Population screening KPIs: purpose and data submission guidance
Updated 12 June 2025
Applies to England
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1. Purpose
Key performance indicators (KPIs) define consistent performance measures for a selection of public health priorities.
They use terminology that is clear and common across all screening programmes, so performance can be understood, assessed and compared.
KPIs聽are a subset of screening standards and give a high-level overview of the quality of screening programmes at important points on the screening pathway.
They contribute to the quality assurance of screening programmes but are not, in themselves, sufficient to quality assure or performance manage screening services.
See聽our approach to NHS population screening standards聽for further information on the format of our indicators, the pathway themes, performance thresholds and the relationship between standards and聽KPIs.
The聽KPIs聽reflect areas where consistency and an understanding of variation across England are important.
Screening聽KPIs聽are contained within the Section 7a agreements between the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), and NHS England, and in the Public Health Outcomes Framework (PHOF). Further information about聽screening standards聽and聽聽are available for each programme.
To see the list of聽KPI聽indicators, please see the KPI index.
2. Submitting KPI data
NHS England directly extract or receive data from national systems for KPIs for the following screening programmes:
- abdominal aortic aneurysm screening
- bowel cancer screening
- cervical screening
- newborn hearing screening
- newborn and infant physical examination
Providers must extract and submit KPI data from local systems to NHS England via agreed routes for:
- antenatal screening
- breast screening
- diabetic eye screening
- newborn blood spot
3. Roles and responsibilities
We strongly recommend that screening data collections and submissions are supported by screening providers바카라 사이트� information and/or performance analyst(s). Submission of聽KPI聽data should follow screening providers바카라 사이트� assurance processes.
Data must be complete and valid. Where screening services are unable to return complete and valid data, they should submit a blank return and have an action plan in place to enable them to report in the future.
Screening services must have failsafe processes to identify where things are going wrong and take corrective action before harm occurs. The聽KPI聽process is not in itself a means of providing failsafe due to the delay in reporting.
3.1 Generic
NHS England data and information team
NHS England is responsible for reviewing data following submission, assessing completeness of returns and performance against聽KPI聽thresholds and publication of the data.
The data is shared with the screening quality assurance service (SQAS) and NHS England screening commissioners.
3.2 Antenatal and newborn screening programmes
Head of midwifery (HoM)
The聽HoM聽is accountable and responsible for providing timely collation of accurate data. The data must be signed off by聽HoM聽and submitted on the聽KPI聽submission template to聽england.screeningdata@nhs.net
Antenatal and newborn screening co-ordinator/provider information team
This team is responsible for collating, checking, acting on comments from the sense checker and submitting accurate data to the聽HoM for sign off.
Providers are accountable and responsible for providing timely collation of accurate data to the Integrated Screening Outcomes Surveillance Service (ISOSS). The ISOSS will validate data and raise queries with providers where there are inconsistencies and data quality issues. If queries are unanswered within the defined timescale, submitted data will be taken to be accurate and be provided to NHS England at england.screeningdata@nhs.net and published.
Child health information service manager
The child health information service manager is accountable and responsible for the timely collation of accurate data. The data must be submitted on the聽KPI聽submission template to聽england.screeningdata@nhs.net
Local聽NIPE聽lead
The聽NIPE聽lead is accountable and responsible for timely collation of accurate and reliable data. Providers must use the聽NIPE聽screening management and reporting tool SMaRT4NIPE (S4N) IT system to manage the local screening process. The KPI data is extracted from the national IT system and is made available for providers to check and submit mitigations 3 weeks before publishing. Mitigations can be submitted using the template provided and emailed to england.NIPE-KPI-mitigations@nhs.net within the above time scale. If reports are not signed off, they will be taken to be accurate.
NHSP聽local manager/NHSP聽team leader
The聽NHSP聽local manager/NHSP聽team leader is accountable and responsible for timely entry of accurate data into the national IT system. The KPI data is extracted from the national IT system and is made available for providers to check and submit mitigations 2 weeks before publishing. Mitigations can be submitted using the template provided and emailed to england.NHSP-KPI-mitigations@nhs.net within the above time scale. If reports are not signed off, they will be taken to be accurate.
4. Information governance
It is the responsibility of all staff to make sure they are aware of their obligations regarding compliance with their organisation바카라 사이트檚 information governance policies. They should be aware of:
- the reasons for adhering to information governance when collecting and validating data and information.
- accepted standards regarding data and information such as sources, control files, validity, reliability, completeness, terminology, acronyms, purpose and conventions
- data sharing protocols
- local assurance arrangements regarding board level sign-off.
The submitting organisation is responsible for making sure only accurate data is submitted. Good quality data is extremely important for monitoring and improving screening service providers.
Screening providers may want to refer to guidance on the聽false or misleading information (FOMI) offence聽from The Care Act 2014, which sets out the responsibility of providers to supply and publish accurate data.
Data is not usually published if the numerator or denominator is less than 5 for an individual quarter. In such cases, the data will be aggregated and published annually where possible.
5. Timescales
Q1 (1 April to 30 June)
Time for sense checking and return: 1 September to 30 September.
Q2 (1 July to 30 September)
Time for sense checking and return: 1 December to 31 December.
Q3 (1 October to 31 December)
Time for sense checking and return: 1 March to 31 March.
Q4 (1 January to 31 March)
Time for sense checking and return: 1 June to 30 June.
We聽publish screening聽KPI聽data聽each quarter.
Publication dates for聽KPI聽data are:
- Q1 April to June data: published by the end of November
- Q2 July to September data: published by the end of February
- Q3 October to December data: published by the end of May
- Q4 January to March: published by the end of August
Data for some聽KPIs聽is collected later than others. Data publications are updated as data becomes available.
We pilot聽KPIs聽following an agreed process before they are introduced. New聽KPIs聽are not published in the first year of data collection.
This time is used to improve the data quality and completeness, by revising the definition, and adding clarity as required. After this time, we review the data with the aim of publishing it from the following year.