Department of Health

Website of the Department of Health

Please note that this website has a UK government access keys system.

NHS costing

Detailed guide to costing for NHS providers and commissioners  

Patient-level information and costing systems (PLICS)

The NHS, with encouragement from DH, is implementing patient-level information and costing systems (PLICS). The implementation of PLICS is not mandatory but DH strongly supports the use of PLICS within the NHS.

The broad benefits of patient-level information costing systems are:

  • service-level economics reporting
  • an understanding of the variations and their causes within services
  • a major improvement in clinical ownership of resource decisions
  • provision of information to enable improved HRG classification and
  • improved funding policy and evidence-based analysis in discussions with commissioners.

Data collection

Reference costs 2008-2009 collection

This document outlines the mandatory requirements for the 2008-2009 reference costs collection. It updates and supersedes previous costing guidance. It should be read in conjunction with the latest version of the NHS costing manual.

NHS costing manual 2008-2009

This manual sets out the principles and practice of costing to be applied in the NHS. It is not just designed to support the production of the National Schedule of Reference Costs and through this, the national tariff, but should also be used in developing and monitoring service and financial frameworks, as well as developments in and the monitoring and implementation of National Service Frameworks.

Clinical costing standards for PLICS users 2009-2010

The clinical costing standards have been developed to support the implementation and use of PLICS within the NHS. The use of the clinical costing standards is not mandated, however DH recommends that PLICS organisations adopt them. The clinical costing standards seek to set out guidelines based on best practice and will result in high levels of consistency and uniformity in the costing methods used by the NHS.

2007/08

Archive and supporting material

Access keys