Approved costing guidance
The Approved costing guidance explains how NHS trusts should cost at patient level using the costing standards and then submit cost data using the National Cost Collection guidance. It is updated annually.
The collection of patient-level costing data helps the NHS manage costs, improve productivity, eliminate unwarranted variation and, overall, improve services for patients.
Contents
- What is the Approved costing guidance?
- Approved Costing guidance for 2026
- Supporting content
- Archived guidance
What is the Approved costing guidance?
The Approved costing guidance (ACG) comprises the documentation and tools for providers of NHS services to submit National Cost Collection (NCC) data.
The main audience for the guidance is healthcare costing professionals but they have also been written with secondary audiences in mind, such as clinicians, and informatics and finance colleagues. The use of the term ‘patient’ across all sectors allows us to maintain consistency in the standards for an individual’s entire health and social care pathway.
Approved costing guidance for 2026
All the prescribed guidance for the 2026 submission for all sectors is listed below.
| Introduction and general guidance (all sectors) | Date published/updated |
|---|---|
| Introduction to the Approved costing guidance | 4 March 2026 |
| Summary of changes | 4 March 2026 |
| The costing principles | 5 March 2025 |
| Costing diagram | 5 March 2025 |
| Quick guide | 5 March 2025 |
| Costing glossary | 5 March 2025 |
| DVE business rules | 4 March 2026 |
| Integrated standards, guidance and technical documents | |
| Integrated costing standards | 4 March 2026 |
| Integrated national cost collection guidance | 4 March 2026 |
| Integrated technical document | 4 March 2026 |
| Integrated extract specification | 4 March 2026 |
| Integrated schema | 4 March 2026 |
| Ambulance standards, guidance and technical documents | |
| Ambulance costing standards | 4 March 2026 |
| Ambulance national cost collection guidance | 4 March 2026 |
| Ambulance technical document | 4 March 2026 |
| Ambulance extract specification | 4 March 2026 |
| Ambulance schema | 4 March 2026 |
Supporting content
Supporting content is available on the Futures costing workspace to support costing practitioners primarily in the approved costing guidance and national cost collection sections. Links to the PLICS dashboards are on the Data Insight Hub.
Resources include:
- minimum software requirements
- resource application hierarchy
- briefing papers
- learning extensions
- quantum reconciliation templates
Archived guidance
Approved Costing Guidance from previous years can be found at the Approved costing guidance archive.
For further support and advice please contact us at england.nhsecosting1@nhs.net.