National early inflammatory autoimmune diseases audit

Closing date for applications: 26th June 2026 5:00 pm

Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) is engaging the market to support plans in running a tender to commission the delivery of the national early inflammatory autoimmune diseases audit.

The contract is expected to initially be delivered for NHS-funded care in England and Wales, and publicly funded care in Jersey for a period of three years, at a maximum total budget of up to £930,380.40 GBP including VAT and £775,317.00 GBP excluding VAT. Bids exceeding this limit will be rejected. There is potential to extend the contract for up to two additional years as well as the option to include other Devolved Nations and/or Crown Dependencies, aspirational measures and discretionary inflationary uplifts (all of which will be defined in the service specification).

The maximum budget ‘core’ value of £930,380.40 GBP including VAT and £775,317.00 GBP excluding VAT, excludes the potential two-year extension and aspirational intent which will be included in the service specification at point of tender, meaning the ceiling value has the potential to be higher.

Due to the unknowns in advance of holding the premarket engagement session, it is currently expected that the extension value will be a two-year pro rata of the core three- year funding, estimated at £516,878.00 excluding VAT.

This proposed extension value may also include pro rata funding of any additional aspirational measures invoked in the first three years of the contract. For example: If an aspirational annual requirement costing £500,000 per year is invoked in year three, then the extension funding (if the aspirational measure is continued) will be the above figures plus the additional £500,000 per year.

Further to this funding, the final specification will contain a list of aspirational measures which will be expected to be modified into the contract should the need and funding become available. The aspirational intent value, excluding the potential two- year extension, is unknown at point of drafting this notice, so, an estimated value of £7,000,000 excluding VAT is applied to form the maximum ceiling value AT POINT OF DRAFTING THIS NOTICE. This aspirational intent has the potential to be invoked fully, partially, or not at all, and the Authority cannot guarantee that the successful supplier will be required to do any of the aspirational measures that will be listed in the final specification.

The role of a national clinical audit is to stimulate healthcare improvement and reduce unwarranted variation through the provision of high-quality information on the organisation, delivery and outcomes of healthcare, together with tools and support to enable healthcare providers and other audiences to make best use of this information. Outcomes are benchmarked against national guidance and standards e.g. quality standards from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), and those from other established professional and patient sources. Successful national audits are those where the individuals providing the data can also improve the system, and there is a shared understanding of what good care looks like.

The National Early Inflammatory Autoimmune Diseases Audit, previously the National Early Inflammatory Arthritis Audit (NEIAA) was established in 2013 and since 2017 has been delivered by the British Society for Rheumatology (BSR) – https://www.rheumatology.org.uk/

The overarching aim is to stimulate improvements in care for patients by measuring variations in quality, experience and outcomes. During this contract period, the successful tenderer will need to build on the achievements of the audit to date and enhance the ability for the audit to be used for healthcare improvement. Data is most useful locally for healthcare improvement when its provision to clinical teams is timely, the data is refreshed regularly and appropriate tools, support and guidance accompany the data outputs. The intent is for all these features of the audit to be implemented and improved during the period of this contract.

The NEIAA should conform to the overarching aims and objective of all NCAPOP audits

National clinical audits are expected to: 

  1. Develop a robust, high-quality audit designed around key quality indicators likely to best support local and national quality improvement 
  2. Achieve, articulate and maintain close alignment with relevant NICE national guidance and quality standards throughout the audit, as appropriate 
  3. Enable improvements through the provision of timely, high-quality data that compares providers of healthcare, and comprises an integrated mixture of named Trust or Health Board, Integrated Care System (ICS), commissioner, multidisciplinary team (MDT), possibly consultant or clinical team level and other levels of reporting 
  4. Engage service users, patients, parents, carers and families in a meaningful way, achieving a strong patient voice which informs and contributes to the design, functioning, outputs and direction of the audit 
  5. Consider the value and feasibility of linking data at an individual patient level to other relevant national datasets either from the outset or in the future, and plan for these linkages from the inception of the contract 
  6. Ensure robust methodological and statistical input at all stages of the audit 
  7. Identify from the outset the full range of audiences for the reports and other audit outputs, and plan and tailor them accordingly 
  8. Provide audit results in a timely, accessible and meaningful manner to support quality improvements, minimising the reporting delay and providing continual access to each unit for their own data 
  9. Utilise strong and effective project and programme management to deliver audit outputs on time and within budget 
  10. Develop and maintain strong engagement with local clinicians, networks, commissioners, parents and their families and carers and charity and community support groups in order to drive improvements in services. 

and in addition, the specific three -year data driven healthcare quality improvement aims are: 

  1. Increase the proportion of people with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMID) referred to rheumatology services within three working days   
  2. For people with IMID reduce the delay in first rheumatology appointment, aiming to increase the proportion of patients seeing a rheumatologist within three weeks  
  3. Shorten the time from referral to starting treatment for IMID, increasing the proportion of patients starting treatment within six weeks of referral    
  4. Increase the proportion of patients receiving a holistic annual review  
  5. Reduce diagnostic delay for patients with rare IMID 
  6. Reduce diagnostic delay for patients with Axial Spondyloarthritis  
  7. Reduce data collection burden for local clinical teams  

The audit supplier will work with commissioners and funders to create a coherent strategy for how the improvement goals listed above, or similar, will support organisations in the rheumatology pathway to try and achieve them.

Further Information

Further details of the existing audit can be found at: https://www.rheumatology.org.uk/improving-care/audits/neiaa

HQIP will be looking to hold a pre-market engagement session with potential suppliers on Friday 3rd July 2026 12.00pm – 14.00pm. Also in attendance will be system partners and service specialists including charities.

The aim of the pre market engagement session is for interested parties to hear and contribute to discussions with system experts and patient groups that will feed in to HQIP’s final decisions on the scope of the audit during this next contract period, and the anticipated outcomes over the 3-5 years of the audit.

The existing specification is available for review by any interested parties and whilst it will provide information on how the current audit was scoped, it is important to understand that the recommissioning of this audit may amend the requirements.
At this point, the Authority is planning to run this procurement under an open tender.
The proposed dates (subject to change solely at the Authorities discretion) are as follows:

  • 3rd July 2026 – Pre Market Engagement Session
  • Publication of tender opportunity – October 2026
  • Evaluation of submitted bids – November – December 2026
  • Award – March 2027
  • Contract start – 1st October 2027

Whilst the Authority intends to stick to the timeline, it may deviate away from it at any time.

The expected value of the contract will be subject to increase under aspirational intent measures which will be defined in the service specification at point of tender.
The aspirational intent will cover the value range and mechanisms for invoking each element of it.

If you would like to join this premarket engagement event, please register your interest at – https://forms.office.com/e/8wn8xiRwxt
You may also use this opportunity to request a copy of the existing project specification.

Premarket engagement event registration