Quality standards: process guide

Terms of reference

1. Terms of reference

1.1 The Quality Standards Advisory Committees will operate as standing Advisory Committees of the Board of the Institute.

1.2 The Committees will assess information on current practice, prioritise quality improvement areas and develop quality standards for the NHS, social care and the wider public health community in accordance with the Institute's published quality standards methods and processes.

1.3 Quality standards will take into account any equalities issues relevant to the subject matter on a topic by topic basis.

1.4 The Committees will submit their quality standards to the Institute's Guidance Executive which will act under delegated powers of the Board in considering and approving the quality standard for publication.

2. Membership

2.1 Each Committee will normally have 21 standing members including the Chair. Approximately 5 specialist committee members will be invited to join the standing members for each quality standard topic. Membership may vary in accordance with the needs of the Committee. Standing and specialist committee members will have full voting rights and will count towards the quorum. See paragraph 1.2 for an outline of the role of the committees and their members.

2.2 Committee chairs and standing and specialist committee members are drawn from the NHS, public health and social care sectors, the voluntary sector and academia. They also include lay members.

2.3 The lay members will be drawn from the general population and will have direct experience of accessing health, public health and social care services. The lay members are expected to ensure that the Committee's recommendations embrace general public/specific population issues. They will help identify where public/specific population preferences and choice may need to be acknowledged in the quality standard.

2.4 Topic expert advisers may be invited to attend and address the Committees to provide expert testimony to assist in the development of the quality standard. They will not engage with formulating the quality statements and measures, will not have voting rights and will not count towards the quorum.

Date: July 2019

Review date: July 2022

Standing Orders

1. General

1.1 These standing orders ("the SOs") describe the procedural rules for managing the Committee's work as agreed by the Institute. Nothing of these standing orders shall limit compliance with the Institute's Standing Orders so far as they are applicable to this Committee.

1.2 The appointment of Advisory Committees is at the sole discretion of the Board subject to any direction as may be given by the Secretary of State.

1.3 Members of the Committee shall be bound by these SOs and will be expected to abide by the seven principles for the conduct of public life as recommended by the Nolan Committee which are:

1.4 Other members who may be co-opted from time to time at the discretion of the Committee shall be subject to the same principles.

1.5 The appointment, removal or substitution of members and the general constitution of the Committee shall be at the discretion of the Institute in accordance with its published procedures.

1.6 The chair and standing members of each Committee will be appointed for a period of 3 years. This may be extended by mutual agreement to a further 3 years and up to a maximum term of office of 10 years. The specialist component of each committee will be appointed for the duration of the development of each quality standard topic.

1.7 Observers who may wish to attend Committee meetings for educational or work related purposes must agree their attendance in writing in advance of the meeting in line with the Institute's arrangements for meetings in public.

1.8 All reasonable facilities shall be provided for members to ensure they have the opportunity to participate fully and equitably in the business of the Group.

2. Interpretation

2.1 During the course of the meeting, the Chair of the Committee shall be the final authority on the interpretation of SOs on which s/he may be advised by the Institute.

2.2 Statements of Committee members made at meetings shall be relevant to the matter under discussion at the time and the decision of the chair on questions of order, relevancy and interpretation (including conflicts of interest) shall be final.

3 Committee chair

3.1 Chairs of the Committee will be appointed by the Board and the meetings will be conducted by the chair or in his/her absence the Vice Chair.

3.2 The Vice Chair will be appointed by the Committee Chair. The Vice Chairs' appointment will be a period of 3 years in the first instance, renewable for a further period, of no more than 3 years, to a maximum of 10 years

3.3 The Chair, or the Vice Chair in the Chair's absence, may take action on behalf of the Committee outside of the scheduled Committee cycle when urgent decisions are required and it is impracticable to convene a special meeting of the Committee.

3.4 On the occasion(s) where the chair or vice chair are absent, another member of the committee can be used as proxy to fulfil the role.

4. Voting

4.1 The decisions of the Committee will normally be arrived at by a consensus of those members present. Before a decision to move to a vote is made, the Chair will, in all cases, consider whether continuing the discussion at a subsequent meeting is likely to lead to a consensus.

4.2 Voting will be anonymous and decisions determined by a simple majority of those members present at a quorate meeting.

4.3 The chair of the meeting will be included in the vote and in the event of there being an equality of votes the chair will have a second, casting vote.

4.4 Topic expert advisers invited to provide expert testimony and observers in attendance at the Committee will not have the right to vote. Any voting that occurs when either co-opted experts or observers have participated will be deemed as ineligible.

5. Quorum

5.1 The quorum is set at 50% of the full membership of the Committee, in accordance with ToR paragraph 2.1 for each Committee meeting (but excluding topic expert advisers). The quorum should be rounded up to the next whole number in the event of there being an odd number of Committee members.

5.2 No business relating to the development of quality standards should be transacted unless the meeting is quorate. If a member is excluded due to a conflict of interest and membership falls below the quorum, no business may be transacted. There is no time limit for a quorum to be achieved but the start of the meeting should be delayed where the meeting is not quorate.

5.3 The quorum must be achieved for the meeting to proceed. However, the needs of the Committee are such that even if the meeting is quorate, an appropriate spread of members' interests should be represented at each meeting. It is also important that the mix of standing and specialist members is appropriate, and specialist members are not in a majority. If, in the view of the Chair the spread of interests, and balance of core and expert members is inappropriate for the business under consideration, the meeting may be suspended or adjourned until a later date.

5.4 Topic expert advisers and observers in attendance at Committee meetings will not count towards the quorum.

6. Collective responsibility

6.1 All members of the Committee shall abide by the principle of collective responsibility, stand by the recommendations of the Committee and not speak against them in public.

7. Confidentiality

7.1 Committee members will be required to sign a confidentiality agreement with the Institute relating to any information designated confidential by the Institute such as commercial in confidence material or sensitive personal data.

7.2 Confidential papers and other confidential information disclosed in Committee deliberations should not be discussed with colleagues who are not members of the Committee, other organisations or the media.

7.3 Topic expert advisers and observers in attendance at Committee meeting will sign a confidentiality agreement in advance and be subject to the same confidentiality regulations as Committee members.

8. Arrangements for meetings

8.1 The Institute will ensure that Committee meetings will take place in venues that are accessible to persons with disabilities.

8.2 It is planned for each Committee to meet seven times per year in Manchester, unless otherwise stated.

8.3 The Institute shall determine what matters shall appear on every agenda in advance of each Committee meeting.

8.4 No other business shall be discussed at the meeting save at the discretion of the chair.

8.5 Where considered necessary due to the confidential nature of the business to be transacted, the agenda item will be divided into two parts. Part 1 will be open to the public and part 2 will be closed to the public to enable the Committee to discuss confidential information whereupon SO 9.2 will apply

8.6 Only members of the Committee and Institute staff will be in present for part 2 of the meeting. However, at the discretion of the chair, expert advisers may be invited to remain in order to discuss confidential or personal information that was not discussed in part 1. Once the information concerned has been discussed, the expert advisers will leave the meeting and will take no further part in its deliberations.

8.7 Before each meeting of the Committee a public notice of the time and place of the meeting, and the public part of the agenda shall be displayed on the Institute's website at least five working days before the meeting.

8.8 Members will be expected to attend for the full day unless agreed in advance with the Chair.

8.9 The Committee secretariat will make all reasonable attempts to agree each meeting date in advance and Committee members are expected to keep these dates free until they are released.

9. Admission of members of the public

9.1 The public and representatives of the press shall be afforded facilities to observe all formal meetings of the Committee for part 1 of the agenda but shall not be entitled to ask questions or otherwise engage in the business of the Committee.

9.2 The public and representatives of the press shall be excluded from part 2 of the Committee meeting upon the chair moving the following motion:

That representatives of the press and other members of the public be excluded from the remainder of this meeting having regard to the confidential nature of the business to be transacted, publicity in which would be prejudicial to the public interest" [section 1(2) Public Bodies (Admissions to Meetings) Act 1960].

9.3 Notwithstanding the above, the chair will have the discretion to adjourn the meeting at any time if the presence of the public is considered prejudicial to the effective conduct of the business of the meeting upon moving the following motion:

That in the interests of public order the meeting adjourn for (the period to be specified by the chair) to enable the Committee to complete business without the presence of the public" [section 1(8) Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960].

10. Minutes

10.1 The minutes of the Committee proceedings shall be drawn up and submitted to the next meeting for approval.

10.2 Draft minutes will be approved at the next meeting and published on the Institute's website subject to the redaction of any confidential or otherwise exempt material.

11. Declarations of Interest

11.1 All Committee members must make an annual declaration of interests in accordance with NICE's policy on declaring and managing interests for advisory committees. Generally these will be made at recruitment. The initial declaration covers the preceding 12 month period. Consideration should also be given to any new interests that are not currently held but will arise during involvement with the committee.

11.2 All members will be prompted to update their declaration before each meeting (by email) and at the start of each meeting (orally). Any new interests declared at meetings will be recorded in the minutes, added to the Committee's interest register and published on the NICE website.

11.3 During the course of the meeting if a conflict of interest arises with matters under consideration the member concerned must withdraw from part of, or the entire meeting as appropriate.

11.4 Topic expert advisers invited to provide expert testimony will make a declaration of interest in advance of Committee meetings and in accordance with NICE's policy on declaring and managing interests for advisory committees. These will be recorded in the minutes and published on the NICE website.

12. Suspension of standing orders

12.1 Except where this would contravene any statutory provision, any one or more of the standing orders may be suspended at any meeting providing a simple majority of those present and eligible to participate vote in favour of the suspension.

12.2 Any decision to suspend standing orders shall be recorded in the minutes of the meeting.

12.3 No formal business may be transacted while standing orders are suspended.

12.4 The Institute's Audit Committee shall review all decisions to suspend standing orders.

13. Petitions

13.1 Petitions will not be received directly by the Committee and anyone wishing to present a petition will be directed to the Committee secretariat.

14. Recording of meetings

14.1 The recording of proceedings or the taking of pictures at Committee meetings is not allowed.

14.2 The chair of the Committee will have discretion to ask any member of the public gallery to leave if, in their opinion, they are acting in a manner prejudicial to the effective conduct of the meeting.

15. Terms of reference

15.1 Committee members must comply with the Committee's terms of reference which set out the scope of the Committee's work and its authority.

16. Record of attendance

16.1 A record will be kept of members' attendance at the Committee.

16.2 Members are expected:

17. Review of standing orders

17.1 These standing orders will be reviewed every 3 years.

Date: July 2019

Review date: July 2022