Consultant's catch-up

As you will know from previous Into practice "Consultant's catch-ups" we have been spending the last few months working with PCT Directors of Commissioning drawing their attention to the role that NICE guidance can play in helping with service and care pathway redesign.

One of the key tools available to support commissioners are the relatively new NICE Commissioning Guides. There are currently 13 of these available on our website here with another two due to be added later this month. These guides are a really valuable resource for commissioners and help to guide them on the use of evidence based guidance in changing services.

Each of the Implementation Consultants has a number of areas that they lead on to provide input to the Institute's wider activities. Before joining NICE I worked as a commissioner in a PCT and as a consequence I have been working with the NICE Commissioning team on the production of one of the two remaining guides. The guide I have been working on is on the commissioning of cognitive behavioural therapy for common mental health problems. One of the things we have discovered as we have visited PCTs over the last 20 months is that there is a real shortage of support for mental health commissioners. We hope that this guide will go a long way towards meeting some of that need. It may also be helpful for providers to review the guide jointly with their commissioners to identify where the greatest opportunity exists for services to be provided in line with NICE guidance.

The focus of our visit programme will be moving on to mental health provider organisations in the autumn and we would be really pleased to hear of any further ways in which you think we may be able to support this sector in the implementation of NICE guidance. Please feel free to email them to me steve.sparks@nice.org.uk