience) achieved by clinical commissioning groups.
The COF will allow the NHS Commissioning Board to identify the contribution of clinical commissioning groups to achieving the priorities for health improvement in the NHS Outcomes Framework, while also being accountable to patients and local communities. It will also enable the commissioning groups to benchmark their performance and identify priorities for improvement.
The NHS Commissioning Board is engaging with clinical commissioning groups and patient and professional organisations to develop emerging proposals for the COF. Find further details about this engagement.
The NICE COF Indicator Programme
Indicators are being developed either derived directly from the NHS Outcomes Framework; based on NICE Quality Standards; or from other sources to support the NHS Outcomes Framework.
Where possible, direct measurement of health outcomes by indicators will be explored. However, where necessary, proxies for outcomes will be used that measure health care processes that are linked to health outcomes and that can be substantially influenced by clinical commissioning groups as part of their commissioning activities.
Where NICE COF indicators are produced using existing quality standards, the process uses rigorous methods to ensure the development of valid and clearly worded COF indicators. In order to develop COF indicators from the existing quality standard statements and measures, further development and testing work with the Health and Social Care Information Centre is undertaken to produce the indicators and accompanying technical specifications.
For more information on NICE quality standards please see the quality standards webpage.
Where indicators are derived directly from the NHS Outcomes Framework or other sources, they will be assessed and tested for appropriateness to the COF through processes including the Health and Social Care Information Centre.
Our process guide sets out in detail the processes involved in managing the development of indicators for the COF, which ensure that indicators are developed in an open, transparent and timely way, with input from individuals and stakeholder organisations.
The NICE COF Advisory Committee
All potential COF indicators will be considered by the NICE COF advisory committee. A set of criteria have been developed to assesses and prioritise all the potential indicators. These criteria can be found in the COF process guide. For details of committee members and recommendations please see the NICE COF advisory committee webpage.
Next steps
We anticipate publication of the NICE menu of indicators for the COF in summer 2012.
How can I get involved?
A public consultation on draft COF indicators closed on 29 February 2012. Information on the indicators consulted on during this period can be found: COF Indicator consultation 2012.
Details of future consultations will be posted on this webpage.
For any queries please email COF@nice.org.uk
This page was last updated: 24 April 2012
