National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)

What does NICE do?

NICE exists to improve outcomes for people using the NHS and other public health and social care services by:

• Producing evidence-based guidance and advice for health, public health and social care practitioners, e.g. efficacy of pharmacological treatments, how different clinical conditions are best managed according to the latest evidence, and the effectiveness of different medical and digital technologies
• Developing quality standards and performance metrics for those providing and commissioning health, public health and social care services so they can measure the degree to which they are implementing guidance in key areas
• Providing a range of information services for commissioners, practitioners and managers across health and social care resources to enable access to high quality authoritative evidence and best practice. 
• NICE International also collaborates internationally to help health organisations, ministries and government agencies improve their nation's health and wellbeing, by sharing expertise

What is NICE guidance and what are NICE Guidelines?

NICE guidance takes a number of forms - the primary form being guidelines.

NICE guidance also includes: 

• antimicrobial prescribing guidelines
• technology appraisals guidance
• interventional procedures guidance
• medical technologies guidance
• diagnostics guidance
• highly specialised technologies

NICE guidelines make evidence-based recommendations on a wide range of topics.  These include preventing and managing specific conditions to planning broader services and interventions to improve the health of communities.

NICE guidelines are evidence-based recommendations for health and care in England. 

They set out the care and services suitable for most people with a specific condition or need, and people in particular circumstances or settings. 

These guidelines help health and social care professionals to:

• prevent ill health
• promote and protect good health
• improve the quality of care and services
• adapt and provide health and social care services

What are Quality Standards?

Quality standards set out the priority areas for quality improvement in health and social care.  They are based on NICE guidance and other NICE-accredited sources. 

Each standard set out:

• a set of statements to help improve quality of services
• information on how to measure progress

Where can I access NICE information services?

NICE Evidence Services are a suite of services that provide access to high quality authoritative evidence and best practice.  NICE Evidence Services are for everyone working in health and social care who make decisions about treatments, interventions or the use of resources. 

While NICE Evidence Services are designed primarily for professionals and practitioners, patients and the wider public are also able to search most of the content.