Public attitudes to the NHS and social care

About the study

This report, published by The King's Fund and Nuffield Trust, draws upon responses to the latest British Social Attitudes survey to explore public satisfaction with the NHS and social care.

The British Social Attitudes survey is one of NatCen’s flagship studies. It has been running for over 40 years, and the question on levels of satisfaction with the NHS has been asked consistently since 1984. 

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.

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.

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%)

Methodology

The British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey selected a random sample of addresses from the PostCode Address File (PAF). Selected addresses were sent a letter inviting up to two adults aged 16 or over to take part in an online survey. A telephone option was provided for those either unable or unwilling to take part online. 

The headline NHS and social care satisfaction questions have a sample size of 3,464 adults (18+) in Great Britain, and the other questions have a sample size of 1,460. Fieldwork was conducted between 26 August and 6 October.

The BSA survey on health and care services is co-funded by the Nuffield Trust and the King’s Fund.