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Commissioning Support and Policy Development

We offer a bespoke service to support all elements of the commissioning cycle

SPH has significant experience and understanding of NHS and local authority commissioning mechanisms and issues and a proven track record of supporting commissioners with decision making and policy development. We help our customers effectively plan and monitor services. We tailor our approach to provide support that is appropriate to the specific needs of commissioners and the population they serve.

What we do

  • We develop robust decision making frameworks, making sure the available evidence is taken into account to support rational and defendable decisions
  • We help our clients develop evidence-based policies or service specifications, answer questions around the cost effectiveness of interventions, assess the appropriateness and acceptability of interventions and consider the impact of proposals locally
  • We consult with those delivering and using services about the strengths and weaknesses of existing services
  • We help our customers connect information and evidence to achieve positive outcomes.
  • We support commissioners to engage with, influence and contribute to NICE guidance

Why choose SPH?

SPH has extensive experience of supporting commissioners gained over 15 years working to set priorities and redesign services, enabling them to deliver best value, best health outcomes for their populations.

In addition to the range of public health commissioning support and policy development skills and expertise available from the SPH team, we also work with colleagues in the service transformation and business intelligence teams within Arden & GEM CSU.  This enables us to offer a comprehensive commissioning support service utilising evidence, data analysis, best practice and service redesign to achieve transformational changes across health economies.

Case Studies

Supporting Priorities Committees

Our work with Priorities Committees enables NHS commissioners to balance complex choices, backed up with independent evidence reviews and ethical frameworks. We provide an end-to-end service, supporting commissioners to develop their commissioning decision making processes from topic selection through to preparing final policy statements. This includes the development of an ethical framework to inform the decision making process, topic selection, evidence reviews, consultation with clinical specialists, operational support to priorities committees and drafting of clinical commissioning recommendations. We have also worked with commissioners around the country in developing and advising on setting up their own decision making processes. We have been involved in supporting commissioners in appeals against NICE guidance and have experience of supporting commissioners in two judicial reviews.

Producing evidence-based guidelines

SPH were commissioned to produce evidence-based guidelines on screening for adult non-communicable diseases (diabetes mellitus, chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular disease), and on the implementation of new-born and antenatal screening for an international health organisation. SPH developed the guidelines using a three stage process, encompassing literature reviews to identify policies in other high-income countries and the evidence base underpinning those policies, surveys gathering the views of clinical leaders and two interactive clinical engagement events with clinical leaders.
Testimonials