NICE listens

In the past the NICE Citizens Council provided a mechanism for in-depth, deliberative enquiry with a group of informed members of the public, to help inform the approach and judgements NICE takes. Reports from the Citizens Council have been used to inform the NICE Principles and are reflected in our evaluation methods and decision frameworks.

NICE and the wider health and social care landscape are changing. In addition to the long-term impacts of COVID-19, transformative innovation is underway in healthcare services, technologies and regulatory science, and within NICE itself. These changes will throw up challenging moral, ethical and social value issues that NICE will need to address.

In light of these challenges, NICE is introducing a new process for deliberative public engagement: NICE Listens. Whilst performing a similar function to our previous Citizen Council, it will offer a more flexible format which can be tailored to different topics and timescales. It will complement our existing mechanisms for public engagement but be used to address particularly challenging topics The successful contractor shall recruit a group of people to take part in the event. The group should be from the general public and be representative of the adult population of England (those aged 18+). The contractor will support the recruitment for, set-up, facilitation and evaluation of a NICE Listens event. NICE staff will work with the successful contractor to design and develop the event.

The successful contractor will feedback on the group's conclusions via a written report. This will be presented to the Institute's Executive Team, Board and published on the NICE website. The findings will inform various aspects of NICE's work.

It is envisaged that each NICE Listens topic will form a standalone event and that for each new topic a new recruitment process for participants in NICE Listens will take place