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.

NHSS National Planning Executive Group (NPEG) / National Planning Board (NPB)

Responsible for:

• Considering applications against national planning criteria – volume, variation, workforce, disruptive technology.
• Routing proposals that don’t meet national criteria to other levels of planning (regional or local).
• Seeking further clarification on information submitted keeping proposer informed of progress of their application.

Learn more about the application process