End of life - NICE resources
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is an independent organisation responsible for providing national guidance on promoting good health and preventing and treating ill health.
NICE quality standards provide a clear description of what a high quality service looks like so organisations can benchmark current performance against evidence-based measures of best practice. A NICE quality standard contains a set of up to 15 specific, concise statements describing key markers of high-quality, cost-effective care for a particular clinical condition or pathway.
This end of life care quality standard covers all settings in which care is provided by health and social care staff to adults approaching the end of life and adults who die suddenly or after a very brief illness. It sets out markers of high-quality care for adults aged 18 years and older with advanced, progressive, incurable conditions, adults who may die within 12 months, and those with life threatening acute conditions. It also covers support for the families and carers of people in these groups.
NICE commissioning guides are topic-specific, web-based resources. They provide support for the local implementation of NICE guidance through commissioning.
Each guide has a series of text-based web pages that signpost and provide topic-specific information on key clinical and service-related issues to consider during the commissioning process. Each guide also contains a commissioning and benchmarking tool - a resource that can be used to estimate and inform the level of service needed locally as well as the cost of local commissioning decisions.
The Guide for Commissioners on End of Life Care for Adults aims to support the local implementation of the Department of Health End of Life Care Strategy and the NICE Quality Standard for end of life care for adults.
