Clinical audit is a way to find out if healthcare is being provided in line with standards and lets care providers and patients know where their service is doing well, and where there could be improvements.

The aim is to allow quality improvement to take place where it will be most helpful and will improve outcomes for patients. Clinical audits can look at care nationwide (national clinical audits) and local clinical audits can also be performed locally in trusts, hospitals or GP practices anywhere healthcare is provided.

The National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme (NCAPOP)

NCAPOP audits are commissioned and managed on behalf of NHS England by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP). The programme comprises more than 30 national audits related to some of the most commonly-occurring conditions. These collect and analyse data supplied by local clinicians to provide a national picture of care standards for that specific condition. On a local level, NCAPOP audits provide local trusts with individual benchmarked reports on their compliance and performance, feeding back comparative findings to help participants identify necessary improvements for patients. Most of these projects involve services in England and Wales; some also include services from Scotland and Northern Ireland.

As well as the 30-plus national clinical audits, NCAPOP also encompasses the four Clinical Outcome Review Programmes (CORP). These help assess the quality of healthcare and stimulate improvement by enabling clinicians, managers and policy makers to learn from adverse events and other relevant data.

• More about NCAPOP
• More about local clinical audit
• More about HQIP
• Letters from Professor Steve Powis and Sir Bruce Keogh to NHS Trusts and NHS Foundation Trusts for the National Clinical Audit and Patients Outcomes Programme Subscription Fees.

National Quality Improvement and Clinical Audit Network (NQICAN)

The National Quality Improvement and Clinical Audit Network (NQICAN) brings together the 15 regional clinical audit/effectiveness networks from across England.  NQICAN works closely with NHS England, NICE and HQIP.  It is NQICAN’s aim to support staff working in these areas in health and social care organizations; providing them with training, resources and giving them a ‘voice’ at national level.

All staff working within the field of quality improvement and clinical audit are encouraged to engage in their regional network and associated training opportunities.

The network provides practical guidance and support in relation to quality improvement, clinical audit including implementation of national audits, as well as related areas such as Quality Accounts, CQC Outcomes Framework , NHS LA Standards.  The network offers both added value to organizations and personal development to staff.  

More information, including the full list of regional networks with contact details can be found on the NQICAN website.

National clinical audit taking action learning community

​Take action on using national clinical audit findings to improve patient care and services through our co-created learning community.

The community provides opportunities for shared learning, timely signposting of national clinical audit recommendations and examples of how changes have been implemented.

We welcome people from across health and care, either new to national clinical audit or already involved, from a range of backgrounds including clinical audit, wider quality improvement, operational managers, clinicians, nurses, allied health professionals, lived experience partners, system leaders and transformation. This community has been developed with partners including the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership and the National Quality Improvement (Incl. Clinical Audit) Network.

Contribute to the national clinical audit learning community by emailing km.improvement@nhs.net and we will invite you to our FutureNHS collaboration site.