A new guide for Local Authorities and their partners about how to implement NICE guidance

Last year we produced a leaflet, Using NICE guidance to promote health and wellbeing, for people working with local communities. This was an introduction to what NICE can offer a range of people involved in providing strategic leadership, delivering local initiatives, and scrutinising local services. The leaflet was supported by the Social Care Institute for Excellence, the Improvement and Development Agency and Centre for Public Scrutiny and contained some brief examples of local action.

This year we are embarking on a more ambitious project to produce detailed advice on what NICE is, how it can support local evidence based action, and how local authorities can enable the full use of the guidance in the variety of settings that they are relevant to. There is now a substantial number of NICE public health guidance in circulation and further clinical guidelines are under way with a direct relevance to children's wellbeing and social care, highlighting best practice in joint working.

Progress so far
We are greatly indebted to the participants in two workshops held on 1 and 30 May who helped the team at NICE to test feedback already received from local organisations, and further identify how local authorities differ from the NHS in their structures and processes and receptiveness to NICE. We had hoped to tease out one particular process for handling NICE guidance as being the most promising, but there may be several methods that local authorities can employ, with slightly varied applications according to the target setting for the guidance e.g. in schools, or workplaces. Work to develop these models is now underway.
Where we did make rapid progress was in agreeing the need to make a strong case that NICE guidance can really make a difference locally, and that national policy and changing inspection regimes provides a strong imperative to place evidence-based practice at the heart of Local Area Agreements. We are drafting a set of underpinning principles to assist in the development of appropriate local systems for managing and implementing the guidance.

From now onwards
The NICE Implementation Consultants are embarking on a series of visits to local Overview and Scrutiny Committees where we hope to build on our local authority profile and contacts (See this months Consultant Catch Up article for more information). The guide will be ready by the end of 2008 and if you have local examples or ideas about implementing NICE guidance in the local authority and partnership context we would love to hear from you. We currently have some good local examples of implementing NICE guidance on our shared learning database. One particular example is a joint submission by Knowsley MBC and Knowsley PCT about 'Working Together to Implement NICE Public Health Guidance'.

If you are interested in commenting on a draft copy of the guide, this is equally valuable! Please contact the project manager Michelle.Adhemar@nice.org.uk or any of the team.

Val.Moore@nice.org.uk
Implementation Consultant, and Cross Institute lead for Collaboration on Health Improvement and Social Care

Nicola.Bent@nice.org.uk
Associate Director, Implementation Systems