Epilepsy12 previous reports

The Epilepsy12 national audit has collected data on the diagnosis and care of children and young people with epilepsy in England and Wales since 2009, and our first report was published in 2012. You can download all annual reports from this page.

Epilepsy12 annual reports

Epilepsy12 publishes annual national reports to support improvements in the care provided to children and young people with seizures and epilepsies across England and Wales. Each report brings together findings from the clinical and organisational audits, highlighting national trends, variation in care, examples of good practice and recommendations for improvement.

Download our annual reports and accompanying outputs below. More information on the audit is available on the Submit data & methodology and Transaprency & open data webpages.

2025 Annual report
Clinical Cohort 6 and 2024 Organisational Audit

The 2025 annual report highlights continued improvements in data completeness and participation, providing the most robust picture of paediatric epilepsy services to date. Key themes included audit participation and data quality, equity of access to epilepsy care, multidisciplinary support, mental health provision and care planning for children and young people with epilepsy. The report also explores variation in care by deprivation, ethnicity and the presence of mental health or neurodevelopmental conditions.

Resources:

2024 Annual report
Clinical Cohort 5 and 2023 Organisational Audit

Building on the reporting approach introduced in 2023, the 2024 annual report examined participation and data quality, access to specialist epilepsy professionals, assessment and diagnosis, mental health, care planning and transition to adult services. The report highlighted workforce trends, areas of sustained improvement and ongoing variation in service provision, and set out national recommendations to support more consistent, high-quality care for children and young people with epilepsy across England and Wales.

Resources:

  • 2024 State of the Nation Report
  • 2024 Extended analyses - Clinical and organisational
  • 2024 Longitudinal trends report
  • 2024 Outlier identification & management report
  • 2024 Datasets - Clinical and organisational
2023 Annual report
Clinical Cohort 4 and 2022 Organisational Audit

The 2023 annual report introduced a new, 10-page 'State of the Nation-style' reporting format focused on key findings and national recommendations. It highlighted variation in the quality of epilepsy care across England and Wales and identified opportunities to improve consistency of service provision. Key themes included access to specialist expertise, comprehensive assessment and diagnosis, support for mental health and neurodevelopmental needs, and ensuring children and young people receive personalised care planning. The report also explored the organisation of paediatric epilepsy services, including workforce capacity, multidisciplinary working and transition arrangements, and set out recommendations to support quality improvement and reduce unwarranted variation in care.

Resources:

2022 Annual report
Clinical Cohort 3 and 2021 Organisational Audit

The 2022 annual report examined progress against national standards for paediatric epilepsy care, including timely access to specialist professionals, care planning, risk discussions and wider support for children and young people living with epilepsy. Findings were used to inform a series of national recommendations aimed at reducing variation in care.

Resources

2021 Annual report
Clinical Cohort 2 and 2020 Organisational Audit

The 2021 annual report explored the experiences of children and young people receiving epilepsy care during a period significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. It highlighted performance against clinical quality indicators, service provision, workforce capacity and areas requiring additional support.

Resources

2020 Annual report
Clinical Cohort 1 and Organisational Audit 2019

The 2020 annual report provided a national baseline for many of the measures that continue to be reported today. Key themes included service configuration, workforce provision, access to specialist expertise, investigations, care planning and variation in care between regions and organisations.

Resources

2018 Organisational audit report
2018 Organisational audit report

The 2018 report was the first formal publication from Round 3 of the Epilepsy12 audit and focused on the organisation of paediatric epilepsy services across England and Wales. It highlighted improvements in workforce provision, including increasing numbers of epilepsy specialist nurses and paediatricians with expertise in epilepsy, alongside growth in dedicated epilepsy clinics.

The report also identified several areas requiring further improvement, including access to specialist professionals, rescue medication training, clinic capacity, referral pathways to paediatric neurology services, access to mental health support, and improving the accessibility and responsiveness of epilepsy services for children, young people and families. The findings informed recommendations for service development and quality improvement across epilepsy networks in England and Wales.

Resources

2009 - 2014 Reports
Rounds 1 and 2 of the Epilepsy12 Audit

The first two rounds of Epilepsy12 ran between 2009 and 2014 and involved paediatric epilepsy services from across the UK. These reports established the national baseline for the quality and organisation of paediatric epilepsy care, examining how services were staffed, organised and delivered, and how closely care aligned with recognised standards and guidance.


The findings highlighted variation in service provision and access to specialist expertise, helping to identify priorities for improvement and informing the later development of regional epilepsy networks and quality improvement initiatives. Alongside the national reports, Epilepsy12 also produced unit-level reports to enable services to compare their performance with regional and national results.

Resources

Contact

Please email our team at epilepsy12@rcpch.ac.uk if you have any questions, or would like to let us know your ideas on new resources, conference topics or general directions for the audit.

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