Guidance

NHS reference costs collection guidance for 2015 to 2016

Requirements for the collection of reference costs from the NHS.

• From: Department of Health and Social Care
• Published: 4 February 2016
• Last updated: 4 March 2016 — See all updates

Documents

Reference costs guidance 2015 to 2016

PDF, 2.21 MB, 130 pages

Integrated cost collection exercise guidance 2015 to 2016

PDF, 2.08 MB, 111 pages

Details

Reference costs guidance 2015 to 2016

This document sets out requirements for the collection of 2015 to 2016 reference costs from NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts between 20 June and 29 July 2016. It follows feedback from the NHS on draft collection guidance.

Reference costs are:

• the average unit cost to the NHS of providing secondary healthcare to NHS patients
• used to set prices for NHS-funded services in England
• collected and published annually

Integrated cost collection exercise guidance 2015 to 2016

This document sets out requirements for the collection of 2015 to 2016 reference costs, net of education and training costs from NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts, between 20 June and 15 September 2016. It follows feedback from the NHS on draft collection guidance.

There is a commitment from DH, HEE, NHS England, Monitor and TDA (NHS Improvements) to integrate the actual costs of education and training into the annual reference costs collection as soon as possible.

Integration of the education and training collection means that, in the longer term, trusts will exclude the cost of, rather than the income from, education and training as part of a single reference costs collection.

Before moving to a single reference costs collection, to make sure we understand the effects of integration and can mitigate against adverse impact on reference costs data and the national tariff, the integrated cost collection exercise will be additional to the main reference costs exercise in 2015 to 2016.

The collection will replace the existing education and training cost collection exercise. The integrated reference costs collection will begin on Monday 20 June 2016 (in line with the existing reference cost collection) and end on Friday 16 September 2016.

The guidance can be read in chapter 3 of Monitor’s ‘Approved Costing Guidance’, which brings together NHS costing and cost collection guidance.

Published 4 February 2016
Last updated 4 March 2016 + show all updates

1. 4 March 2016

   Added document: Integrated cost collection exercise guidance 2015 to 2016

2. 4 February 2016

   First published.