QOF 2021-22 results

The Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) is a voluntary annual reward and incentive programme for all GP practices in England, detailing practice achievement results. It is not about performance management but resourcing and rewarding good practice.

QOF

The QOF contains five main components, known as domains. The five domains are: Clinical; Public Health and Public Health – Additional Services, Public Health – Vaccination and Immunisation and Quality Improvement. Each domain consists of a set of achievement measures, known as indicators, against which practices score points according to their level of achievement. The 2021-22 QOF measured achievement against 72 indicators; practices scored points based on achievement against each indicator, up to a maximum of 635 points.

The QOF gives an indication of the overall achievement of a practice through a points system. Practices aim to deliver high quality care across a range of areas for which they score points. The final payment is adjusted to take account of surgery workload, local demographics and the prevalence of chronic conditions in the practice's local area.

NHS Digital has developed this online database to allow patients and the public easy access to the latest annual QOF data. NHS Digital is working to make information more relevant and accessible to patients and the public, regulators, health and social care professionals and policy makers, leading to improvements in knowledge and efficiency.

Understanding the results

Browse the online database to find the results for your local surgery.

Other searches will compare your local GP practice to other GP practices in the local area and the national results across England, but caution should be taken in interpreting the results, as explained below in “what this site cannot tell you”.

The online database provides easy access to comprehensive information on the pattern of common chronic diseases such as asthma, diabetes and coronary heart disease. In terms of scale, the data for QOF are collected from 6,470 (97.5%) GP practices with approximately 61 million registered patients in England.

The QOF helps practices compare the delivery and quality of care currently provided against the achievements of previous years. Ultimately, the aim is to improve standards of care by assessing and benchmarking the quality-of-care patients receive.

QOF 2021-22 changes

To support the ongoing response to COVID-19, practices were advised that payment protection would be applied to a number of QOF indicators in December 2021. NHS England and Improvement published information about the implementation of QOF payment protection in the 2021-22 reporting year, which can be found in a letter to practice . Payment protection was also implemented in the 2020-21 reporting year, this was detailed in the NHS England and Improvement Guidance for General Medical Services Contract document.

Additionally, Tthe following changes to QOF indicators have been implemented in 2021-22:

The implementation of payment protection and the changes to QOF indicators should be considered when comparing 2021-22 QOF data with QOF data for previous years.

Additional information can be found in the NHS England » Update on Quality Outcomes Framework changes for 2021/22 published by NHS England and NHS Improvement.

Example of the results

The sample of the output chart below shows the prevalence for some of the conditions for an individual GP practice.

Clinical Prevalence:
Image of prevalence chart showing example data for four conditions: a row on the chart details the percentage prevalence for the condition, it also includes a comparision to Sub ICB Location and England averages.

The sample of the output chart below shows the results for some of the clinical indicator groups for an individual GP practice.

The results for previous years are presented in the chart, which also displays the year's Sub Integrated Care Board Location (Sub ICB Location) and England averages.

Clinical Domain Indicator Groups:
Image of results chart showing example data for three clinical areas: a row on the chart details how many indicators make up the score for a clinical area, it includes the score as a percentage as well as the number of points achieved and comparision to Sub ICB Location and England averages.

Similar charts are available for the total achievement results, the individual domain results and the underlying achievement details for the individual indicators within each indicator group.

What this site can tell you

You can use this specially designed website to make specific searches on achievement for years prior to 2021-22 in the following ways:

For the 2020-21 reporting year, this functionality is restricted to disease prevalence only.

What this site cannot tell you

The QOF FAQs are available on the QOF publication page:
digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/quality-and-outcomes-framework-achievement-prevalence-and-exceptions-data/2021-22/frequently-asked-questions