This review looks at how to enhance the quality improvement (QI) potential of the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme (NCAPOP), commissioned by HQIP on behalf of NHS England, the Welsh Government and others. It covers:
- Refining and improving HQIP’s approach to commissioning.
- Raising the visibility of the NCAPOP improvement activity and resources.
- Increasing the support to NCAPOP delivery teams on designing for QI impact.
The project behind this review identified that there is a wide range of capability, capacity and enthusiasm to use the NCAPOP to stimulate QI. The provision of support via this fellowship successfully engaged NCAPOP providers to implement a QI plan and achieve improvement targets in two thirds of cases. Opportunities to further enhance the QI potential of the NCAPOP include greater clarity of improvement intent for each work programme, optimisation of NCAPOP outputs with a move away from an annual report to more near real-time feedback, and better links with national improvement initiatives.
