Table 3 An example of a system-wide approach attracting cross-government support[27]

NICE International, a non-profit, cost-recouping division of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, was set up by NICE’s Board in 2008, to support overseas governments with developing and applying the necessary technical and institutional capacity to improving the quality and efficiency of their healthcare systems.^a To achieve this, NICE International mobilises its own as well as broader NHS and non-NHS resources, front-line NHS professionals and UK Universities.

Traditionally relied on non-UK funding, from the World Bank, national governments of client countries, the European Commission, regional development banks such as the Inter American Development Bank, and, increasingly on philanthropic funders such as the Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

During the second half of 2012, NICE International has received substantive funding support from the Department of International Development supplemented by funding from the Department of Health and small scale Foreign Office support mostly from FCO China, Brazil and the Philippines. NICE International has also been more directly involved in UKTI trade collaborative propositions, together with UK companies, in China and the Middle East

NICE International is perhaps one example (with its strengths and weaknesses) for scaling up, across other parts of the NHS, cross-government working, driven by overseas governments’ requests for NHS expertise