News

Second NMPA Clinical Report published today

  12 September 2019

The second NMPA clinical report covers births in 2016/17 and includes new measures for birth without intervention and babies admitted to neonatal care.

Maternity care professionals, managers and commissioners, and women and families can use the NMPA results to compare services across a range of measures and subgroups.

View interactive results by site, trust, region/Local Maternity System and country.
Download the full report or executive summary, or view the key findings.

 Today we are pleased to launch our Organisational Report for 2019

  11 July 2019

The second NMPA organisational report provides comprehensive information on how maternity and neonatal care is delivered by the NHS in England, Scotland and Wales. This includes maternity and neonatal care settings, availability of services and facilities, and staffing.

Further data available on the NMPA website will enable healthcare professionals, managers, policy makers and the public to find and compare information about their local services, such as maternity unit types, neonatal unit designations and the provision of specialist services for women and babies.

The website also provides information on services available by region/Local Maternity System. You can access the report here.

 Sprint Audit Publication

  10 January 2019

Today we are pleased to publish two reports about our ‘sprint audit’ work, which looks at the feasibility of developing new clinical measures for the NMPA.
The first report uses linked maternity and intensive care data to examine the feasibility of developing an indicator for maternal admissions to intensive care.
The second report describes the technical process of linking maternity data to data collected in the course of neonatal care.
More information, and access to the reports, is available here.

Updated NMPA Clinical Report 2017 published

  05 April 2018

We are pleased to today publish a revised edition of the NMPA’s first clinical report, which covers births from the 1st April 2015 to 31st March 2016.

The revised report makes changes to the definition of six of the previously published measures, including rates of caesarean birth and postpartum haemorrhage. The report is available here

The revision was prompted by a data quality issue at some sites, which affected these measures. Further details are available here. If you have any further queries about the report or the changes made, please look at our FAQs or contact us at nmpa@rcog.org.uk.

NMPA conducting further analysis to examine impact of missing data on published 2015/16 clinical results

  15 December 2017

On 9th November 2017, the NMPA published its first clinical report which presented 16 measures based on births that took place between 1st April 2015 and 31st March 2016 in England, Scotland and Wales.

Following the publication of the report and in response to the feedback received, the NMPA is now undertaking further analysis to determine the nature and extent of the impact that missing data may have had on some of the published results. The aim of this analysis is to determine whether changes in how we handle missing data are required.

An initial summary of the findings of this review can be found here. The review has found that, for approximately one quarter of participating maternity services, missing data on fetal presentation have affected the rates reported for mode of birth, post-partum haemorrhage, induction of labour and vaginal birth after caesarean section. In one site, missing data on gestational age have had a similar effect. The participating sites that have been most affected by this issue have been contacted. Our preliminary analysis suggests that the other measures are not affected, although our review will continue to examine all of the published results.

Once this work is completed, a revised report will be published on our website and will be communicated with you. We anticipate that this will be in early 2018. In the meantime, the NMPA website has been updated to reflect the fact that some of the results will change.

Thank you for continuing to support the NMPA as we address this issue. The second round of data collection is now taking place using the same approach as the first report. Please be assured that our methodology will be updated to avoid the same situation arising again. You can also help us by continuing your efforts locally to ensure that data submitted to the NMPA is as complete as possible.

We would like to apologise for any inconvenience you may have experienced as a result of this issue and would greatly welcome your feedback. Please do not hesitate to contact us should you have any concerns about this, or any other aspect of the NMPA.

Book your place for our free NMPA Report Launch events.

  06 November 2017

The National Maternity and Perinatal Audit will shortly publish its first clinical findings. Be the first to hear how the results and recommendations of this landmark evaluation of maternity services in England, Scotland and Wales could influence your practice by attending our FREE launch event on Thursday, 9 November 2017 at the RCOG in London.

Why attend?

• Listen to keynote talks from leading experts in the field on what the NMPA results mean from a professional and policy perspective
• Be the first to see how your trust or board compares with others across a range of clinical outcome measures
• Get tips and share ideas on how to use the NMPA data to drive local improvements
• Gain CPD credits for attendance

• Practising clinicians, midwives and allied healthcare professionals working in maternity and perinatal care, especially those with an interest in service improvement
• Clinical Effectiveness Leads, Health Service Managers and other professionals with an interest in maternity service improvement
• Clinical Commissioners
• Third sector organisations with an interest in maternity and/or neonatal care

We will also be hosting a second event in Glasgow on the afternoon of Friday, 17 November at the Golden Jubilee Conference Centre in Clydebank. The focus of this event will be on what the NMPA results mean for Scottish maternity and perinatal services.

Book your free place for our Scottish launch event here.

The NMPA team will also be visiting Wales to present the results at an event to be organised by the Welsh Government.

Today we are pleased to launch our Organisational Report for 2017.

  10 August 2017

The first report from the audit provides comprehensive information on how maternity and neonatal care is delivered by the NHS in England, Scotland and Wales. This includes maternity and neonatal care settings, availability of services and facilities, and staffing.

Further data on the NMPA website will enable healthcare professionals, managers, policy makers and the public to find and compare information about their local services, such as maternity unit types, neonatal unit designations and the provision of specialist services for women and babies.

Successful first meeting for our Women and Families Group

  26 June 2017

The Women and Families Involvement Group had their first meeting on May 5th. Women, babies and one dad, together with some charity representatives, made the trip to the College from all over Britain to find out more about the NMPA, and consider what they would like the audit to measure.

This was a brilliant day, with lots of clear discussion about what women and families want to know about. We have since been implementing their excellent feedback on the organisational survey and clinical indicators, and we look forward to meeting again in the autumn.

Continuous Clinical Audit update

  26 June 2017

After receiving extracts from 100% of participating trusts and health boards earlier this year, work is well underway with processing and analysing the data. We are currently selecting the indicators for inclusion in our first clinical report and audit results will be shared with trusts and health boards in late summer.

Our clinical report is due for publication on the 9th November and will feature key messages derived from the audit findings to highlight good practice and areas for improvement.

The audit results will also be available to trusts and health boards to view on our new interactive website, allowing maternity providers to compare their services and maternal and neonatal outcomes against national and regional figures to inform local quality improvement initiatives.

NMPA organisational report to be published on 10th August

  26 June 2017

We are excited to announce that our organisational report will be published on the 10th August. This high level report will contain the results of the organisational survey and the key messages revealed from the survey findings.

The survey results will also be available on the NMPA website as part of an interactive online service. This will allow trusts and health boards to easily see the information submitted to the survey at an organisational level, to assess, evaluate and improve the quality of maternity and neonatal services.

Keep an eye on the NMPA website as we will bring you more news regarding the report and the new online service towards the publication date.

Fantastic levels of participation in the NMPA

  23 March 2017

We are delighted to announce that 100% of trusts in England, and all hospitals in Wales, have provided data extracts to the National Maternity and Perinatal Audit team from their maternity Information systems. Only four trusts have chosen to opt out this year, with the most common reason being no IT system from which to extract data. Scottish data is being provided centrally.

Moreover, 99% of NHS Trusts and Health Boards across the three countries have responded to our Organisational Survey.

This level of participation is well above that for other National Audits in their first year and represents a large amount of work to get the data together by the maternity and neonatal services, and the information and audit departments.

Data quality checks are underway and we will be in touch with units directly with any queries. Units can expect to receive their results during the summer, with publication to follow towards the end of the year on our website.

We are proud of the efforts of our colleagues in midwifery, neonatal and obstetric teams across the country. It is particularly impressive that the choice to participate in the audit comes at a time of great resource constraints.

It is inspiring that there is such commitment to quality improvement, and that we are all united in making every effort to provide the best possible care to women and their babies across the country. We look forward to updating you with the results going forward.

NMPA included in the NHS England 2017/18 Quality Accounts list

  23 January 2017

All NHS health service providers in England are required to submit a quality account report in June each year, covering the quality of their services in the previous financial year. Quality Accounts are required to be submitted to the Secretary of State and are publically available on the NHS Choices website. The National Maternity and Perinatal Audit is featured on the 2017/18 Quality Accounts list, published this month.
Further information and guidance on NHS England Quality Accounts can be found on the HQIP Quality Accounts webpage.

Organisational survey launch

  20 January 2017

The organisational survey, which will provide important background information to the NMPA, launches today. All Trusts and Boards across England, Scotland and Wales are being sent log in details to complete the survey, with questions tailored to their organisation. The survey will give a rich insight into the current set up of the maternity services and will help compare like with like in the continuous clinical audit and sprint audits. The organisational survey report will be published in summer 2017 and results will be accessible in an interactive format on the NMPA website. A follow-up survey will be conducted early in 2019.

If you are a Head or Director of Midwifery of a Trust or Board providing intrapartum maternity care in England, Scotland or Wales and you have NOT received your log in details, please contact us as soon as possible via nmpa@rcog.org.uk.

Click here for FAQs, survey instructions and a printable version of the questionnaire

The Women and Families Involvement Group for the National Maternity and Perinatal Audit

  19 January 2017

We are very excited to announce that we are beginning recruitment for our NMPA Women and Families Involvement Group. This group, which will consist equally of representatives from charity groups and lay members, will provide critical input into the audit including what we measure, how we measure it, and how that information is presented and communicated. Membership of the group is an influential voluntary role, with the opportunity to have real impact on the direction of this large and important project.

Applications close on Feb 15th. For more information and to apply, see here

Website Launch

  16 January 2017

We are excited to launch our website today in conjunction with our developers, Net Solving. In the future, this website will grow to form an interactive portal for understanding the NMPA and its results. The present website contains information about the NMPA and current progress with data requests. If there is any information you feel should be available and isn’t, please let us know.

Electronic Maternity Record System Survey Results

  12 December 2016

We’d like to say a big thank you to the HoMs at all NHS trusts/health boards who took part in our survey about electronic maternity record systems. You helped us to achieve a 100% response rate.

You can view an interactive map of the results at ArcGIS .

The purpose of the survey was to determine which electronic maternity record systems were in use in English and Welsh trusts/health boards to help inform our approach to data collection. The existing national datasets in Scotland (SMR-02 and SBR) already contain the information needed for the audit, so we won’t be collecting data from local systems in Scotland.

The survey found that in total there are 247 sites providing intrapartum care across the 141 trusts/health boards in England and Wales. Each trust/health board has between 1 and 7 sites. Of these sites, 118 are obstetric units with alongside midwifery led units, 55 are obstetric units only and the remaining 74 are freestanding midwifery led units.

Of the 137 trusts/health boards who gave us details of their maternity record system, all but 2 have an electronic system of one kind or another. The map shows the location of each NHS trust/health board, and the electronic maternity record system in use* (*Two trusts have separate sites using different electronic maternity record systems: Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust and the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust.).

Continuous Audit Data Request

  09 December 2016

Every trust providing maternity care in England and Wales was sent a request for a data extract for the NMPA covering the period 1st April 2014 to 31st March 2016. We were delighted to receive our first submission shortly afterwards, and we have been encouraged by the positive response of trusts and stakeholders.

The data specification is the result of extensive work by the team, who have consulted a wide range of stakeholders to refine and minimise the dataset required. The final dataset and accompanying FAQs are available to view on our Resources page. If you have any questions about the specification, or why we need certain information, please contact us.