| Summary: | The Citizens Council provides NICE with a public perspective on overarching moral and ethical issues that NICE should take into account when producing guidance. Made up of members of the public, broadly representative of the adult UK population, the Council operates through a "citizens' jury" style meeting, to explore and respond to a question set by NICE. The National Institute for Clinical Excellence's Citizens Council was formally established in November 2002 following a comprehensive recruitment process to attract members of the public to fill the 30 places. Over 35,000 enquiries were made for the Citizens' Council, of which 4,327 people eventually applied. The final 30 members of the Council - stratified to reflect the wider public - were confirmed at an induction meeting in London on Friday 1st and Saturday 2nd November 2002. The first full Citizens Council meeting took place on the 21st, 22nd and 23rd November 2002 in Salford and this report details the Citizens Council members' conclusions and recommendations on the topic set for them: 'What should NICE take into account when making decisions about clinical need?' This report explains the term 'clinical need' and why it was chosen as a topic for consideration, how it was approached during the three day Council meeting and how the Council made its decisions. It summarises the Council's recommendations specifically regarding the most important features of diseases, or conditions, that should be taken into account when deciding clinical need, and to the most important features of patients. The Council's views on the weight NICE should give to the views of each of the various groups of stakeholders in deciding clinical need are detailed and other key recommendations are discussed. Finally, the report sets out lessons learnt for future work undertaken by the Citizens Council
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