Demographics Report iMatter Survey 2025

Background

iMatter The iMatter Continuous Improvement Model was developed by NHSScotland staff with the aim of engaging all staff in a way that feels right for them. The focus is on team-based understanding of experience, but it also offers information at various levels within organisations to evidence and help improve staff experience. As such, it can provide clarity on where to focus efforts for maximum impact, which in turn leads to better care, better health, and better value.

Demographic questions were first introduced in the Everyone Matters Pulse Survey 2020 and were added to the iMatter survey in 2021. They were again included in iMatter 2022. The questions asked are the same as those asked in the Scottish Census 2022 Scotland's Census 2022 paper questionnaires | Scotland's Census (scotlandscensus.gov.uk). It is intended that in the future comparisons can be made to national statistics, but at this time the final 2022 census data is not available.

The full iMatter questionnaire is contained in Appendix 1.

iMatter Fieldwork

The iMatter process uses Webropol to distribute electronic and paper questionnaires to NHSScotland employees, as well as those employed by the Local Authority who work in a Health and Social Care Partnership who chose to participate. In 2025, all 22 Health Boards and 25 Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCPs) took part and all fieldwork was carried out between 12 May and 7 July 2025.

Demographic Analysis

This report seeks to draw learning from the iMatter demographic data set that can be of value to Scottish Government and Health and Social Care, both in terms of profiling the workforce and exploring relationships between demographic characteristics and workplace experience.

The analysis looks in detail at how attitudes and experiences compare across various demographic groups. The learning will support activity around diversity and inclusion across Health and Social Care.

Where appropriate comparisons are made to previous iMatter surveys, in which the same set of questions have been included.

Response Rate

In total 207,397 questionnaires were issued and 119,173 usable responses were received. This equates to an overall response rate of 57%.

Non-Response/’Prefer not to say’

Demographic questions were optional and a ‘prefer not to say’ option was also included in each question.

Typically, just under 90% of those completing the survey opted to provide answers to the demographic questions, so over 40% of the workforce.

Much of the analysis in this report is based on just those staff who responded to the question with information about themselves (i.e. excluding both those who chose not to answer the question at all and those who opted for ‘Prefer not to say’). Because we are looking to understand more about the demographic profile of staff and the relationship those profiles have on well-being and workplace experiences, those who did not provide this information cannot be included in this analysis.

The proportion of staff not answering each of the questions is shown below and it is noted that the rate of non-response has increased in 2025 from 2022. The exception to this is the staff grouping questions that are now answered by 98% of those completing an iMatter survey.

Potential Response Bias

This analysis is based on the staff who chose to take part in iMatter and respond on the demographic questions. In statistical terms the views of 4 in 10 staff would be deemed representative of all staff. However, we note that there may be a demographic bias in the staff that take part in the survey.

TURAS data

Comparisons are made to the NHSScotland published workforce data Data tables | Turas Data Intelligence (nhs.scot). This data has been collected via staff engagement forms when people join, or change boards within NHSScotland, or via the e:you questionnaire exercise undertaken for all NHSScotland staff in post. Published TURAS data includes the percentage of staff for whom demographic details are not known in addition to those who decline to provide personal information. This data source is therefore based on up to two-thirds of NHSScotland staff. Where comparisons are made to the iMatter data, TURAS data is recalculated based on those who had an opportunity to provide their demographic information.

Small Base Sizes

There are a number of demographic groups that are very small and therefore cannot be analysed beyond the overall national level. This does not in any way imply a reduced importance of those minority groups but rather is reflective of the need to protect the anonymity of individuals. In some cases, smaller demographic groups are combined to provide some analysis e.g. combining two age groups or several ethnicity groups to provide a robust sample size.

Protecting Anonymity

In carrying out this analysis we are sensitive to the risk of identification of individual people, through their demographic characteristics and responses to individual questions. For that reason, analysis is only reported here where the sample size is 10 or more. Where necessary, individual data points are suppressed to protect confidentiality.

Rounding Errors

Rounding percentages to the nearest whole number occasionally results in total percentages that do not add up to exactly 100%.

Statistical Significance

When comparing data between two or more groups e.g. overall experience scores given by those who are male and those who are female, it is important to consider whether they are ‘true’ or ‘chance’ differences. Statistical significance testing is used to examine the size of difference and to establish the level of confidence that a ‘true’ change has happened.

The key element in determining whether differences are statistically significant is the number of responses. The larger the number of responses, the smaller the minimum change that can be deemed statistically significant (meaning that the change is highly likely to be ‘true’).

Across large demographic groups within Health and Social Care, differences of 0.3, or even 0.2 points would be significant. When looking at demographic groups that have less than 500 people in them, then differences of 3 or 4 points would be needed to be statistically significant.

Other factors that can influence the extent to which differences are true are the percentage of the population included within the sample i.e. the iMatter response rate. However, when looking at demographic data we only know the profile of those responding and not of those who do not. Therefore, statistical significance is an approximate calculation. Each score and each combination of demographic groups will have slightly different levels at which the differences would be statistically significant.

For the purposes of this summary report, the following differences in scores should be deemed to be significant:

• Samples of 100 to 500 responses in each group: differences of 4 points or more are typically significant.
• Samples of 500 - 1000 responses in each group: differences of 3 points or more are typically significant.
• Samples of between 1,000 and 2,500 responses in each group: differences of 2 points are typically significant.
• Samples of over 2,500 responses in each group: differences of 1 point are typically significant.

Note: Because iMatter scores are reported with no decimal places, there are instances where significant movements are not evident in data reported at whole integer level only. Occasionally where there appears to be a movement in scores, this is simply a result of rounding to whole integers and the difference is in fact, not significant.