Report

Public satisfaction with the NHS and social care in 2022

Think tank: The King’s Fund

Author(s): Various Authors

March 29, 2023

This report from UK think tank The King’s Fund looks at results from the British Social Attitudes survey.

The National Centre for Social Research’s (NatCen’s) British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey has been conducted annually since 1983. Each year the survey asks people what it’s like to live in Britain and what they think about how Britain is run, including measuring levels of public satisfaction with the health and care services. The most recent survey was carried out between 7 September and 30 October 2022 and asked a nationally representative sample (across England, Scotland and Wales) of 3,362 people about their satisfaction with the National Health Service (NHS) and social care services overall, and 1,187 people about their satisfaction with specific NHS services, as well as their views on NHS funding. The King’s Fund and the Nuffield Trust jointly sponsored the 2022 BSA survey health and care questions reported here. For a second year we asked questions developed in 2021 asking people about their views on what the priorities for the NHS should be and the extent to which they think the founding principles of the NHS should still apply. The main change between the 2021 and 2022 surveys was to increase the sample size for the question on overall satisfaction with social care to 3,362 to match the overall NHS satisfaction question. This enables a similar level of analysis as we have done for the NHS question and is driven by our organisations’ recognition of the importance of social care. This is reflected in the report that follows. The BSA is a ‘gold standard’ nationally representative survey that uses a robust methodology to explore public views on a wide range of issues. The methodology uses random probability sampling to select British households to take part. From 1983 until 2019 the survey was conducted through face-to-face interviews. This method was not possible in 2020 due to social distancing rules in place for Covid-19, and that year the BSA survey interviews were conducted primarily online with a telephone option also available. This new method continued in 2021 and 2022, with households receiving a letter inviting up to two adults to take part online or over the phone if they preferred.