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3 June 2008: The Department of Health have signed a contract with a new consortium that will run the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme (NCAPOP).

Following a comprehensive procurement process, the management of the programme was awarded to a consortium comprised of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, the Royal College of Nursing and the Long Term Conditions Alliance, the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership. The programme was previously managed by the Healthcare Commission (HCC).

The Chief Medical Officer called for the 'reinvigoration' of clinical audit, to enable the programme to deliver its full potential. To support this, an additional £3.2 million per year has been allocated to the programme, which will be expanded from its present role as a commissioner of clinical audits, to include wider support activities and drive up the use of this valuable service improvement tool.

Clinical audit aims to improve patient care using a systematic review of care against explicit criteria. A number of areas are examined and evaluated and, where necessary, changes are implemented. It is important that the NHS carries out quality assurance to identify successes and weaknesses and audit can help with this process.

The consortium will also work towards the reinvigoration of clinical audit by:

• promoting and enabling participation in clinical audit and quality improvement initiatives by healthcare professionals of all disciplines and specialties, as well as by patients and service users
• creating national and local partnerships between clinicians and patients/service users to optimise the impact of clinical audit
• supporting local audit staff and creating seamless links between national and local audit
• fostering active dissemination and implementation of audit results within a broader quality agenda
• ensuring that evidence about participation in audit, and the results of audit, are used for secondary purposes. These include work-based learning and support of revalidation of healthcare professionals
• encouraging and enabling audit in areas of low activity
• developing and promoting links with audits outside of the NCAPOP framework
• including participation in audit as part of revalidation
• developing clinical audit as a profession marked by training, standards and professional body
• ensuring audit is required and inspected by commissioners and regulators
• engaging all relevant stakeholders.

The consortium will also have a role in supporting the National Clinical Audit Advisory Group (NCAAG), which was set up to provide advice and guidance on the overall programme of work, and in particular to consider proposals for new audits or for discontinuing existing audits.

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