Notes to editors
Public satisfaction with the NHS and its services is published by The King’s Fund on 12 June 2012. For further information, please contact the Fund’s Press and Public Affairs team on 020 7307 2585 (if calling out of hours, please ring 07584 146035).
The British Social Attitudes Survey is conducted by NatCen Social Research, Britain’s largest social research organisation. It has been conducted every year since 1983 with the exception of 1988 and 1992. The 2011 survey was undertaken between 4 July and 10 November. It consisted of 3,311 interviews, conducted face-to-face with a representative random sample of adults. The sample size for the health questions was 1,096, giving a margin of error of +/- 3 to 5 per cent, compared to +/- 1 to 2 per cent for the larger sample size.
The King’s Fund is sponsoring the health questions in the survey for the next three years. As well as the questions on satisfaction with the NHS and individual services, the survey included a number of other health questions - the findings from these will be published by NatCen Social Research with the rest of the survey in September this year.
The main question asked was ‘All in all, how satisfied or dissatisfied would you say you are with the way in which the National Health Service runs nowadays?’ Satisfaction as reported here aggregates those who answer ‘very’ and ‘quite’ satisfied. It includes those who have had recent contact with the NHS and those who have not.
The King’s Fund is a charity that seeks to understand how the health system in England can be improved. Using that insight, we help shape policy, transform services and bring about behaviour change. Our work includes research, analysis, leadership development and service improvement. We also offer a wide range of resources to help everyone working in health to share knowledge, learning and ideas.
At NatCen Social Research we believe that social research has the power to make life better. By really understanding the complexity of people’s lives and what they think about the issues that affect them, we give the public a powerful and influential role in shaping services that can make a difference to everyone. And as an independent, not for profit organization we’re able to focus our time and energy on meeting our clients’ needs and delivering social research that works for society. Find out about the work we do by visiting the NatCen website.