The guidelines manual

1 Introduction

1.1 Short clinical guidelines are clinical guidelines that address only part of a care pathway. They are intended to allow the rapid (11–13-month timescale) development of guidance on aspects of care for which the NHS requires urgent advice. This document sets out the process, including timelines, that the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) follows when developing a short clinical guideline. It describes an open and transparent process designed to achieve robust guidance for the NHS. The document provides guidance for organisations that are invited to contribute to short clinical guidelines, and has been developed to inform stakeholders and to facilitate their comments on this work programme.

1.2 This document highlights the key differences in the development process for short clinical guidelines compared with that for standard clinical guidelines. The latter is outlined in the chapters of The guidelines manual and in How NICE clinical guidelines are developed: an overview for stakeholders, the public and the NHS. Cross-references are included to the relevant sections of 'The guidelines manual'.

1.3 Each short clinical guideline is developed by an independent Guideline Development Group (GDG). In most cases the GDG is supported by a technical team within the Internal Clinical Guidelines Programme at NICE. This technical team is constituted in the same way and undertakes the same functions as the established National Collaborating Centre (NCC) technical teams, but it does not have voting rights on recommendations made by the GDG. The development and quality assurance of short clinical guidelines is overseen by a Guidelines Commissioning Manager, the Director of the Centre for Clinical Practice (CCP), a CCP lead for the guideline and an Executive Lead at NICE.

1.4 Occasionally, a short clinical guideline may be externally commissioned by NICE from one of the NCCs. This is decided on a case-by-case basis.