Public Involvement Programme

We support the involvement of people who use services, carers, members of the public and organisations who represent their interests across NICE.

Our public involvement work is underpinned by 2 key principles:

People who use services, carers, the public, and voluntary and community sector organisations are able to help develop our guidance and other products and support putting them into practice.
Our guidance and other products are focused around the people most directly affected by our recommendations and are relevant to them.

What we do

Provide guidance on ways of involving people who use services, carers and members of the public to NICE and our collaborators.
Support voluntary and community sector organisations who want to get involved in our work.
Provide training and support to individuals who want to contribute directly to our work.
Highlight areas of our guidance of particular importance to people who use services, carers and members of the public.
Offer advice on issues relevant to people who use services, carers and members of the public which occur throughout the development of our guidance.
Evaluate our work to make sure it achieves our aims.

I’ve worked with several health organisations and the Public Involvement Programme has stood out for the way it supports lay members. Training provided was good, timely and relevant. Staff supported lay members, understood concerns and actively advocated for lay members.

Lay member feedback

How we work

Our patient and public involvement policy sets out:

our commitment and approaches to public involvement
the principles of our approach to involving people who use services, carers and the public
the support available to individuals, and voluntary and community sector organisations involved with our work.

Our approach to public involvement in guidance and standards (PDF) provides an overview of the principles that we work to, along with details of our practical approach to certain tasks.

Improving the way we work with you

We've listened to comments from over 100 organisations and individuals. These have been invaluable in refining proposals on improving the way we engage with you.

NICE equality scheme

We are committed to promoting equality in all aspects of our work.

In our equality scheme we have prioritised increasing the proportion of applications to our committees from people who describe themselves as from black, Asian and minority ethnic groups.

Improving public involvement

We have undertaken a wide ranging review of our methods and processes for health technology evaluation.

As part of this review, a patient working group was set up to:

help influence the future of patient and public involvement
ensure the vision was co-designed with the patients, carers and organisations we work with.

The group identified 18 recommendations to improve methods and processes, which have helped to shape our proposals.

Read the report on improving meaningful public involvement in NICE medicines and technologies guidance (Word)

The Summary of Information for Patients (SIP)

As part of the implementation of the new methods and process manual for Health Technology Evaluations, a short life working group was set up to advise on the implementation of the International SIP for medicines at NICE.