Mortality to discharge in babies born at less than 32 weeks is below 6% for the first time, and the proportion of babies receiving an optimal perinatal care journey has improved.
The report also identifies opportunities for improvement, highlighting variations in care and outcomes across different geographical areas and by ethnicity.
Professor Paul Dimitri, Vice President for Science and Research said:
Every baby receiving neonatal care deserves safe, high-quality care. Behind every National Neonatal Audit Programme (NNAP) data point is a baby and a family.
NNAP provides evidence that helps neonatal teams understand the quality of care being provided and identify opportunities to improve outcomes and experiences for babies and their families.
RCPCH strongly supports the recommendations in the report, including a call for a more joined-up approach to neonatal data, which can strengthen quality improvement, support safer care and provide a clearer picture of outcomes for babies and families across England.
The recommendation to improve how data is captured aligns closely with the Thirlwall Inquiry’s recommendation for centrally owned neonatal data and greater interoperability between clinical systems. RCPCH has previously called for improvements in this area and believes that better-connected, high-quality neonatal data should be a key priority for the NHS.