Technical annex Download

Contents

1 Introduction

This technical annex provides details of the 2025 GP Patient Survey (GPPS) conducted by Ipsos. The survey was undertaken on behalf of NHS England.

This is the nineteenth year that the GPPS has been conducted in England. Between 2011 and 2016 the survey took place twice a year, having previously been conducted on a quarterly basis (April 2009 - March 2011) and annually (January 2007 - March 2009). In 2017, the survey returned to an annual format.

Patients are randomly selected from all GP practices in England, using the Personal Demographics Service (PDS). In total, 2.72 million patients aged 16 or over were invited to take part. The survey uses an ‘online first’ approach, using a sequential push-to-web methodology which only offers a paper questionnaire in the final mailing. In January 2025, paper letters invited patients to take part in the survey online. This was followed by a combination of SMS and e-letter reminders (to those with a valid mobile phone number and paper reminders to others). A final paper reminder, including a copy of the questionnaire, was sent out six weeks after the initial mailing to those who had not yet taken part online. During fieldwork the decision was taken to add an extra SMS to the contact strategy to help boost response rates. The complete contact strategy and fieldwork dates are reported in Chapter 5: Data collection.

The 2024 survey was the start of a new time series for GPPS. It was therefore important that questionnaire changes were kept to a minimum for the 2025 survey to ensure that results could be compared across 2024 and 2025. However, as in every year, the questionnaire content was reviewed to ensure it reflects the primary care context and priorities. This led to some very minor changes. In addition to the core (online and paper) questionnaire, a small number of additional questions were added to the online version of the survey. More information on the questionnaire design process is available in Chapter 2: Questionnaire and material design.

Ipsos and NHS England have also trialled several experiments on a sub-sample of survey respondents this year. These experiments tested contacting people in different ways including replacing the final paper mailing with an e-letter as well as using email and branded messaging to improve data quality and save costs.

Copies of the questionnaire and materials sent in 2025 are available on the website.

1.1 Survey governance


Since February 2014, the governance of the survey has involved input from a steering group, which meets regularly to provide a forum in which GPPS stakeholders can be kept informed of survey progress. The group provide advice to the research team and debate key issues such as questionnaire content, changes to the sampling strategy and analysis and reporting; review the findings of the survey as they emerge; consider the need for any further research and analysis; and raise any questions about GPPS with NHS England and Ipsos.

In addition to NHS England and Ipsos, the group consists of representatives from a range of stakeholders, including the following:
  • Bristish Medical Association.
  • Care Quality Commission.
  • Integrated Care systems (ICS) representatives.
  • Department of Health and Social Care.
  • Healthwatch England.
  • GP membership.
  • Patient Participation Group (PPG) representative.
  • Patient representatives.
  • Health and social care charities representative.
  • Primary Care Network (PCN) professional representative.
  • Royal College of General Practitioners.
  • National Voices.