Public satisfaction with the NHS and social care in 2025: Results from the British Social Attitudes survey (25 March 2026)

Summary

The NHS has seen a 6 percentage point increase in public satisfaction, the first rise since 2019, according to the latest findings from the gold-standard survey of public attitudes to the NHS and social care, analysed by the Nuffield Trust and The King’s Fund and surveyed by NatCen.

Content

Key findings

Satisfaction with the NHS

• In 2025, 26% of British adults were ‘very’ or ‘quite’ satisfied with the way in which the NHS runs – a statistically significant 6 percentage point increase from 2024.
• Around half of respondents (51%) were dissatisfied with the NHS in 2025, a statistically significant fall of 8 percentage points compared to 2024 when it was 59%.
• This is the first increase in satisfaction since 2019, and the largest fall in dissatisfaction in more than 25 years.
• People under 35 (20%), supporters of Reform (20%) and people in Wales (18%) were significantly less satisfied with the NHS than the survey average.
• Despite the increase in satisfaction only 16% of respondents thought the standard of NHS care would improve in the next 5 years compared to 53% who said they expected care to get worse.

Satisfaction with different NHS services

• Satisfaction with GP services was 35% and dissatisfaction was 45%. Neither was a statistically significant change on the previous year.
• Just over 1 in 5 respondents (22%) said they were satisfied with NHS dentistry, with 54% saying they were dissatisfied. These are similar results to the previous year.
• 22% of respondents said they were satisfied with A&E services. Dissatisfaction was 53%. In 2024, 19% said they were satisfied with A&E services, although the change is not statistically significant.
• 37% of respondents were satisfied with inpatient and outpatient hospital care, an increase of 5 percentage points since 2024, although not statistically significant. 29% were dissatisfied – no change on last year.

Attitudes to NHS standards, access and staffing

• Half of respondents (50%) were satisfied with the quality of NHS care in 2025, and 28% were dissatisfied. There was no statistically significant change since 2024.
• Only a minority of respondents were satisfied with waiting times for GP appointments (27%), hospital appointments (16%) and in A&E (14%). There were no statistically significant changes compared to last year.
• Only 12% agreed that ‘there are enough staff in the NHS these days’. 71% disagreed.
• There was no significant change compared to 2024.

Attitudes to NHS financing and efficiency

• 9% of respondents said that the government spent too much or far too much money on the NHS, 22% said that it spent about the right amount and 66% said that it spent too little or far too little. There were no statistically significant changes compared to 2024.
• Only 13% of respondents agreed that the NHS spends the money it has efficiently. 55% disagreed with this statement. There was no change compared to 2024.
• When asked about government choices on tax and spending on the NHS, the public remain closely divided between raising taxes and spending more on the NHS (45%) and keeping taxation and spending at the same level (43%). Only 8% would choose to cut taxes and spend less on the NHS. There was no statistically significant change since 2024.
• Supporters of the Green party (70%) and the Labour party (57%) were significantly more likely to support higher taxes and higher NHS spending than supporters of Reform (32%) and the Conservative party (30%).

NHS priorities and principles

• On being asked what the top three most important priorities for the NHS should be, both making it easier to get a GP appointment and improving A&E waiting times were selected as top priorities by 46% of respondents, followed by 45% for waiting times for planned operations and 43% for increasing the number of NHS staff.
• People aged 18–64 were more likely than those aged 65 and over to prioritise A&E waiting times (48% vs 38%) and increasing NHS staff (46% vs 35%) whereas those aged 65 and over prioritised prevention and staying healthy (48% vs 36%).
• As in previous years, a large majority of respondents agreed that the founding principles of the NHS should ‘definitely’ or ‘probably’ apply in 2025: that the NHS should be free of charge when you need to use it (89%), the NHS should primarily be funded through taxes (81%) and the NHS should be available to everyone (74%).
• There has been some decrease across the past five years in the proportion who think these principles should ‘definitely’ or ‘probably’ apply since the questions were first asked in 2021. The greatest decrease over time has been support for the principle that ‘the NHS should be available to everyone’.
• Support for the principle that the NHS should be available to everyone varied significantly by supporters of different political parties, with 68% of Labour supporters agreeing this principle should ‘definitely’ apply compared to 45% of Conservative supporters and 30% of Reform supporters.

Social care

• In 2025, 14% of respondents said they were satisfied with social care. 49% were dissatisfied with social care – a statistically significant decrease from 2024 when this figure was 53%.
• The top three priorities for social care were helping people stay independent at home for as long as possible (46%), making social care more affordable to those who need it (45%) and improving the quality of social care services (44%).
• When asked about government choices on tax and spending on social care, 51% said the government should keep taxes and spending on social care at the same level as now. 38% said the government should increase taxes and spend more on social care. 6% said the government should reduce taxes and spend less on social care.
• Support for increasing taxes and spending more on social care was lower than for the NHS – it was 45% for the NHS. The difference was statistically significant.