Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what oversight arrangements are in place to ensure that the work of the Healthcare Quality Improvement Programme is delivered effectively.

The National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme (NCAPOP) is made up of a number of funding streams comprising over 30 topics and aim to mirror the priority areas set out in the NHS Long Term Plan. The National Quality Board (NQB) established an NQB NCAPOP Partners Group, with representation from NHS England and NHS Improvement, the Care Quality Commission, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and Health Education England, amongst others, to ensure the NCAPOP portfolio continues to support the priorities of the wider National Health Service.

NCAPOP audits are commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) which manages the programme on behalf of NHS England and NHS Improvement. In addition, NHS England and NHS Improvement have contractual accountability meetings to review the Key Performance indicators associated with the NCAPOP contract.

The following expenditure was provided for NCAPOP in recent years:

- 2016/17; £16.9 million;

- 2017/18; £16.9 million;

- 2018/19; £15.8 million; and

- 2019/20; £15.6 million.

Clinical audits delivered under the NCAPOP portfolio can be found at the following link:

https://www.hqip.org.uk/a-z-of-nca/#.XAlJvcK7KUk

NCAPOP outcome review of delivered work can be found at the following link:

https://www.hqip.org.uk/clinical-outcome-review-programmes/#.XiseTmC7JPY