The NHS Commissioning Board (NHS CB) has added seven new draft service specifications and a further clinical policy for specialised commissioning to its consultation. The consultation period for these new additions will run from 11 January to 22 February 2013.

The service specifications and clinical commissioning policies are important in clearly defining what the NHS CB expects to be in place for providers to offer evidence-based, safe and effective services. They have been developed by specialised clinicians, commissioners, expert patients and public health representatives to describe core and developmental service standards. Core standards are those that any reasonable provider of safe and effective services should be able to demonstrate, with developmental standards being those that really stretch services over time to provide excellence in the field.

Responses to the consultation are invited from clinical staff, public, patients and groups with an interest in these specialist areas, as well as from providers and commissioners.

You can find more information on the consultation on our specialised services commissioning pages.