Guidance for Clinical Ethics Services - UKCEN

In this section you can find guidance on setting up and running a clinical ethics service, specifically a Clinical Ethics Committee (CEC). These pages include examples of key documents you may download and edit for use by your CEC

Practical Guides

UKCEN has issued guidance covering the creation, composition and running of a clinical ethics service:

Practical guides

Setting up a service

Advice on setting up a clinical ethics service and support for new services and members:

Making the case for a new service

Support for new services

Membership of a service

Competencies & frameworks

Guidance on core competencies for members of clinical ethics services and ethical frameworks to guide deliberations:

Core competencies

Ethical frameworks

Processes

Advice on processes and associated documents to support the work of the service:

Terms of reference

Code of conduct

Case consultation

Freedom of information requests

Evaluation & profile-raising

Advice on evaluating the work of the service and raising its profile:

Profile-raising

Book your place at the 2025 UKCEN Conference and Workshop, hosted by the Oxford University Hospitals Clinical Ethics Committee.

We partner with the Institute of Medical Ethics (IME), an organisation which is dedicated to improving education and debate in medical ethics. Visit the IME website.