The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is an executive nondepartmental
public body established under the Health and Social Care Act 2012. NICE provides guidance and advice to support health and social care commissioners, providers and others so care and preventative services are of the best possible quality and offer the best value for money. NICE has a statutory role that encompasses the development of quality standards, advice, information and recommendations about NHS, public health and social care services. NICE provides independent, evidence-based guidance on the most effective ways to prevent, diagnose and treat disease and ill health and reduce health inequalities and variations. NICE guidance on public health topics makes recommendations for populations and individuals on activities, policies and strategies that can help prevent disease or improve health.
NICE has developed an accreditation programme through which it assesses the processes guidance producers use to produce guidance and advice that is accessible via the NICE Evidence Search portal, where relevant. As the best processes to be followed will depend upon what guidance and advice is being produced, the interpretation of the criteria varies according to the type of guidance, care setting and evidence base used.
Guidance producers whose processes meet the accreditation criteria for a category of evidence are able to display the Accreditation Mark in compliance with the brand guidelines. This mark allows health and social professionals to recognise high quality guidance producers. The intent of the accreditation programme is that this will drive up the standard of information available in the longer term. Accreditation evaluates only the processes used to develop content and excludes recommendations displayed by decision support systems in specific clinical settings as these are dependent on technical algorithms which are outside of the scope of accreditation.
NICE has accredited the process used by The Society and College of Radiographers to produce its guidance on:
Obtaining consent: a clinical practice guideline for the radiography workforce (imaging and radiotherapy
Caring for people with dementia: a clinical practice guideline for the radiography workforce (imaging and radiotherapy
Radiation dermatitis guidelines for radiotherapy healthcare professionals
Accreditation is valid for 5 years and the current term runs until 15th May 2025.
More information on accreditation can be viewed athttps://www.nice.org.uk/about/what-we-do/accreditation