Health and Care Experience Survey 2025 to 2026: Technical Report
This report contains information about the methodology and background of the 2025 to 2026 Health and Care Experience (HACE) Survey.It is intended primarily for more technical users who wish to understand the how the survey was designed, delivered and analysed.
Annex A: Changes to 2025 to 2026 survey questionnaire
We run the HACE survey every two years. The survey questionnaire is reviewed at each round of the survey to ensure that the questions asked are in line with policy requirements and with recent developments in health and care services, and are understood by the users. In order to do so, we engage with stakeholders and cognitively test the questionnaire with volunteers.
The tables below list the new questions added to the survey, the questions that have changed since the 2023 to 2024 survey and the questions that have been removed since the 2023 to 2024 survey.
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New questions for the 2025 to 2026 survey |
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2025 to 2026 question number |
Topic |
Question Text |
Reason |
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Q4 |
Your General Practice |
The last time you contacted your GP practice, how did you try to contact them? |
To better understand how the way that people contact the GP practice influences their experience |
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Q8 |
Your General Practice |
Were you offered the following choices for the appointment? Please tick all that apply |
To better understand the factors that influence patient experience and access to General Practice services. |
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Q9 |
Your General Practice |
How do you feel about how long you waited for your appointment? |
To better understand patient satisfaction with regards to access to General Practice services. |
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Q39 |
About you |
Do you have any physical or mental health conditions or illnesses lasting or expected to last 12 months or more? |
To align the disability questions we ask to the most recent Scottish Government guidance on asking about disability. |
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Q40 |
About you |
Do any of these conditions or illnesses affect you in any of the following areas? Please tick all that apply. |
To align the disability questions we ask to the most recent Scottish Government guidance on asking about disability. |
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Q41 |
About you |
Does your condition or illness / do any of your conditions or illnesses reduce your ability to carry-out day-to-day activities? |
To align the disability questions we ask to the most recent Scottish Government guidance on asking about disability.
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Questions that were changed in the 2025 to 2026 survey |
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Question number 2025 to 2026 (2023 to 2024) |
Topic |
Question Text |
Reason |
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Q28 (Q28) |
Care, Support and Help with Everyday Living |
Who funds your help or support with everyday living? |
Based on feedback from patient representatives following questionnaire testing, the response options were updated to use terms that were easier to understand. “The State / Local Government” was changed to “The National or Local Government” and “Me / My family” was changed to “Me/My family pays”. |
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Q32 (Q32) |
Care, Support and Help with Everyday Living |
If you are not receiving all the help and care services for everyday living that you feel you need, which options describe your situation? Please tick all that apply, otherwise leave blank if you receive all the services you feel you need |
Removed the ‘Not applicable’ response option and updated the question text to instruct the survey respondent to skip the question if they are receiving all the services they feel they need. |
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Q35 (Q35) |
Caring Responsibilities |
Have you received any support to help with your caring role in the last 12 months? Please tick all that apply |
Dropped the response option ‘some support, but felt that I needed more’ due to a low number of survey respondents selecting this response option. |
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Q44 (Q43) |
About You |
What is your ethnic group? |
Minor change to the question wording to better align the question to the recommended question from the Scottish Government guidance on collecting equalities information. |
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Questions that were removed from the 2025 to 2026 survey |
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2023 to 2024 Question Number |
Topic |
Question Text |
Reason |
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Q8 |
Your General Practice |
Were you satisfied with the appointment you were offered? |
A general satisfaction question didn’t provide information that could be used to improve services, so this question was removed and replaced with new questions on the choices they were offered and the length of time they waited. |
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Q9 |
Your General Practice |
If you weren’t satisfied with the appointment you were offered, why was that? |
A general satisfaction question didn’t provide information that could be used to improve services, so this question was removed and replaced with new questions on the choices they were offered and the length of time they waited. |
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Q44 |
About You |
What religion, religious denomination or body do you belong to? |
Question removed due to space constraints and limited use of this data from previous surveys. |