Collection

NHS reference costs

Reference costs are the average unit cost to the NHS of providing secondary healthcare to NHS patients.

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

• From: Department of Health and Social Care
• Published: 23 January 2014
• Last updated: 15 December 2016 — See all updates

DHSC has collected reference costs from NHS providers for every financial year since 1997.

Reference costs are used to set prices for NHS-funded services in England. They also support our commitment to data transparency for the benefit of patients and the public.

Monitor is now accountable for the reference costs collection, with the department continuing to collect reference costs on its behalf. Monitor’s strategy for costing and cost collection to inform price setting is set out in their Approve Costing Guidance.

Published reference costs

The data collected in reference costs is presented in 3 ways:

• national schedules of reference costs - these show the national average unit costs derived from the average unit costs of NHS provider
• reference costs index - a measure of the relative efficiency of NHS providers
• database of source data - publishing the data submitted by NHS providers gives a valuable source of information for benchmarking of costs and other more detailed analysis (only source data from 2008 to 2009 is currently available)

Reference costs from 1998 to 2009 are available on the National Archives.

• NHS reference costs 2015 to 2016
  • 15 December 2016
  • Research and analysis
• NHS reference costs 2014 to 2015
  • 27 November 2015
  • Research and analysis
• NHS reference costs 2013 to 2014
  • 9 March 2015
  • Policy paper
• NHS reference costs 2012 to 2013
  • 22 January 2015
  • Policy paper
• NHS reference costs: financial year 2011 to 2012
  • 8 November 2012
  • Policy paper
• 2010-11 reference costs publication
  • 17 November 2011
  • Policy paper
• NHS reference costs 2009-2010
  • 13 January 2011
  • Policy paper
• NHS reference costs 2009-2010  appendix: DBRC organisation-specific reference cost data
  • 13 January 2011
  • Policy paper

Reference costs collection guidance

The submission of reference costs by NHS providers is supported by detailed guidance published each year by the department. This guidance has been part of Monitor’s ‘Approved Costing Guidance’ since 2013.

• NHS reference costs collection guidance for 2015 to 2016
  • 4 March 2016
  • Guidance
• NHS reference costs collection guidance for 2014 to 2015
  • 11 February 2015
  • Guidance
• NHS reference costs collection guidance for 2013 to 2014
  • 7 February 2014
  • Guidance
• Reference costs guidance for 2012-13
  • 22 February 2013
  • Guidance

Published 23 January 2014
Last updated 15 December 2016 + show all updates

1. 15 December 2016

   Added NHS reference costs 2015 to 2016.

2. 18 November 2015

   Added NHS reference costs 2014 to 2015

3. 23 January 2014

   First published.