Roll-out of the CRANE Outlier Policy

Following the successful pilot of the CRANE Outlier Policy in 2021, plans for the gradual roll-out of the outlier process have now been agreed with the Cleft Development Group (CDG).

The Outlier Policy is designed to assess and manage the performance of cleft services against agreed process and outcome metrics, and sets out the process the CRANE Database Team will follow to manage any service that is found to fall outside the expected range of performance.

The policy will be instituted in a passive form for the first 3 years (2022-23 inclusive), which means services will be notified of their status and allowed to respond but will not be mandated to do so. This approach takes account of the ongoing pressures on services as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and will also allow time for the local outlier processes and policies introduced in 2021 to become embedded within routine practice.

It is planned for the Outlier Policy to be implemented in full from 2025.

If you have any questions about the CRANE Outlier Policy, please contact us.