Health and Care Experience Survey 2025 to 2026: National Report

Background

Aims

The Health and Care Experience Survey provides local and national information on the quality of health and care services from the perspective of those using them. It supports three strategic objectives for both the Scottish Government and NHS Scotland – that care is safe, effective and person-centred. It does this by providing a basis for the measurement of quality as experienced by people across Scotland. More information on health and social care analytical work in Scotland is available online.

The survey’s specific objectives for local improvement are to:

• Provide GP Practices with feedback on peoples’ experiences of their service, relative to other practices in Scotland and to previous results
• Provide NHS Boards, Health & Social Care Partnerships and GP Practice Clusters with information about peoples’ experiences in their respective areas, and variation within and between local areas.

The survey’s specific objectives for national improvement are to:

• Inform national planning and monitor performance
• Identify variation within and between local areas, and if and how the level of positive and negative experiences has changed over time
• Highlight areas of best practice and areas for improvement
• Support a range of indicators.

This survey is a means for Scottish Ministers to monitor how well they are fulfilling their duty, under Section 1 of the NHS (Scotland) Act 1978, to continue to promote a comprehensive and integrated health service that is designed to secure:

• Improvement in the physical and mental health of the people of Scotland
• The prevention, diagnosis and treatment of illness, and for that purpose to provide or secure the effective provision of services in accordance with the 1978 Act.

In addition, the programme provides evidence to help monitor our progress against the Value Based Health and Care Action Plan, a plan to support people to practise Realistic Medicine and deliver better value care. Supporting health and care professionals and the people we care for to practise Realistic Medicine is central to the delivery of the Population Health Framework and the Service Renewal Framework.

Outputs

In this report, we show the results at a national level. Other outputs of the survey available on the Health and Care Experience Survey collection page are:

• An Excel spreadsheet showing results at national level and broken down by Health Board, Health and Social Care Partnership, Council, GP Practice Cluster and GP Practice
• An Excel spreadsheet showing results broken down by age band, sex, ethnicity, disability, Urban-Rural Classification and Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation
• An Excel spreadsheet with time series shown on the charts in this report
• A technical report with details of the survey design and methodology.

Other material related to the survey, including a copy of the 2025 to 2026 survey questionnaire, are available online, together with other survey materials.

In addition, results for each GP Practice, GP Practice Cluster, Health and Social Care Partnership and NHS Board, as well as time series trends where applicable, are available via a dashboard hosted on the PHS website

An Accredited Official Statistics Publication for Scotland

These statistics are accredited official statistics. The Office for Statistics Regulation has independently reviewed and accredited these statistics as complying with the standards of trustworthiness, quality, and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics.

These statistics were accredited in April 2012.

Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.

Scottish Government statistics are regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

More information about Scottish Government statistics is available on the Scottish Government website.