Clinical Audit Census 2023
In Summer 2023, the Clinical Audit Support Centre partnered with Audit Management and Tracking (AMaT) to organise the first-ever clinical audit census. The aim of the census was to allow NHS and non-NHS organisations the opportunity to voluntarily provide confidential information on their in-house staffing arrangements for clinical audit. Over the years that we have worked in clinical audit, there has always been heated debate, but little data on local resourcing arrangements to support the function of clinical audit. The online survey was organised by AMaT. The CASC Directors analysed the data and created the reports and graphics shared below. It should be noted that while the census focuses on staffing and job bandings, the census also looked at challenges facing clinical audit teams and examined the work programme they undertake. You can download the initial report and useful infographics below:
- Click here to access the Census Report
- Click here to access the questions asked in the census
- Click here to access WTE staffing per clinical audit team
- Click here to access NHS organisations with a Band 8 clinical auditor
- Click here to access clinical audit job titles by pay banding
The ‘state of clinical audit’ survey
Since 2010 we have conducted our annual online survey that invites those with an interest in clinical audit to provide anonymous feedback. The survey is conducted every December and to date we have always had a response rate above 100 (a high of 218 was reached in 2016).
The survey invites participants to provide feedback on: the effectiveness of national clinical audits, current views on clinical audit (positive and negative), resourcing for local clinical audit, patient involvement in clinical audit, etc. The survey is extremely comprehensive and is an accurate barometer of how clinical audit professionals are feeling. The survey was frequently endorsed and quoted by Sir Nick Black (during his time as NAGCAE chairman) and has featured in the Health Service Journal. Previous reports have been frequently presented at N-QI-CAN meetings in London. In 2022/3, we hope to use the results of the survey to campaign for some real changes and improvements to be delivered by national stakeholders.
The longevity of the survey – now 12 sets of data collected over a full decade – also enables us to identify key themes and trends from the clinical audit and quality improvement community. The full 2022 report is available here. Data was collected for our twelfth survey in November and December 2021. Please note that we are giving this survey a break now as the results over the last decade have shown little variability. We will keep evaluating whether we should re-run the survey at some point in the future.
Clinical Audit Job Vacancies Report
Since 2009 we have searched the NHS Jobs website for clinical audit related vacancies to include in our weekly job vacancies bulletin. In 2010 we realised that the data provided us with a blunt way of assessing investment in clinical audit at a local-level. As a result, we now produce our annual report every July that focuses in more detail on the job vacancy data. Given that data has been collected for eleven years on over 1,900 vacancies we are now able to start to map trends and identify themes. We are the first to admit that the report has its weaknesses, but we consider it a reasonable hypothesis to hold that the reinvigoration in local clinical audit requires increased or at least a sustained investment over time. To read the report, click here.
Report on junior doctor competitions
Clinical Audit Support Centre are proud to be able to announce that we have created a new 12-page report that celebrates all the hard work of the junior doctors who participated in our clinical audit and QI competitions from 2010 to 2019. The report summarises our work over the last decade and includes details of all previous winners, links to eight enhanced podcasts and information on why we set up the competitions and what observations and insights we have gained over the years. We have also included results of surveys that we carried out between 2014-16 and these will be of interest to all staff that work with junior doctors on audit and QI projects. Two expert and award-winning junior doctors also offer sage advice on how juniors can get the most out of their audit and QI projects. Download the report here.