Assessing and triaging requests

All proposals for a new national specialist service or national network are subject to a robust decision-making process via the following groups or committees.

The Application Support Team (AST) and relevant Subject Matter Experts

Responsible for:

• Managing, reviewing and assessing new registrations which must be submitted by 28 February annually.
• Conducting triage and notifying requester of decision within 28 working days.
• Escalating final decision making to NSD Senior Management Group Clinical (SMGC) should consensus not be reached at the triage meeting.
• Inviting requester to application stage, ensuring submissions are received by 31 March annually.
• Providing support to applicants to ensure applications are completed as comprehensively as possible to meet scoring criteria.
• Conducting a robust and consistent scoring exercise ensuring a fair and transparent decision-making process.
• Producing reports for SMGC for decision-making on progression of application to specification and proposal.
• Managing effective engagement and communication with requesters at all stages of the process.

NSD Senior Management Group Clinical (SMGC)

Responsible for:

• Overall accountability and decision-making of applications progression or rejection.
• Signposting unsuccessful submissions to alternative options for support.
• Identifying applications that successfully meet the criteria to proceed to specification and proposal stage.
• Assessing proposals and making recommendations on successful proposals to proceed to final decision stage.

National Specialist Services Committee (NSSC)

Responsible for:

• Ensuring a fair and transparent process is followed when producing high quality, consistent and evidence-based specialist services.
• Objectively applying a systematic approach to decision-making based on patient need and clearly defined evaluation criteria.
• Making final decision on which proposals meet the criteria for national designation.
• Advising NHS Boards and Scottish Government of the decision and seeking approval for national designation from Cabinet Secretary.

Strategic Planning Board and the Planning & Delivery Board

Strategic Planning Board

Intended to oversee significant change in the way services are planned, organised, delivered and funded, by strengthening national and regional planning. It will support national decision making alongside local delivery, through developing:

• a single coherent planning framework
• a strong national and regional planning capability, governance and collaboration
• a strong network/collaborative models which stem across national, regional and local service provision, enabling greater connections across the national system.

As part of a single planning framework, the new NHSS SPB will provide oversight, governance and decision making in relation to national and regional planning of NHSS services and set the strategic direction for the medium to long term taking account of the enabling resources – finance, workforce, and infrastructure.

Planning and delivery board

Seeks to further strengthen planning, manage progress of agreed priorities and address barriers to delivery and improvement.

Learn more about the application process