The state of health and social care in 2026

Report - 17 March 2026

What does care truly feel like for those receiving it? We aim to answer this, in this new report produced by Healthwatch England

The NHS is saturated with statistics that aim to tell government, managers and clinicians how services are performing. Yet these only tell part of the story.


This new report produced by Healthwatch England, aims to show what care feels like for the people using it, and make recommendations to fix what isn’t working. 

With Healthwatch due to close, it’s essential that those who take over our work continue to value the public's voice and act on the issues they raise.


The report draws on the 390,000 experiences heard between October 2023 and September 2025. We combine these with external data to explore ten areas of care that people talk to us about the most. And while each one faces individual issues, key themes emerge over and over.
 

Downloads

The Public's Perspective - The State of Patient Experience
Download (PDF 12.17 MB)

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