National Neonatal Audit Programme (NNAP)

National Clinical Audit

Delivered by:

Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH)

Website:

Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health

About 1 in 11 babies will need to be admitted to a neonatal unit because they are born early, with a low birth weight, or unwell and need specialist care and treatment. The NNAP assesses whether babies admitted to neonatal units in England, Scotland, Wales and the Isle of Man receive consistent high-quality care. They also identify areas for quality improvement in relation to the delivery and outcomes of care.

It is great to see how NNAP has evolved over the years to aid in driving QI projects both locally and nationally.” NNAP survey participant, December 2025

The NNAP actively engages with parents & carers who have experienced neonatal care, in collaboration with the RCPCH&Us team, to understand what a gold standard of partnership in care looks like.

Supporting improvement

The NNAP produces a suite of quality improvement resources. The audit disseminates best practice materials, including QI Toolkits, case studies, unit posters, presentations, and other tools, ensuring wide access to practical improvement guidance. The NNAP supports units to submit accurate data to the audit through interactive webinars with the project team and monthly updated data dashboards. Their Restricted Access Dashboard (RAD) allows neonatal services to review data, identify potential quality issues and address missing fields, supporting early quality improvement interventions.

Additional data sources

In addition to HQIP-published reports below, you can find further resources, including guides for parents and carers and both Public Access and Restricted Access data dashboards, on the programme website.