Reference costs guidance and NHS costing manual published

Reference costs guidance

Reference costs are the average unit cost to the NHS of providing defined services in a given financial year to NHS patients in England and are collected annually. The reference costs guidance sets out the mandatory requirements for the collection of 2011-12 reference costs from NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts.

NHS costing manual

The NHS Costing Manual sets out mandatory and minimum principles and practices that must be applied to costing in the NHS. They are designed to support the calculation of reference costs, and through these, the national tariff, but can also be applied to other costing models.