Best Practice Guidance

The NHS Health Check Best Practice Guidance is a practical guide for commissioners and providers on planning, delivering and improving the programme. It covers inviting eligible people, assessing cardiovascular risk, communicating results and supporting appropriate follow-up. The guidance has been updated for 2026.

• To access the latest version of the Best Practice Guidance, please follow this link here. 

Supporting tools and templates

• NHS Health Check on a page: A one-page overview of the programme and its key delivery steps.

• Communications template – invite and reminder: Ready-to-use wording for inviting people and reminding them to attend.

• Market segmentation: Audience insights to help tailor communications and delivery to improve engagement.

• Contract management tool: A tool to support monitoring of NHS Health Check provider contracts.

• QOF incentives resource: Information on how NHS Health Checks link to Quality and Outcomes Framework incentives.

• StARS Lite: An example of a streamlined self-assessment tool to identify programme strengths and areas for improvement (Used in certain regions).

• Marketing materials: Promotional resources to raise awareness and encourage uptake of NHS Health Checks.