NCVR in Primary Care

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What is NCVR?

The NHS is made up of many separate organisations in the UK. NCVR is a system-wide process that enables those organisations to work collaboratively, as one single organisation, to speed up the costing and contracting activities for commercial sponsors setting up multi-site studies.

It achieves this by using model agreements and a standardised pricing structure, the iCT tarrif. It is a UK-wide approach that is currently mandatory for commercial companies delivering late-phase clinical trials in NHS trusts and will soon be mandatory for all phases of clinical trials. To see how the tariff data is calculated and the current tariff, click here.

By signing-up to NCVR, GPs are agreeing that no further negotiation will take place on any commercial contract study. This means accepting the prices generated by the UK-wide interactive Costing Tool (iCT) for each General Practice.

To see the list of current GP Practices signed up to NCVR, click here. To sign up to the NCVR Scheme, click here.

Questions? Email us at em.rrdn@nihr.ac.uk

How does NCVR work?

The commercial sponsor populates the UK interactive Costing Tool (iCT) to reflect their initial interpretation of resource requirements to fulfil the study protocol.
The commercial sponsor is connected to an NHS costing expert who will conduct a study resource review to enable agreement by both sides on actual resource requirements.
Once approved, the iCT is shared with all participating NHS organisations to generate site-specific prices. This is a pre-defined, UK-wide methodology that ensures full cost recovery and accounts for aspects such as geographical variation, outsourcing costs etc.
The output from the iCT is inserted directly into the unmodifiable standard financial appendix within the model agreement (your contract with your sites)

What are the benefits to NCVR?

Consistency: Commercial sponsors can expect the same approach and service across all sites.
Transparency and predictability: Commercial sponsors have better visibility and understanding of costs and impact on study budgets.
Improved efficiency: Reducing the administrative burden of study set-up unlocks capacity for more research in the NHS - This is especially important in Primary Care!
Faster study set-up: In October 2023 we reported that NCVR has reduced commercial study set up times by a third
Faster access to cutting-edge treatments for patients taking part in those trials.

The UK is the only country in the world which will have a truly single negotiation and mandated contract acceptance. This puts us at the forefront of innovation in delivering clinical research and is a significant reason for industry to deliver their trials here.

What happens if something is missed in the budget?

If a participating site identifies an issue with the content of a nationally reviewed iCT, they should escalate to the East Midlands RDN using the following process and using the infogram on the left.

Email em.rrdn@nihr.ac.uk with the escalation following the template found in the NCVR SOP
Confirm the following:
1. The costs are not covered by the descriptions provided of the 70% overhead, 20% capacity build or local Market Forces Factor.
2. The costs do not relate to timing adjustments to the per patient budget.
3. [The items represent >5% of the per patient budget] OR [We request a waiver of the 5% budget threshold due to significant local impact - provide additional details]
The Industry team in the East Midlands RDN will then review and assess the escalation within 2 working days. They may email you with questions which need to be answered within 2 working day.
Depending on the outcome of this review, the Industry team will then escalate with the Lead Site Industry team and work towards resolving the escalation.

Resources

- NHS England: https://www.england.nhs.uk/aac/what-we-do/embedding-research-in-the-nhs/national-contract-value-review/
- NIHR: user resources for the interactive Costing Tool and the role of iCT in supporting NCVR
- NIHR: faster costing and contracting
- Costing and contracting using NCVR: https://www.nihr.ac.uk/partners-and-industry/industry/run-your-study-in-the-nhs/faster-costing-and-contracting.htm
- List of GP Practices signed up to NCVR: https://sense.odp.nihr.ac.uk/public/sense/app/db1e1883-2380-4ad4-b749-89e47275d806/sheet/7b14eca5-c666-4bf0-aee4-e364b5d970d9/state/analysis
- NCVR in Primary Care: https://www.nihr.ac.uk/news/new-voluntary-scheme-for-gps-to-speed-up-commercial-study-set-up/34920
- NCVR Sign up: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe0leFPRmY5cVIeSA9BKFQhRL61aAGHuYBCGREyRbCG6OzY_A/viewform
- NCVR SOP: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aHbO5NVapsbLnGpvayktEmFmdf_1mSMjD0SUZm6prZ8/edit?usp=sharing