Benchmarking data published

24 Jul 2026

The following dataset has recently been published on the National Clinical Audit Benchmarking (NCAB) website, HQIP’s online portal which provides access to national audit performance data:

Epilepsy: Data from the National Clinical Audit of Seizures and Epilepsies for Children and Young People (Epilepsy 12) Epilepsy12 report (published July 2026)

NCAB is an online portal, hosted by HQIP, which provides access to national audit performance data. Users do not need to register, and can access audit benchmarked data searchable by trust, hospital or unit. For all datasets currently published, go to the NCAB site.

Audit, Registry and Outcomes Data: At the Heart of Strategic Commissioning

20 Jul 2026

Dr Iain Smith, HQIP Associate Director, Association for Clinical Audit, Registries and Quality Improvement (ACAR-QI), features in BMJ Leader Blog this month, on why audit, registry, and outcomes data must sit at the heart of strategic commissioning:

“Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) play a crucial leadership role in the English NHS. They are responsible for managing health systems across large geographical footprints and ensuring that services are planned and delivered to meet local population needs.¹

The UK government’s new NHS modernisation bill confirms strategic commissioning, the process of planning, purchasing and monitoring services, as the central purpose of newly reconfigured ICBs.²^–⁴ As ICBs move towards their role as strategic commissioners, they will focus on optimising resource use to improve population health; reduce inequalities; improve access to services; and deliver high quality outcomes for patients.^{2 3}

To support ICBs in this role, is a strategic commissioning framework comprised of four key steps: understanding the local context; developing long-term population health strategy; delivering value-for-money outcomes; and evaluating impact of commissioning decisions.³

Key to success as a strategic commissioner is the need to demonstrate measurable outcomes and improvement. Clinical audit and registry data must therefore play a major role at the heart of strategic commissioning.

National clinical audit and outcomes data should be a central part of really fantastic commissioning. They can provide ICBs an evidence base for a data-driven approach to decision making and help providers to drive improvement and demonstrate commissioned outcomes are being delivered.” Sir James Mackey, Chief Executive, NHS England, at Clinical Audit Awareness Week 2026

Clinical audit, registries and understanding the local context

Strategic commissioners must develop a deep understanding of their local population and its health and care needs.³ Clinical audit and registries provide condition and pathway specific data on care processes, outcomes, variation and inequalities across providers and geographies. Audit and registry data contribute benchmarked comparisons between local providers, ICBs, regions and national averages – helping commissioners identify where outcomes, access or care processes differ from expected standards.^{5 6}

For example, reducing lives lost to cardiovascular disease (CVD) is an identified priority in the NHS ten-year health plan for England.⁷ CVDPREVENT is a national primary care audit using routinely extracted GP data to identify undiagnosed, undertreated or overtreated patients with high-risk cardiovascular conditions.⁸ This can support ICBs to understand population need, inequalities and prevention opportunities at place, neighbourhood and practice level.

Clinical audit, registries and developing population health strategy

Strategic commissioners need to develop evidence-based population health strategies that link health with broader socioeconomic outcomes to improve equity and support prevention.³ Strategies need to translate into outcomes that matter for patients, such as fewer heart attacks or strokes and effective care pathways.⁷

The National Audit of Cardiac Rehabilitation (NACR) supports planning of cardiovascular prevention and rehabilitation services by monitoring access, equity, quality and outcomes.⁹ Whereas, the Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme (SSNAP) captures whole-pathway stroke data supporting long-term strategy for hyperacute stroke, thrombectomy and rehabilitation.¹⁰

Audit data and value-based healthcare

Strategic commissioners must prioritise funding and maximise value.³ Delivery of strategic outcomes will be supported through allocating resources informed by data and population health priorities. Metrics from audits and registries can be included in contracts and transformation programmes. For example: the National Emergency Laparotomy Audit (NELA) links improved outcomes with shorter length of stay and potential savings;¹¹ the National Hip Fracture Database (NHFD) supports the best practice tariff for hip fracture care in England;¹² and the National Joint Registry (NJR) shows continued reduction in revision surgery and improved outcomes.¹³

Clinical audit, registries and evaluating impact

Strategic commissioners need to monitor whether decisions improved outcomes, reduced inequalities, improved access and delivered value.³ Clinical audits and registries are designed to identify where care meets standards and where improvement is needed. They enable repeated measurement and can support quality improvement cycles.^{14 15} Registries capture longitudinal data, and many audits publish periodic data, allowing commissioned changes to be tracked over time.⁵ By using audit and registry data, commissioners can evaluate the impact before and after pathway redesign, investment or service reconfiguration.

Making it happen – access to data and linkage across datasets

Audit and registry data offer meaningful clinical process and outcome metrics. The data however can sit in different places – such as individual audit provider websites. Furthermore, for strategic commissioning, ICBs must consider activity, workforce and finance data – which can also sit in separate places.

Bringing datasets together supports a more rounded view of outcomes, safety, variation, equity, and value – not just lower cost. This points to an enhanced role for digital tools such as secure data environments (SDEs) and open access platforms such as National Clinical Audit Benchmarking (NCAB) and NHS Open Model Health System (OMHS).

NCAB provides benchmarked results from the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme (NCAPOP).¹⁶ OMHS provides benchmarked data on quality, productivity and outcomes, including from selected national clinical audits.¹⁷ Both NCAB and OMHS are open platforms providing benchmarked public data.^{17 18} This matters for strategic commissioning because ICBs are expected to make evidence-based, transparent decisions.

SDEs are platforms that control who can access data, what they can access, and what they can do with it. They allow approved users to work securely with de-identified data and enable access to health and care data for research and analysis.^{19 20} SDEs reduce the need for ICBs to negotiate bespoke data flows and make evaluation of commissioning decisions easier.

National clinical audits and registries can help ICBs move from broad strategic intent to measurable commissioning action – showing where need is greatest, where variation exists, and whether commissioned changes are improving outcomes equitably over time. Making audit and registry data available through SDEs and open access platforms would help ICBs use national audit and registry data as core strategic commissioning assets.”

This article was published as a blog on BMJ Leader on 20th July 2026: Audit, registry and outcomes data: At the heart of strategic commissioning. By Iain Smith – The official blog of BMJ Leader

Further resources from HQIP

Discover more about how HQIP supports organisations to use clinical audit and healthcare data to drive improvement – from strategy development to implementation or training
Guidance and other resources to support improvement
Reports and infographics
Benchmarked results, searchable by project name, trust, hospital or unit

References

NHS England. What is integrated care? London, UK: NHS England; n.d. [Available from: https://www.england.nhs.uk/integratedcare/what-is-integrated-care/.
Department of Health & Social Care. Health Bill: ICBs as strategic commissioners – fact sheet London, UK: UK Government; 2026 [Available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-bill-icbs-as-strategic-commissioners-fact-sheet/health-bill-icbs-as-strategic-commissioners-fact-sheet.]
NHS England. Strategic commissioning framework London, UK: NHS England; 2026 [Available from: https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/strategic-commissioning-framework/.]
NHS England. Commissioning: NHS England; n.d. [Available from: https://www.england.nhs.uk/commissioning/.]
NHS England. Clinical audits and registries: A best practice guide. London: NHS England (Available at https://future.nhs.uk ), 2026.
NHS England. Clinical Audit London, UK; NHS England ;n.d. [Available from: https://www.england.nhs.uk/clinaudit/.]
Department of Health & Social Care and NHS England. Fit for the future: 10 Year Health Plan for England. London: UK Government, 2025.
CVDPREVENT. The Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Audit Derby, UK: NHS Arden and Greater East Midlands Commissioning Support Unit; n.d [Available from: https://www.cvdprevent.nhs.uk.]
NHS England. National Audit of Cardiac Rehabilitation n.d. [Available from: https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/clinical-audits-and-registries/national-audit-of-cardiac-rehabilitation.]
Royal College of Physicians. Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme (SSNAP) London, UK: Royal College of Physicians; 2017 [Available from: https://www.rcp.ac.uk/resources/sentinel-stroke-national-audit-programme-ssnap/.]
Royal College of Anaesthetists. National Emergency Laparotomy Audit (NELA) London, UK: Royal College of Anaesthetists; n.d. [Available from: https://www.rcoa.ac.uk/research/research-projects/national-emergency-laparotomy-audit-nela.]
Royal College of Physicians. The Fragility Fracture and Falls Audit Programme (FFFAP) n.d. [Available from: https://www.fffap.org.uk/FFFAP/Resources.nsf/.]
NJR. National Joint Registry, London, UK: NJR; n.d. [Available from: https://www.njrcentre.org.uk accessed 29 Jun 2026.
Smith I. Quality management and clinical audit: Integrating clinical audit and quality improvement to deliver impact for patients London, UK: BMJ Leader; 2026 [Available from: https://blogs.bmj.com/bmjleader/2026/02/09/quality-management-and-clinical-audit-integrating-clinical-audit-and-quality-improvement-to-deliver-impact-for-patients-by-iain-smith/.]
Davey N, Shearer H, Matthew D, et al. Clinical audit and quality improvement: rivals, partners, or one and the same? Frontiers in Health Services 2026;Volume 6 – 2026 doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/frhs.2026.1768450
HQIP. National Clinical Audit Benchmarking (NCAB) London, UK: Heathcare Quality Improvement Partnership; n.d. [Available from: https://www.hqip.org.uk/programmes-data/benchmarking/.]
NHS England. Model Health System London, UK: NHS England; n.d. [Available from: https://open.model.nhs.uk.]
HQIP. National clinical audit data features in open access NHS Model Health System London, UK: Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership; 2026 [Available from: https://www.hqip.org.uk/news/open-mhs-launch/.]
Department of Health & Social Care. Secure data environment for NHS health and social care data – policy guidelines London, UK: Department of health & Social Care; 2022 [Available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/secure-data-environment-policy-guidelines/secure-data-environment-for-nhs-health-and-social-care-data-policy-guidelines.]
NHS Digital. Secure Data Environments London, UK: NHS England; 2026 [Available from: https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/research-powered-by-data/support-and-resources/background/secure-data-environments.]

Image with a quote from Sir James Mackey, NHS England CEO: “National clinical audit and outcomes data should be a central part of really fantastic commissioning. They can provide ICBs an evidence base for a data-driven approach to decision making and help providers to drive improvement and demonstrate commissioned outcomes are being delivered.”

New NHS Quality Strategy puts outcomes and evidence at the heart of improvement

17 Jul 2026

NHS England published its Quality Strategy for NHS funded care in England this week, on behalf of the National Quality Board. Building on the 10 Year Health Plan for England and the 2025 Review of patient safety across the health and care landscape, it sets the direction for how the NHS will approach quality over the next decade, playing a pivotal role in improving care and outcomes for patients. HQIP’s CEO, Chris Gush, outlines his initial insights below, and explains why we welcome this “value-based” strategy, calling on the wider healthcare sector to use the data programmes already in place to deliver it…

“Whether supporting patients to survive, recover, or live well, improving outcomes is the primary reason why healthcare services exist. And, of course, understanding how best to achieve that, in an efficient and sustainable way, is crucial in today’s NHS.

It starts with understanding what is happening; knowing what is working well, and what is not. Measuring outcomes accurately, and at national scale, is a fundamental part of what HQIP does. Through the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme (NCAPOP) and the National Joint Registry, we run the audits, outcome reviews and registries that provide insights into much of the national picture. They produce some of the most reliable data anywhere in the NHS on how care is delivered.

However, the Quality strategy is candid that measurement is only part of the route to improved outcomes. The harder step is helping the system to absorb what that data shows, and act upon it – which takes, and deserves, significant support and attention. That is why – through dedicated improvement activities via our programmes and national initiatives such as Clinical Audit Awareness Week – we have been focusing much of our effort into translating evidence into action. So, we are heartened to see that this new strategy puts real weight behind outcomes being understood and acted upon, not simply recorded.

A few points stand out. The strategy treats clinical audit, outcome measurement and registries as national infrastructure, rather than a technical detail. It keeps the focus where it belongs: on the outcomes of care (on patients and their lives) rather than the process of delivering care. It is also clear about the fact that this evidence only proves its worth once it reaches the people who can act on it, whether in a clinical team, a trust board or an integrated care board. And it takes a whole pathway view of care, which is where much of the variation that prevents systemic improvement tends to sit. These are the issues that national clinical audit was built to address, covering the areas that the strategy prioritises – from cardiovascular disease and sepsis through to maternity, mental health and care for children and young people.

This is not new ground for us. For thirty years, national clinical audit has measured the outcomes of care and shown the NHS where patients do well and where they need change. A good deal of what the strategy describes already exists in some form. HQIP’s audit data is available through the NHS Open Model Health System. Our benchmarking tool lets trusts see how their outcomes compare with others across the country. Our recommendations repository brings together the key changes that national audit reports identify are needed. And much of our effort goes into turning all of this into insight that boards, commissioners and clinical teams can actually use – which is the shift from measurement to action that the strategy is asking for.

As such, there’s plenty to build on. There’s also work to do. The NHS quality landscape is broad and has developed over many years, with a wide range of audits and registries operating alongside the HQIP national programme. Their methods, their approaches, their routes for escalation and their assurance currently vary. Bringing greater consistency here, anchored in robust data, is one of the things the quality strategy sets out to achieve, and it will strengthen our collective ability to improve clinical outcomes.

There’s room to grow, too. Many aspects of clinical care and many insights into patient experience are not yet captured, measured or reported. Extending the quality strategy to every part of NHS care is where much of the opportunity lies.

HQIP looks forward to working alongside the National Quality Board, NHS England, the Welsh Government, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and our Royal College partners, to maximise the value of the national programmes that are already in place and achieve the step change in care quality outlined in this strategy.

More information

HQIP is commissioned by NHS England and the Welsh Government to manage the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme (NCAPOP). HQIP also manages the National Joint Registry (NJR). Our programmes measure the outcomes of care across clinical areas from cardiovascular disease and maternity to mental health, diabetes, surgical outcomes and care for children and young people. Our data is available through the Open Model Health System and our National Clinical Audit Benchmarking tool. For more on the impact of clinical audit, visit www.hqip.org.uk.

Read the Quality Strategy for NHS funded care in England: https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/quality-strategy-for-nhs-funded-care-in-england/

New reports published

9 Jul 2026

We are pleased to announce that the following NEW RESOURCES to support improvement in healthcare, from HQIP’s audits and programmes, have been published:

Stroke: Atlas of Variation Report 2026; Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme (SSNAP) – Provides data by region on stroke admissions, age, therapy and other factors, and also looks at predicted stroke incidence in future and prevention.

Epilepsy: 2026 combined organisational and clinical audit; Epilepsy12 – Shows improvement in some aspects of care, and highlights areas where progress appears limited.

Further data

In addition, we are pleased to share that the following data is also expected to be shared by our programme(s):

All reports: All HQIP-commissioned reports can be accessed via our dedicated reports webpage.

Stay up to date: Join our mailing list to receive notifications when new reports are published.

National strategy a positive step in the prevention of cardiovascular disease

9 Jul 2026

This week, NHS England published a new Modern Service Framework (MSF) for cardiovascular disease prevention, which takes a cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic approach to improvement in patient outcomes. As the leading cause of premature mortality in England, this strategy (which outlines an ambitious 10-year vision to strengthen CVD prevention), is an important step in enhancing care to improve outcomes for millions of people.

Mission: to cut premature deaths from heart disease and stroke by a quarter within a decade” NHS England cardiovascular disease Modern Service Framework

CVDPREVENT and HQIP, that commissions part of this audit’s work on behalf of NHS England, have come together to welcome this national strategy. For the estimated eight million people in the UK living with cardiovascular disease, the MSF represents an important national commitment to delivering more equitable, high-quality and consistent care. Its aim to promote evidence-led, clinically informed approaches to prevention, treatment and care is of critical importance.

Chris Gush, HQIP’s CEO, explains: “This national framework is an opportunity to use our collective knowledge to save lives, but the data we already have must be the starting point.”

The MSF aligns closely the work of national clinical audits, like CVDPREVENT, that measure care and share insights to improve and save lives. Data and outcomes from these audits help care providers to identify variation, trends and opportunities in the identification, diagnosis and management of conditions. This empowers clinicians and system leaders to focus resources where they can have the greatest impact.

Dr Peter Green, Clinical Lead at CVDPREVENT, adds: “Importantly, for patients, this means earlier diagnosis, improved management of long-term conditions, and reduced risk of serious cardiovascular events such as heart attacks and strokes.”

As implementation of the MSF progresses, CVDPREVENT and HQIP look forward to working together to providing insights and support efforts to translate its ambitions into measurable improvements in care and outcomes for patients. In the meantime, further resources relating to the prevention of cardiovascular disease from HQIP can be found below:

Further information

Modern Service Framework (MSF) for cardiovascular disease prevention
More on the work of CVDPREVENT
CVDPREVENT 2025 annual report
More about HQIP’s work relating to cardiovascular disease
More about national clinical audits.

Benchmarking data published

9 Jul 2026

The following datasets were recently published on the National Clinical Audit Benchmarking (NCAB) website, HQIP’s online portal which provides access to national audit performance data:

Paediatric diabetes: Data from the National Paediatric Diabetes Audit (NPDA) report on care and outcomes 2024/25 (published March 2026)
Perinatal mortality surveillance: Data from the MBRRACE-UK report UK perinatal deaths of babies born in 2024 (published June 2026)

In addition, NCAB is awaiting corrected data for Fracture Liaison Service Database metric 1 ‘Case identification of all non-spine fractures (KPI 2)’, as an error has been identified in the previously published data. Until the corrected data is loaded, please review results for this metric, here.

Position statement: Audit & QI in postgraduate training

1 Jul 2026

HQIP has shared a position statement on resetting audit and quality improvement in UK postgraduate medical training and specialty selection.

This statement sets out HQIP’s recommended approach to how clinical audit and quality improvement should be taught, supported, assessed, and rewarded across UK postgraduate medical training. It is designed to be endorsed by the Medical Royal Colleges and used to influence postgraduate curricula, workplace learning, and specialty selection frameworks.

Read Position Statement