The report highlights that there currently exists a wide range of national and international organisations generating and disseminating information relevant to the UK guidance community. The growth of the internet as a resource base has led to information management issues, which need to be addressed by any body developing a new website.  Some points for consideration and some potential discussion questions follow:

• purpose and target group need to be clearly expressed
• information management system issues need careful consideration, including use of folders/files
• consider language, especially for international usage
• the basic assumption is our work will be presented in English – is this adequate?
• issues relating to research methodology, e.g. evidence-based practice and transferability of findings, need to be given consideration
• how useful is understanding policy and practice in one country for another?
• consider membership details and potential restrictions
• consider charging and implications for users
• should users have to pay for access to some/all documents?
• is there a need to classify by potential users and what are the issues arising from this?
• is flagging up assumed users likely to deter others?
• information needs to be cross-referenced for ease of usage
• links to other sites need to be explicit
• updating and useful life of information sources needs consideration
• common themes need to be mapped for cross-referencing and link
• there is a need to clearly state the distinctiveness of the information provision and the differentiation from other sites. 
• sustainability and funding issues have to be addressed.
• presentation and editing needs to be given attention. Spelling errors and too large a number of categories are to be avoided.
• consider presentation of findings to be placed on the site
• is the system of full documents and summary documents useful or duplicating?
• a newsletter is a useful way of summarising key additions since the last update

Certain common themes relevant to international perspectives have been identified, and these were classified within 4 headings, namely policy & strategy, practice, quality, and research. These can be used as a basis for further papers for the NGRF website under International Perspectives. Some, e.g. on gender, will need cross-referencing to the other expert group work already on the site. A discussion paper on the role of the private sector, with specific questions for a lively debate, is proposed as a topic of relevance to policy-makers, managers, practitioners and the research community. This would probably also raise issues relating to service funding and sustainability. Other areas of interest could be the transferability of research findings and examples of good practice across national boundaries, professionalism in guidance, guidance qualifications and quality systems.

Some examples of good practice have been indicated, as they emerged from this review. These examples could be useful starting points for research and discussion on the various topic areas under International Perspectives.