Quality Accounts: list and further information

HQIP contact: Helen Baron

Contents:

  • About Quality Accounts
  • NHS England Quality Accounts List
  • Annual Scoping Survey for the NHS England Quality Accounts List
  • NHS England Quality Accounts List inclusion criteria
  • NHS Wales National Clinical Audit and Outcome Review Plan
  • The Directory resource for Trusts

About Quality Accounts

A Quality Account is a written report, which NHS healthcare providers are required to publish each year about the quality of their services.

The Quality Account includes details of the healthcare provider’s participation in national audits, enquiries and quality improvement programmes, along with actions taken to improve the quality of healthcare provided in response to report recommendations.

NHS England information about Quality Accounts is published here:  https://www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/about-the-nhs/quality-accounts/about-quality-accounts/

The NHS Standard Contract (‘SC26 Clinical Networks, National Audit Programmes and Approved Research Studies’ specifically 26.1.2 and sub bullets 26.1.2.1 / 26.1.2.2 / 26.1.2.3’) sets out the requirement to participate in:

  • any national programme within the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme (NCAPOP);
  • any other national clinical audit or clinical outcome review programme managed or commissioned by HQIP; and
  • any national programme included within the NHS England Quality Accounts List for the relevant Contract Year.

The NHS Standard Contract also gives commissioners the power to require remedial action of NHS healthcare providers who fail to participate, with scope for withholding funding in the event of sustained non-compliance.

See weblink here: 03-NHS-Standard-Contract-2024-to-2025-Service-Conditions-full-length–version-2-March-2024.pdf (england.nhs.uk)

NHS England Quality Account List

The NHS England Quality Accounts List is made available each year and comprises national audits, clinical outcome review programmes and other quality improvement projects that NHS England advises Trusts to prioritise for participation during the forthcoming financial year.

The Quality Accounts List should be reviewed in conjunction with the NHS Quality Accounts guidance available here.  Trusts should plan participation and report all the relevant individual work streams listed underneath a national programme on the Quality Accounts List.

NHS England Quality Accounts List 2024-25 (amended May 2024)

NHS England Quality Accounts List 2023-24 (amended February 2023)

HQIP will publish the approved Quality Accounts List 2025-26, on behalf of NHS England, in January 2025.

Annual Scoping Survey for the NHS England Quality Accounts List

Each year HQIP undertakes a scoping survey exercise, on behalf of NHS England, to review information provided by those national clinical audits and other national clinical quality improvement projects that are collecting data during the forthcoming financial year. The information sourced from the self-assessment survey informs the development of the NHS England Quality Accounts List. Information about the process is communicated via the HQIP eBulletin and directly to provider organisations listed on HQIP’s The Directory. Programmes commissioned by HQIP, as part of the NCAPOP, do not need to complete a scoping survey.

The deadline for 2025-26 scoping survey submissions was: Monday 14 October 2024.

NHS England Quality Accounts List inclusion criteria

NHS England has reviewed the inclusion criteria for 2025-26, and agreed to incorporate additional criteria (these are listed as criteria 6-10 below):

Does the project:

  1. Collect data from at least 70% of eligible services nationally (i.e. coverage).
  2. Collect data on individual patients.
  3. Publish comparisons of providers (for example; at trust, hospital, or network level).
  4. Plan to recruit patients during the forthcoming financial year.
  5. Audit outcomes and processes of care against standards, guidelines, or evidence (for example, NICE Quality Standards and Guidelines).

Additional NEW criteria:

  1. Publish a healthcare quality improvement plan.
  2. Use routine data from existing sources (rather than bespoke data submission by healthcare provider) where possible.
  3. Publish information about reducing data burden.
  4. Publish results within 6 months of the full data set being available to the project team for analysis.
  5. Make quality improvement resources available for healthcare providers to use.

NHS Wales National Clinical Audit & Outcome Review Annual Plan

The National Clinical Audits and Clinical Outcome Review Programmes in which all Welsh health boards and trusts must participate (where services are provided) are outlined in the annual plan document linked below.

NHS Wales national clinical audit and outcome review plan annual rolling programme for 2022 to 2023 (dated June 2022)

The Directory

HQIP maintains The Directory to provide high level information on the National Clinical Audits, enquiries, registries and other national quality improvement programmes. The Directory is a useful tool in assisting healthcare service providers with planning their audit activity each year. Further information is available here.