National Paediatric Diabetes Audit (NPDA) annual reports

Our annual, national reports, 'Care processes and outcomes' highlight the main findings on the quality of care for children and young people with diabetes mellitus in England and Wales. On this page you can download our latest and previous reports, and find links to our reports especially for parents and carers.
NPDA 2022 report front page

Annual report 2021-22: Care processes and outcomes

Published in March 2023, the 2021-22 report covers the health checks (care processes) and outcomes for children and young people with diabetes who have attended PDUs (paediatric diabetes units) from 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022.
The report aims to address a series of questions relating to paediatric diabetes care, which include:

  • What proportion of children and young people with diabetes are reported to be receiving key age-specific processes of diabetes care, as recommended by NICE?
  • How many achieve outcomes within specified treatment targets?
  • Are children and young people with diabetes demonstrating evidence of small vessel (microvascular) disease and/or abnormal risk factors associated with large vessel (macrovascular) disease prior to transition into adult services?

You can download the 2021-22 report below.

Key messages

  • The increase in incidence of Type 1 diabetes observed in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic has continued through the 2021/22 audit year. There were 3,883 new diagnoses of Type 1 diabetes in 2021/22 managed within a PDU, compared to 3,662 in 2020/21. This is 1,010 more than the average number newly diagnosed and being managed in a PDU between 2013/14-2019/20, before the start of the pandemic.
  • There has been continuing improvement in national median HbA1c. There has also been an increase in the use of diabetes technologies associated with lower HbA1c. Use of a closed loop system was associated with the best HbA1c outcomes.
  • Almost all (98.2%) of those with Type 2 diabetes were overweight or obese, and almost half (46.1%) had a diastolic or systolic blood pressure in the hypertensive range. Two fifths (42.3%) of those with Type 1 diabetes were also overweight or obese, with a third (29.9%) having a diastolic or systolic blood pressure in the hypertensive range.
  • Despite reductions in the percentages recorded as requiring additional support between 2020/21 and 2021/22, over a third of children and young people were assessed as requiring additional psychological support outside of multidisciplinary team meetings (39.0% of those with Type 1 diabetes and 48.3% of those with Type 2 diabetes).
  • While inequalities persist in terms of the use of diabetes related technologies by ethnic group and deprivation quintile, , the usage gap between White and Black children and between the most and least deprived quintiles has reduced markedly since 2019/20, when the usage rate of rtCGMs was half that of White children amongst Black children and young people with Type 1 diabetes.

Individual unit level reports

You can download your unit level report from our dedicated SharePoint site.

You can access individual unit level reports since 2014 on our interactive tool, NPDA Results Online.

And, to help your unit communicate and share the main national and unit level findings from the audit, you can view our 2021-22 NPDA slide deck template for download below.

Individual unit level posters

Summary and feedback posters for your unit level 2021/22 audit year results are also available to download from our SharePoint site. These posters can be printed for display in your clinic waiting area, or can be shared with your contacts via email.

Additional data files

As part of our commitment to open data, we will soon make available our data files on specific measures from the audit.

Previous years' reports

Previous years' reports are available in the downloads section.

    Parents and carers reports

    Our parents and carers reports provide a lay summary of the findings from the NPDA annual reports. We produce versions in English and Welsh.

    We will be uploading our parents and carers report shortly and will communicate to all units when this is available to download from our parents and carers report page.

    Background and audit aims

    The NPDA was established to compare the care and outcomes of all children and young people with diabetes receiving care from Paediatric Diabetes Units (PDUs) in England and Wales. The audit is commissioned by the Health Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP), funded by NHS England and the Welsh Government, and is managed by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.

    Our aims:

    • Monitor the incidence and prevalence of all types of diabetes amongst children and young people receiving care from a PDU in England and Wales
    • Establish which key care processes are being received by children and young people with diabetes
    • Enable benchmarking of performance against standards of care specified by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance at PDU and national level
    • Determine the prevalence and incidence of diabetes-related complications amongst children and young people with diabetes

    You can read more about the audit and what we measure.

    NPDA Reporting webinar February 2024

    NPDA Manager Holly Robinson and NDPDA Analyst Cillian Brophy hosted a webinar and Q&A in February to explain the processes involved in cleaning, analysing and reporting the core NPDA dataset, including upcoming plans for quarterly reporting and provision of data for hybrid closed loop reimbursement.