Technology Appraisal Committee - Members

We are recruiting for professional committee members to join the Technology Appraisals Committee (TAC), in the following professions: Public Health Specialists, NHS Manager.

NICE Technology Appraisal committees assess the clinical and cost-effectiveness of (primarily) new medicines to see if they should be routinely commissioned in the NHS. If the committee makes a positive recommendation, the NHS has a legal obligation to fund the treatments, usually within 90 days. The Technology Appraisal committees look at innovative technologies (such as CAR-T in oncology), technologies that have the potential to improve the health of a large number of people (such as tirzepatide for managing overweight and obesity) or make a meaningful difference to people with very severe disease (such as nusinersen and risdiplam in spinal muscular atrophy).

Please note: NICE will reimburse locum backfill for committee members that are working in NHS general practice and a locum is needed to allow their attendance on NICE business.

Responsibilities:

• Set aside enough time to attend committee meetings and use their personal and professional knowledge to inform the development of the guidance.
• Raise any concerns about process or details in the draft guidance with the committee, and try to resolve these issues within the committee, with support from the guidance developer or the NICE guidance project team.
• Contribute positively to the work of the committee and to developing the guidance.
• Take full account of the evidence in developing recommendations.
• Consider the analysis and interpretation of evidence prepared by the evidence review team.
• Act in a professional manner, show good manners and be courteous to colleagues and staff at all times.
• Be impartial and honest in conducting their duties for NICE, using public funds entrusted to them to the best advantage of NICE.
• Ensure strict adherence to NICE’s Principles and equality policy.
• Read and adhere to NICE’s policies on hospitality, declarations of interests and travel and subsistence.

Time commitment:

Committee members are expected to attend 12 day-long committee meetings a year and an annual away day. Our committee meetings are predominantly virtual, with a small number of meetings held in a hybrid format. Committee members will have to spend time reading substantial committee documents and helping to produce consultation documents.

Committee meetings are held in public. Membership will be for 3 years and will be eligible for renewal. The second and further periods of office will be for periods of up to 3 years by mutual agreement, up to a maximum of 10 years.

Before you consider applying for this role, please ensure you read the conflicts of interest section of the attached applicant information document and refer to NICE’s policy on declaring and managing interests for NICE advisory committees.

Responsibilities include:

• Regularly attend Committee meetings (12 per year) as well as an annual awayday and occasional training.
• Contribute to the panel deliberations from their own specialist knowledge whilst respecting input from non-specialists and lay persons.
• Apply their own experience and judgement to the topics under discussion, rather than act as a representative of their organisation.
• Work with the other members of the Committee and NICE staff to identify key issues and review evidence.
• Formulate recommendations and comment on the evidence and on drafts of the guidance.
• Agree the final recommendations and guidance.
• Advise on implementation issues as required.
• Ensure appropriate consideration of the implications of guidance for duties under equalities legislation.
• Follow agreed decision-making procedures and accept the collective decisions of the Committee.
• Abide by NICE’s code of conduct for Committee members including declarations of interest, and follow the Committee’s operational procedures.
• Prepare for the Committee meetings by reading the substantive papers and gathering any additional information on the proposed topics which may be helpful to the discussions.
• Participate in review(s) of the functioning of the Committee and accept changes to the membership, remit, procedures, etc., of the Committee as a result.
• Participate in induction training and other training which may be offered periodically.