NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH AND CARE EXCELLENCE
Senior Management Team
Minutes of the meeting held on 20 October 2015
Present
Andrew Dillon
Mark Baker
Ben Bennett
Jane Gizbert
Alexia Tonnel
Chief Executive
Director – Centre for Clinical Practice
Director – Business Planning and Resources
Director – Communications
Director
– Evidence Resources
In attendance
David Coombs Associate Director – Corporate Office (minutes)
Meindert Boysen Programme Director
– CHTE (items 5.2-3)
Sally Chisholm Programme Director – Health & Social Care Directorate
Paul Chrisp
Nick Crabb
Sarah Cumbers
Programme Director
– CCP (item 5.2)
Programme Director – CHTE (items 1-5.3)
Associate Director – Guidance Development Project – CCP
(item 5.1)
Elisabeth George Associate Director – Technology Appraisals – CHTE (item 5.2)
James McGowan Clinical Fellow
Jenniffer Prescott Associate Director – Planning & Operations – CHTE (item 5.3)
Apologies (item 1)
1. Apologies were received from Gillian Leng and Carole Longson who were represented by Sally Chisholm and Nick Crabb respectively.
Freedom of Information and Publication Scheme (item 2)
2. It was noted that the final minutes would be made available on the NICE website in accordance with the Publication Scheme, with the exception of exempt material relating to item 5.2.
Note of the Previous Meeting (item 3)
3. The minutes of the meeting held on 12 October 2015 were approved subject to the separation of paragraph 11 to clarify there were two distinct action points.
Matters Arising (item 4)
4. SMT reviewed the actions arising from the meeting held on 12 October and noted that all actions were in hand or complete.
5. Ben Bennett stated that an internal candidate has been offered the newly established Facilities Manager role for the Manchester office.
6. Ben stated that the flowchart to outline the required approvals for staff recruitment will be brought to the SMT meeting on 10 November.
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NICE Content Strategy: Update on Implementation and Future Strategic Aims
(item 5.1)
7. Sarah Cumbers presented the update on the implementation of the content strategy and highlighted the progress made to date. Sarah asked SMT to consider and support the proposed next steps which include undertaking user research to ensure NICE content meets user requirements, and establishing a Content
Strategy Governance Group.
8. Andrew Dillon stated that prior to the user research it is first important to consider who is the audience for NICE’s content.
9. SMT discussed the proposals and noted that NICE’s recommendations are increasingly accessed directly by clinicians electronically rather than disseminated by NHS organisations. There is a need therefore to ensure that the presentation of guidance responds to these changes, to reflect for example, that information is accessed in smaller segments. It was noted that these changes in presentation are also likely to require changes in the way guidance is produced.
10. SMT supported the proposal to seek feedback from users. However to ensure this approach does not undermine the scope for innovation, SMT agreed that feedback should be sought more broadly than incremental amendments to the current approach. SMT agreed that prior to seeking this feedback, the first stage should be to consult senior system leaders on their requirements for NICE guidance.
11. SMT agreed that in addition to the proposed user engagement there should be a process for seeking ongoing feedback. SMT agreed that NICE should be able to quickly and flexibly respond to changes in user demands and those from system leaders.
12. SMT approved the establishment of a Content Strategy Governance Group as outlined in the report to oversee these activities.
ACTION: MB / SC
Support to NHS England’s Specialised Commissioning (item 5.2)
13. Elisabeth George presented the two draft proposals to support NHS England’s specialised commissioning role through (a) a new NICE programme to produce clinical commissioning support documents, and (b) providing rapid evidence summaries for medicines.
14. Elisabeth stated that NHS England had initially also requested NICE increases capacity within the Highly Specialised Technologies (HST) programme. However, subsequent discussions with NHS England confirmed that the requested output would be covered by the existing HST and Technology Appraisal (TA) programmes.
15. Elisabeth advised SMT that the Commissioning Support Documents (CSDs) would relate primarily to licensed medicines that are not covered through the TA programme. The Rapid Evidence Summaries (RES) would be focused on unlicensed and off-label medicines for which a funding request had been received.
16. SMT discussed the costings that had been developed. Ben Bennett expressed concern about any expansion of the workforce given the forthcoming reductions in
Grant in Aid funding. Elisabeth George stated that the requirement at this stage is
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to develop a proposed cost to present to NHS England; further work would then be undertaken within NICE to agree how this work would be undertaken.
17. SMT noted that a commercial consultancy has previously undertaken work to support similar aspects of NHS England’s specialised commissioning; however it is not clear whether NICE’s proposal is being considered alongside those from other organisations.
18. SMT discussed whether the proposed activities sit within NICE’s strategy. Andrew
Dillon stated that the proposals are consistent with NICE’s role in providing the evidential basis for NHS England’s commissioning decisions. The activities also support the ambition of developing and sustaining NICE’s influence across the health and social care system.
19. SMT discussed the risks around the proposed activities, including potential longerterm implications for other NICE programmes. Andrew Dillon noted the risk around management capacity, particularly within the Centre for Health Technology
Evaluation (CHTE). It was agreed that this requires further consideration and appropriate management capacity should be factored into the costing. Andrew asked Ben Bennett to assist with the presentation of the costings to NHS England.
ACTION: BB
20. SMT discussed the draft slide presentation to NHS England and agreed these for submission. SMT agreed that NICE should request the opportunity to attend the
NHS England meeting which considers the proposals. If this request is not accepted, then the level of detail in the slide set may need to be increased.
ACTION: Meindert Boysen / Elisabeth George
21. SMT agreed that if NHS England supports NICE’s proposals, then a full business case will be brought to SMT, which will outline how the programmes will be delivered.
Incident Reports for the Audit & Risk Committee (item 5.3)
22. SMT reviewed the reports on three information security incidents that had arisen.
23. Jenniffer Prescott outlined the circumstances around the two incidents within the
TA programme, and the actions taken in response.
24. The second incident entailed the details of the Patient Access Scheme (PAS) of the comparator product being sent to the manufacturer whose product was subject of the TA. Jenniffer stated that whilst actions have been taken to mitigate a recurrence of such an incident, this area remains challenging. Previously NICE released details of a PAS, on a limited basis as part of an appraisal, however this has ceased following legal advice publication could breach EU competition law.
Meindert Boysen stated that there is a challenge of balancing transparency with minimising the risk of breaching competition law. He stated that a paper is likely to be brought to SMT on this issue.
Nick Crabb, Meindert Boysen and Jennifer Prescott left the meeting
25. Ben Bennett outlined the incident involving the temporary disabling of the network’s anti-virus software. Ben stated that the compensating controls prevented
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any adverse consequences. Andrew Dillon asked that the report clarifies the supplier’s explanation of the failure.
ACTION: BB
26. SMT noted the reports and agreed that these could be presented to the Audit &
Risk Committee.
UN International Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) conference (item
5.4)
27. It was agreed to defer this item given Gillian Leng
’s absence.
Strategy (item 6)
28. SMT discussed the arrangements for the Board strategy away-day later this week.
The presentations and any further supporting materials would be provided to David
Coombs prior to the event.
ACTION: AD / BB / AT / GL
29. It was agreed that an SMT member would capture the main discussion points from each table. The outputs from the day will inform the 2016/17 business plan and the four year strategy to 2020.
Weekly Staff SMT Updates (item 7)
30. SMT agreed the staff updates.
ACTION: DC
Any Other Business (item 8)
31. Sally Chisholm advised SMT that NHS England have asked NICE to develop proposals for evaluating bids for its ‘test bed’ programme. A paper on this will be brought to SMT in due course.
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