The NMPA is commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP). The audit is led by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in partnership with the Royal College of Midwives, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
“The National Maternity and Perinatal Audit is the largest evaluation project of maternity services in the world. A project of this scale is only possible if many people work closely together.” Professor Jan van der Meulen, NMPA Senior Methodological Lead
The NMPA began in July 2016 and was initially commissioned for three years. Funding has been extended until December 2025.
About the NMPA
Using high quality data, the audit aims to evaluate a range of care processes and outcomes in order to identify good practice and areas for improvement in maternity care. The audit consists of two elements:
- an annual clinical audit of a number of key measures to identify unexpected variation between maternity services
- a programme of periodic ‘snapshot’ audits on specific topics
The selection of measures are guided by a panel of clinical and academic experts, including obstetricians, midwives, statisticians and health service researchers, as well as organisations representing maternity and neonatal service users.
Driving quality improvement
The aim of the audit is to provide relevant and comprehensive information about maternity and neonatal services provided by the NHS in England, Scotland and Wales. This information allows comparison and evaluation of services, and can be used to inform care quality improvements.
We have developed an interactive online tool which allows maternity service providers and commissioners to benchmark the care provided by their service against other similar services, regional and national averages, or local and national standards.
Together, these outputs allow healthcare professionals, NHS managers, commissioners and policy makers to examine the extent to which current practice meets guidelines and standards, and to identify areas for improvement.
“As a professional, receiving feedback on the care you are giving is invaluable, as positive feedback but also, more importantly, to identify areas for quality improvement. The NMPA offers the opportunity for comparison of services at a local and national level, allowing an individual maternity service to benchmark their performance against others.” Kirstin Webster, NMPA Clinical Fellow for Neonatology
Involving Women and Birthing People
A number of organisations representing people using maternity services have been involved in the design and implementation of the audit, and they continue to be consulted on the running of the audit and its priorities. Women and birthing people who have used maternity services are also consulted via our Women and Families Involvement Group.
All NMPA reports and results are available to the general public via the NMPA website. Additionally, in partnership with our Women and Families Group, we have launched the ‘family gateway’ section of the website. This provides a range of outputs and resources specifically for those using maternity services.
Learn more about us
- NMPA Frequently Asked Questions
- Annual Clinical Audit outputs
- Snapshot audit reports
- NMPA Family Gateway
You can get in touch with the NMPA team by emailing nmpa@rcog.org.uk.