Clinical senates
The purpose of clinical senates is to improve health and care outcomes, through supporting system-wide improvements and innovation in healthcare quality and efficiency.
They do this by providing impartial, strategic evidence-based advice and expert analysis on transformational change, through multi-disciplinary clinical and patient panels.
Clinical senates offer challenge and consensus-building to help systems and organisations navigate different clinical perspectives and entrenched or politically sensitive situations to reach a shared path forward, whilst promoting cross-system and regional collaboration.
The support and advice of clinical senates results in robust, unbiased clinical recommendations that enable better-informed commissioning choices in the best interests of patients, practitioners, and support system-wide efficiency.
Clinical senate recommendations help to shape effective, sustainable healthcare services, improve transparency, and strengthen governance.
Testimonials
NHS England commissioners
“[the senates’] input into our considerations undoubtedly strengthened our proposals and processes and are continuing to play an important part in plans and preparations for the future centre”.
Integrated care board
“We could not have progressed without this external clinical review of the model. It gave it clinical credibility that no other review process could have done”.
NHS trust
“The senate report into upper gastrointestinal cancer is incredibly helpful and comprehensive. It provided really strong positive assurance from a multidisciplinary panel of where we are doing well, and really clear, practical recommendations for how we can improve. This has meant that we have been readily able to develop actions against those recommendations and start delivering on them. It has been the catalyst we needed to tackle some things that had got a bit “stuck” between hospitals”.
Visit the clinical senates section of our website to find out how to get involved in their work and read testimonials from senate council members.
Clinical senates map
This map shows the location of each clinical senate, including:
- North East and Yorkshire Senate
- North West Senate
- East Midlands Senate
- East of England Senate
- West Midlands Senate
- South East Senate
- South West Senate
- London Senate