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Publication, Part of

Quality and Outcomes Framework, 2020-21

Official statistics

Publication Date:
30 Sep 2021
Geographic Coverage:
England
Geographical Granularity:
GP practices, Sub-Integrated Care Boards, Integrated Care Boards, Regions, Country
Date Range:
01 Apr 2020 to 31 Mar 2021

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Quality and Outcomes Framework, 2020-21

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Main findings
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Summary

The objective of the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) is to improve the quality of care patients are given by rewarding practices for the quality of care they provide to their patients, based on a number of indicators across a range of key areas of clinical care and public health. This publication provides data for the reporting year 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021 and covers all General Practices in England that participated in QOF in 2020-21.

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on activity in general practice, QOF implementation was changed for the 2020-21 reporting year. The majority of QOF indicators were income protected (i.e. payments were made to practices irrespective of activity recorded for indicators in 2020-21), to enable practices to direct resources towards COVID-19 response and targeting care at the most vulnerable and high-need groups. Further information on the income protection measures applied to QOF can be found on the NHS England and Improvement website.

These changes mean that indicator data may be inaccurate for the 2020-21 reporting year, and comparisons with data from previous years would be misleading. Therefore, in this publication:

  • Achievement and PCA data are not presented in the workbooks
  • Achievement and PCA data are available in the accompanying .csv files, as in previous years
  • Prevalence data are presented in the workbooks and are available in the accompanying .csv files, as in previous years

Highlights

6,571 practices included in the 2020-21 publication

Participation in QOF is voluntary, though participation rates are very high, with coverage of 96.7% this year.

QOF recorded prevalence rates

The highest recorded prevalence rates were for hypertension (13.9%), depression (12.3%) and diabetes mellitus (7.1%).

Greatest decrease in QOF recorded prevalence

was for obesity, which was 3.6 percentage points lower than in 2019-20. 

This is likely to be due to the reduction in face-to-face consultations during the pandemic; in order to be included on the obesity register, a patient must have a BMI of 30 or more recorded in the 12 months up to and including the reporting period end date.

 

(Note - 2019-20 prevalence rates have been recalculated using data for practices included in QOF 2020-21 only).

Greatest increase in QOF recorded prevalence

was for depression, which was 0.7 percentage points higher than in 2019-20.

(Note - 2019-20 prevalence rates have been recalculated using data for practices included in QOF 2020-21 only).

Key Facts

Last edited: 7 February 2022 11:55 am