Public perceptions of health and social care  The Health Foundation’s programme of UK-wide public polling delivered in partnership with Ipsos

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused major shifts in public attitudes towards health, the NHS and social care. With services still experiencing substantial pressure from the virus itself and related disruption, it’s important to understand how people perceive the current state of care and priorities for the future. 

The Health Foundation has partnered with Ipsos to deliver a programme of research into public perceptions and expectations of health and social care over the next two years. Every 6 months, we will poll a representative sample of the UK public using the UK KnowledgePanel – Ipsos’ random probability online panel – building on our previous body of polling work. 

Alongside each poll we will publish an expectations tracker, that will monitor changing public perceptions of the standards of NHS and social care services every 6 months. To understand what may be driving expectations, our tracker asks about aspects of NHS performance that are particularly important to the public: quality of care; access to care; and staffing.