PICANet State of the Nations Report 2025
This National Paediatric Critical Care Audit State of the Nations Report describes paediatric critical care activity occurring within designated level 3 paediatric intensive care units (PICU) and Paediatric Critical Care Transport Services (PCCTS) in the United Kingdom (UK) and Republic of Ireland (ROI) during 2022 – 2024.
Some designated level 3 PICUs also incorporate designated level 2 paediatric critical care and these are included in the report to ensure a complete picture of care delivered in level 3 designated units/ paediatric critical care units. Designated level 2 beds situated outside of these combined units are not included in this report.
PICANet also collects more detailed information on referral and admission to paediatric critical care for Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) via dedicated ECMO datasets. The data from this collection is not included in this report.
We provide an overview of paediatric critical care in 2024 and more information on the data reported on can be found in the report’s Appendices and the PICU (Level 3) Forms, Data Manuals and Guidance webpage.
Each year we make national recommendations in our State of the Nations Reports. Our latest In-focus Impact Report describes progress against last year’s recommendations and how they have encouraged and supported developments to investigate areas of inequality and improve the quality of paediatric critical care.
Interactive Charts and Data 2025
With each report we provide detailed information in interactive charts with associated data tables for a series of outcomes. There are also two core Excel files for Mortality data (Standardised Mortality Ratios) and Data Quality (Data Completeness and Case Ascertainment).
For more up to date summary figures throughout the year, please refer to the PICANet Data Dashboard.
New this year, we present how the key metric results have changed over time. Key metrics were first introduced in the Annual Report 2017 and this document summarises the results from 2014 – 2024.
Transparency data for the PICU Admission and Transport data in England 2022 – 2024.
The Infographic highlights some of the report’s key findings.
The Appendices contain acknowledgements to the paediatric critical care community, as well as background information and methodology for the audit.
Quality Improvement resources for participating organisations are available on our QI Resources page
If you have any queries regarding the report, please contact [email protected].
PICANet must be acknowledged as the source when reproducing or quoting any part of this publication. Citation for this report: Paediatric Intensive Care Audit Network (PICANet) National Paediatric Critical Care Audit State of the Nations Report 2025. Universities of Leeds and Leicester, 2025.
Previous editions of PICANet annual reports are available in the Annual Report Archive.