iMatter Health & Social Care Staff Experience Survey 2025
Independent report by Webropol providing detailed information and analysis of staff experience in health and social care across Scotland. This report contains data from the 2025 iMatter survey.
Employee Engagement Index (EEI)
Introduction
The Employee Engagement Index (EEI) is calculated based on the number of responses for each point on the scale for component questions (Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree) multiplied by its number value (6 to 1). These scores are added together and divided by the overall number of responses to give the score to show level of engagement.
Board EEI Scores
|
EEI Score |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
2024 |
2025 |
Movement 2024 to 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Health and Social Care |
75 |
76 |
77 |
76 |
77 |
+1 |
|
National Boards (Patient-facing) |
||||||
|
NHS Golden Jubilee |
72 |
74 |
76 |
77 |
75 |
-2 |
|
NHS 24 |
75 |
76 |
74 |
77 |
79 |
+2 |
|
Scottish Ambulance Service |
65 |
67 |
67 |
66 |
67 |
+1 |
|
The State Hospital |
74 |
75 |
75 |
75 |
74 |
-1 |
|
National Boards (Support) |
||||||
|
Healthcare Improvement Scotland |
81 |
82 |
80 |
75 |
78 |
+3 |
|
NHS Education for Scotland |
84 |
85 |
85 |
84 |
84 |
0 |
|
National Services Scotland |
78 |
78 |
78 |
77 |
78 |
+1 |
|
Public Health Scotland |
77 |
75 |
76 |
79 |
79 |
0 |
|
Geographic Boards |
||||||
|
NHS Ayrshire & Arran |
75 |
77 |
78 |
78 |
78 |
0 |
|
NHS Borders |
74 |
75 |
77 |
76 |
77 |
+1 |
|
NHS Dumfries & Galloway |
72 |
75 |
75 |
75 |
75 |
0 |
|
NHS Fife |
75 |
75 |
77 |
76 |
76 |
0 |
|
NHS Forth Valley |
73 |
76 |
76 |
76 |
77 |
+1 |
|
NHS Grampian |
76 |
76 |
78 |
77 |
76 |
-1 |
|
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde |
74 |
75 |
76 |
76 |
76 |
0 |
|
NHS Highland |
73 |
75 |
76 |
76 |
76 |
0 |
|
NHS Lanarkshire |
77 |
78 |
78 |
78 |
78 |
0 |
|
NHS Lothian |
76 |
76 |
77 |
77 |
78 |
+1 |
|
NHS Orkney |
70 |
72 |
74 |
75 |
76 |
+1 |
|
NHS Shetland |
78 |
79 |
79 |
78 |
78 |
0 |
|
NHS Tayside |
74 |
76 |
77 |
77 |
77 |
0 |
|
NHS Western Isles |
76 |
74 |
77 |
75 |
74 |
-1 |
To view this table in its original format please see the PDF.
EEI scores for individual Boards range from 84 for NHS Education for Scotland to 67 for the Scottish Ambulance Service.
The largest improvement has been achieved in Healthcare Improvement Scotland up 3 pts from 75 in 2024 to 78 in 2025. This is a partial reversal of the decline of 5 pts seen from 2023 to 2024.
Throughout this report, there are many large improvements seen in scores for Healthcare Improvement Scotland and feedback from the Board acknowledges the considerable period of organisational change they have been through. They provide details of the actions that are being taken to improve staff experience and therefore iMatter scores:
Healthcare Improvement Scotland Board Feedback
“As an improvement organisation, we fully understand that this insight from staff presents a valuable opportunity for reflection, learning and action. We therefore committed to rebuilding people’s confidence and engagement, recognising that clear investment of time, effort and energy was required.
An iMatter Action Plan was developed and agreed in partnership at a cross-organisational level, with progress overseen by our iMatter Steering Group. A total of nine high-level actions were agreed in partnership, promoting collective ownership of the results and addressing our areas for improvement from multiple angles.
Importantly, our response to iMatter results complemented other relational and culture-building work already underway within HIS, namely; HIS Campus; staff wellbeing and equalities commissioning of Core strengths / SDI at an organisational scale; commissioning of consultancy support for Directorates implementing major change; commissioning of learning opportunities to support management development across HIS; the growth of a One Team ethos, and a planned shift towards clearer, shared cultural characteristics known as the *4Ps; Performance, Partnership Working, Personal Commitment and Personal Governance.”
The only other movements of more than 1 pt are NHS 24 which has increased by 2 pts and NHS Golden Jubilee that has decreased by 2 pts.
EEI Score Distribution across Teams
Over three-quarters of teams (79%) achieve a ‘Strive and Celebrate’ EEI score. There remain a small minority of teams (21 teams in total) that have an EEI score of 33 or less.
|
EEI Score |
Number of Teams |
Percentage of Teams |
|---|---|---|
|
Strive & Celebrate (67-100) |
12,528 |
79% |
|
Monitor to Further Improve (51-66) |
1,609 |
10% |
|
Improve to Monitor (34-50) |
161 |
1% |
|
Focus to Improve (0-33) |
21 |
<1% |
|
No Report |
1,607 |
10% |
|
Total Health and Social Care |
15,926 |
100% |
To view this table in its original format please see the PDF.
Note: Teams with 4 or less staff and a response rate of below 100% did not receive a report.
No Report
1,607 Teams (10%) did not receive a report. These are all teams with less than 5 members, where the required response rate of 100% has not been reached. Further details of the proportion of small teams receiving reports are included in Appendix 7.
Boards that have a high proportion of teams without an EEI report may either be due to a large number of small teams, a relatively low response rate or a combination of both:
- Despite NHS 24 having the highest proportion of small teams receiving a report (87%), it has the largest proportion of teams without an EEI score (12%) among the National Boards. This is because NHS 24 has a high level of small teams (45%) where a response rate of 100% is needed, second only to NHS Education for Scotland (47%).
- Among the Geographic Boards 15% of teams in NHS Lothian and 13% of teams in NHS Tayside did not receive an EEI report this year.
- Across the Geographic Boards the proportion of small teams varies from 10% in NHS Western Isles to 27% in NHS Orkney. The proportion of small teams receiving a report varies from 35% in NHS Forth Valley to 62% in NHS Fife.
The following table shows the percentage of Teams in each Board that achieve each EEI score.
|
EEI Score Percentage of Teams |
Strive & Celebrate (67-100) |
Monitor to Further Improve (51-66) |
Improve to Monitor (34-50) |
Focus to Improve (0-33) |
No Report |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Health and Social Care |
79% |
10% |
1% |
<1% |
10% |
|
National Boards (Patient-facing) |
|||||
|
NHS Golden Jubilee |
70% |
15% |
4% |
0% |
11% |
|
NHS 24 |
88% |
6% |
1% |
0% |
6% |
|
Scottish Ambulance Service |
53% |
35% |
4% |
0% |
8% |
|
The State Hospital |
82% |
11% |
0% |
0% |
8% |
|
National Boards (Support) |
|||||
|
Healthcare Improvement Scotland |
86% |
7% |
0% |
0% |
7% |
|
NHS Education for Scotland |
90% |
2% |
0% |
0% |
7% |
|
NHS National Services Scotland |
90% |
6% |
1% |
0% |
4% |
|
Public Health Scotland |
96% |
1% |
0% |
0% |
2% |
|
Geographic Boards |
|||||
|
NHS Ayrshire & Arran |
78% |
10% |
1% |
<1% |
12% |
|
NHS Borders |
77% |
11% |
1% |
0% |
11% |
|
NHS Dumfries & Galloway |
80% |
12% |
2% |
<1% |
7% |
|
NHS Fife |
79% |
11% |
1% |
0% |
9% |
|
NHS Forth Valley |
83% |
10% |
1% |
<1% |
6% |
|
NHS Grampian |
82% |
9% |
1% |
<1% |
8% |
|
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde |
78% |
11% |
1% |
<1% |
10% |
|
NHS Highland |
77% |
10% |
1% |
<1% |
11% |
|
NHS Lanarkshire |
84% |
9% |
1% |
<1% |
6% |
|
NHS Lothian |
77% |
7% |
1% |
0% |
15% |
|
NHS Orkney |
78% |
12% |
0% |
0% |
10% |
|
NHS Shetland |
78% |
11% |
0% |
0% |
10% |
|
NHS Tayside |
75% |
10% |
2% |
<1% |
13% |
|
NHS Western Isles |
78% |
15% |
1% |
0% |
5% |
To view this table in its original format please see the PDF.
Across the Boards, between 70% and 90% of teams score typically 67 or above (Strive and Celebrate).
The exceptions to this are Scottish Ambulance Service where 53% of teams score in this range, and Public Health Scotland, where 96% of teams score 67 or above.
Contact
Email: nationalimatterteam@gov.scot