Help NICE to find people with lived experience who have a passion for quality improvement in health and social care services

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) produces guidance on the most effective ways to prevent, diagnose and treat disease and ill health, and provide social care support. Their guidance is based on research evidence and takes into account the views of people working in or using relevant services, and other stakeholder groups.

NICE is currently looking for people with lived experience, or their loved ones and unpaid carers, as well as their advocates to join the committee developing NICE indicators. The indicators measure outcomes that reflect quality of care. They also look at processes that are linked by evidence to improved outcomes. Many of the indicators developed focus on primary care, also known as care provided or overseen by someone’s local general practitioner (GP), but some are also relevant across the wider health and social care systems too.

NICE are looking for one person with a range of lived experience across health, public health and social care, together with an understanding of quality improvement from the perspective of people using these services, to join the NICE indicator advisory committee. They will work together with one other standing lived experience committee member, and their involvement will be vital in ensuring that NICE hear and shape our guidance in line with the views, experiences and needs of those who are most directly impacted by NICE’s work. Please read more information about NICE indicators, if you are interested.

It would be great to find someone who has knowledge or experience of how to drive up the quality of services through a range of different approaches from the perspective of people with lived experience – for example, through work they may have done to support or design clinical audits, improvement and action plans for services, or a programme of training or education for practitioners – but this is not essential.

As a standing lay member on a NICE committee, they won’t have personal knowledge or experience of every topic this committee looks at, but they should have a broad understanding of the issues important to patients and their families or unpaid carers. They will be expected to research topics they are not familiar with so that they can gain this insight and highlight issues of importance for people and communities within the topic area.

The appointed lived experience member will need to be able to contribute effectively in a formal committee setting. NICE’s lived experience members are paid a fee to attend meetings in recognition of their valuable expertise and knowledge (£300 for a full day meeting, £150 for a half day meeting), and travel and other expenses are also covered.

Please see the recruitment advert for details of what working with the committee involves, the kind of experience and knowledge we are looking for, and how to apply. Recruitment is open until 11.59pm on Wednesday 21 May 2025.

If you would like any tailored support to get involved in this work or any other work that NICE does, please get in touch with them. There is also lots of information on the NICE website for voluntary and community sector partners who would like to get involved in their work – it looks at how to get involved in developing their guidance, as well as how to use the guidance once it is published.

NICE also has a Voluntary and Community Sector Network. The network brings together organisations (including local Healthwatches) who want to inform and shape our work. It’s a way for you to share your organisation’s views, perspectives and priorities with NICE.