About diabetes
Diabetes mellitus (Type 1 diabetes) is a condition where the amount of glucose in your blood is too high because the body cannot use it properly. It affects around two per 1,000 children in England and Wales (in 2020-21 there were just under 3,700 new cases).
The vast majority of children and young people (around 95%), have Type 1 diabetes, whereas only a small number (around 5%), have Type 2 diabetes or other rare forms of diabetes.
About our audit
The National Paediatric Diabetes Audit (NPDA) is commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) and funded by NHS England and the Welsh Government.
The NPDA is performed annually in England and Wales. The clinic that you attend is asked to submit information about your child’s diabetes care. The sole aim is to provide information that leads to improved quality of care for children and young people affected by diabetes. With this information, the NPDA produces a report each year.
Summary reports
You can download parent and carer summary booklets of our NPDA reports below, for the audit years 2013-14 to 2020-21, both in English and Welsh.
Our key conclusions from 2020-21
In 2022, the NPDA published a report on health check completion and outcomes based on data collected in the 2020-21 audit year.
We found:
- There was a clear increase in the number of children and young people diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes between 2019-20 and 2020-21
- services were impacted by COVID-19 and fewer children and young people received their recommended health checks.
- despite this national average HbA1c results reduced to 61.0 mmol/mol between 2019-20 and 2020-21
- there was an increase in use of real time continuous glucose monitors (rtCGM) from 19.4% in 2019/20 to 27.9% in 2020/21, with increases observed across all deprivation quintiles and ethnic groups.
- a further increase in the number of children and young people with Type 1 diabetes who were assessed as requiring additional psychological or CAMHS support outside of MDT clinics from 43.9% in 2019-20 to 46.5% in 2020-21
- variation in outcomes between paediatric diabetes services
Parents and carers of children and young people with diabetes should:
- talk to their diabetes clinics about receiving and discussing the results of health checks, suitable for their age
- work with their diabetes team to achieve the best HbA1c level possible for their child by aiming for blood glucose levels within targets set by their clinic
Ongoing support for children and young people with diabetes is important. This should include psychological assessment and ongoing support, structured educational packages, and blood glucose target setting to reduce the risk of long term complications.
The National Children and Young People’s Diabetes Network has shown commitment to working together to improve the care and outcomes of children and young people, using the national network structures and the National Children and Young People’s Diabetes Quality Programme to support lasting and meaningful improvement.
We have created a short video to present the keys results of our core report and the 2021 PREM survey.