Introduction
The High Level Objectives (HLOs) are the NIHR Clinical Research Network’s (NIHR CRN) national, overarching annual objectives for research delivery in the NHS and other health and social care settings.
The HLOs form 1 element of the suite of performance indicators used to assess the Network’s performance.
This page sets out the NIHR CRN performance against its HLOs for 2021/22 (1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022).
Performance reporting, COVID-19, and Managed Recovery
- As the national COVID-19 situation changes and studies either complete and close, or move into business as usual (overseen by the Covid-19 Understanding and Elimination-Trials Implementation Panel, CUE-TIP), DHSC has asked NIHR to work with research funders and partners across the UK’s research system to develop a plan to manage the recovery of the rest of the commercial and non-commercial portfolio. To these ends, the Managed Recovery process was established as a sequencing process to support the re-establishment/activation of CRN Portfolio activity. Towards the end of Quarter 2, DHSC made additional funding available to support recovery, with a particular focus on the life sciences industry.
- As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the prioritisation of COVID-19 research as part of the Government response, CRN routine data management activities were behind schedule and the integrity of the data could therefore not be assured. During 2021/22 the NIHR CRN established a data integrity project to provide assurance on the quality, timeliness and accuracy of NIHR CRN Portfolio data and redress the data issues. This included the review and update (as necessary) of key milestone and research activity data and reinstating effective business as usual study record management activities of the NIHR CRN Portfolio of studies. This work will be ongoing in 2022/23 Quarter 1 and will then be incorporated into CRN business as usual processes, and will underpin planned Research Reset work.
- 2021/22 HLO reporting is based upon both confirmed and provisional research activity data received via Local Portfolio Management Systems (LPMSs) plus confirmed manually uploaded research activity data.
Performance in 2021/22
Efficient Study Delivery: Deliver NIHR CRN Portfolio studies to recruitment target within the planned recruitment period *
|
Measure |
Ambition |
Annual performance |
Ambition met |
|---|---|---|---|
|
(1) Proportion of new commercial contract studies achieving or surpassing their recruitment target during their planned recruitment period, at confirmed CRN sites |
80% | 54% | No |
|
(2) Proportion of commercial contract studies in the managed recovery process achieving or surpassing their recruitment target during their planned recruitment period |
80% | 50% | No |
|
(3) Proportion of non-commercial studies in the managed recovery process achieving or surpassing their recruitment target during their planned recruitment period |
70% | 87% | Yes |
* Annual performance is calculated as the sum of the number of studies that recruited to time and target across all available quarters divided by the total number of studies which closed to recruitment across all available quarters, expressed as a percentage
(1) Proportion of new commercial contract studies achieving or surpassing their recruitment target during their planned recruitment period, at confirmed CRN sites
- 54% (n=32/59) of new commercial contract studies were delivered to time and target in 2021/22, 32% behind the annual ambition (80%) and lower than performance in 2020/21 (74%).
Note the number of studies represented here is relatively small. Within this group of studies, 100% (6/6) of the CUE-TIP commercial portfolio of studies that opened and closed in 2021/22 were delivered to time and target.
(2) Proportion of commercial contract studies in the managed recovery process achieving or surpassing their recruitment target during their planned recruitment period
- 50% (n=11/22) of commercial managed recovery studies recruited to time and target in 2021/22, 38% behind the annual ambition (80%). While eleven studies did not recruit to time and target, a number of these studies demonstrated improved recruitment towards or at their expected rate of recruitment.
Note the number of studies represented here is relatively small. As this was a new objective for 2021/22, it is not possible to compare with previous years’ performance.
(3) Proportion of non-commercial studies in the managed recovery process achieving or surpassing their recruitment target during their planned recruitment period
- 87% (n=40/46) of non-commercial managed recovery studies recruited to time and target in 2021/22, surpassing the 70% annual ambition, which was also met or surpassed in each quarter of the year.
Provider Participation: Widen participation in research by enabling the involvement of a range of health and social care providers **
|
Measure |
Ambition |
Annual performance |
Ambition met |
|---|---|---|---|
|
(1) Proportion of NHS Trusts recruiting into NIHR CRN Portfolio studies |
99% | 100% | Yes |
|
(2) Proportion of NHS Trusts recruiting into NIHR CRN Portfolio commercial contract studies |
70% | 71% | Yes |
|
(3) Proportion of General Medical Practices recruiting into NIHR CRN Portfolio studies |
45% | 51% | Yes |
**Annual performance is calculated as the sum of each unique site that has recruited one or more participants in one or more available quarters divided by the total number of sites, expressed as a percentage
(1) Proportion of NHS Trusts recruiting into NIHR CRN Portfolio studies
- 100% (n=216/216) of NHS trusts have recruited one or more participants into NIHR CRN Portfolio studies in 2021/22, surpassing the annual ambition of 99%. This is the fourth year in succession we have achieved full participation and supports the CRN’s ambition to improve equity of access to research opportunities for people across England
(2) Proportion of NHS Trusts recruiting into NIHR CRN Portfolio commercial contract studies
- 71% (n=153/216) of NHS trusts have recruited to commercial contract studies in 2021/22, surpassing the annual ambition and improving upon the 66% achieved in 2020/21. 63 NHS trusts did not recruit into commercial contract studies in 2021/22, of which 14 are acute trusts. The remaining 49 trusts are mental health, community care or ambulance trusts
(3) Proportion of General Medical Practices recruiting into NIHR CRN Portfolio studies
- 51% (n=3,397/6,640) of General Medical Practices (GMPs) recruited one or more participants into NIHR CRN Portfolio studies in 2021/22, the highest proportion to date and surpassing the annual ambition of 45%
- Historically, performance has been heavily influenced by studies with a large sample size, requiring many recruiting sites. This continued to be the case in 2021/22, with performance underpinned (as in 2020/21) by the CUE-TIP PRINCIPLE platform study (CPMS ID: 45457). Recruitment took place at 2,098 (32%, n=6,640) GMPs for this study by the end of 2021/22
- In 14/15 LCRNs (93%) the percentage of GMP participation has increased relative to 2019/20 pre-pandemic performance, with an increase in the percentage participation of between 15 and 45 in 12/15 LCRNs (80%)
- A CRN Primary care strategy has been published, and implementation is ongoing, with the aim of improving performance and creating greater opportunities for the wider primary care research community, patients and the public to participate in health and care research
- A total of 148,235 participants were recruited in GMPs in 2021/22
- Additionally, the PANORAMIC study (CPMS ID: 51313), an adaptive platform trial of novel antiviral drugs for early treatment of COVID-19 in the community that opened in December 2021, has recruited strongly, with approximately 19,000 participants recruited in England in 2021/22. As a GMP hub and spoke site model has been used alongside central recruitment in Oxford (thus far around 20% of recruits have been through GMPs), the study has a limited impact on this metric, however it has the potential to positively impact on future GMP research participation and recruitment
Participant Experience: Demonstrate to people taking part in health and social care research studies that their contribution is valued ***
| Measure | Ambition | Annual Performance | Ambition Met |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of NIHR CRN Portfolio study participants responding to the Participant Research Experience Survey, each year | 12,000 | 25,711 | Yes |
*** Annual performance is the sum of the number of responses across all available quarters.
Participant Experience
- 9,306 NIHR CRN Portfolio study participants responded to the Participant Research Experience Survey (PRES) in Q4 2021/22, bringing the total number of responses for 2021/22 to 25,711. This further surpasses the annual ambition of 12,000 which was exceeded in Q3 2021/22, and is also a considerable improvement on the 20,892 responses achieved in 2020/21
- Performance is based on responses to Adult and Children’s surveys which include the same national standardised questions. A total of 25,459 adult responses from the 15 LCRNs have contributed to the 2021/22 performance. In addition, 11 LCRNs have received a combined total of 252 responses from children and young people (defined as being under 16 years of age) in 2021/22
- Separately, 436 responses have been received for OK to Say No, a survey for adults who decline to participate in research
Notes
- The CRN Coordinating Centre is responsible for collating and publishing performance data for the NIHR CRN as a whole.
- For the purposes of performance reporting decimal places are rounded up or down to the nearest whole number. The information contained in this report represents the most complete information available at the time of publication.
- The data presented on this page may be quoted in presentations and papers. However, we ask that the page title, publication date, version and URL are included, to avoid any confusion about the period to which the figures relate and the time at which the data were reported.
Further information
For feedback on, or queries relating to, the information contained on this page, please contact Dr Andrew Walker, Head of Performance Management at CRN Coordinating Centre: crncc.performance@nihr.ac.uk