Shared data may lead to better neonatal practice but variation in key measures shows improvement is still needed

When the tenth annual National Neonatal Audit Programme (NNAP) report was published in September this year,1 I was struck almost as much by the programme’s growth in participation since its inception as I was by its findings. When the first annual report was published on the 2007 results it covered 107 of the UK’s 226 neonatal units, accounting for just 47% of the total. This year, it included data from 181 of the possible 184 units, or 98% of all neonatal units across England, Scotland and Wales.