About the National Cancer Patient Experience Survey
The National Cancer Patient Experience Survey collects feedback from cancer patients about the care they have received. Results from the survey are used to improve the quality of cancer services in the NHS.
Using this dashboard
This dashboard allows you to explore results from the survey. The navigation menu on the left allows you to select results at national, Cancer Alliance, integrated care board, NHS trust, or site level.
On each page you can filter the results by organisation, survey question, survey year, and demographics (including cancer type or tumour group).
You can choose whether to view the results as 'scores' (summary positive scores calculated only for evaluative questions) or 'frequencies' (response options for each question). See 'How are questions scored?' below for more information.
Watch the demo video below to learn how to navigate the dashboard, explore its key features, and get the most value from your results.
Several features are included on each page within the dashboard:
- Charts and tables: In most cases, results are presented in charts and tables. Charts are not included in cases where it is too complex to visualise the data, for example when splitting frequencies by two breakdowns. The content of charts and tables can be controlled via the dropdown menus directly above them. Data can be hidden by clicking the label in the legends and reshown by clicking it again or clicking the 'Reset Legend' button.
- Searching tables: Tables can be searched and filtered using the search box directly above the table.
- Downloading data from tables: Data from the tables can be copied to your computer's clipboard or downloaded as a CSV or Excel file for further use. This can be done via the buttons directly above the table.
- Downloading data from charts: Data from the charts can be downloaded via clicking on the "burger" icon in the top right-hand corner of the charts. This provides the option to download the chart in a variety of file formats, print it, or view it in full screen.
Survey pages
On this page are national results.
By using the 'Year' drop-down you can choose to see results for one year only or you can explore comparisons between the 2021 and 2025 results.
When comparisons between years are shown, patients residing outside England are not included. This is because the statistical significance tests use deprivation data, which is not comparable between England and other UK nations.
You can also look at results for different subgroups. This can be for one year only or for comparisons between years.
You can view one subgroup at a time (for example results by age) by using the 'Choose your first breakdown' drop-down. Or you can look at two subgroups at a time (for example results by age and ethnicity) by adding a subgroup from the 'Choose your second breakdown' drop-down.
Please note that some subgroups have small base sizes, so caution should be taken when interpreting the results.
Use this page to view year on year comparisons and subgroup breakdowns at an individual organisation level.
Unadjusted results are presented as no comparison with other organisations is taking place.
The 'Organisation' drop-down allows you to select the organisation of interest.
By using the 'Year' drop-down you can see results for one year only or you can explore comparisons between 2021 and 2025 results for the selected organisation.
You can also look at results for subgroups. You can view one subgroup at a time (for example results by age) by using the 'Choose your first breakdown' drop-down.
Please note that some subgroups have small base sizes, so caution should be taken when interpreting the results.
Use these pages for comparisons between respective organisations. These pages are for 2025 results only.
The 'Organisation' drop-down allows you to select one or more organisations of interest.
The data on this page uses adjusted scores and displays the 95% confidence interval. The adjusted scores enable more accurate comparisons between the scores of different organisations as they consider the different patient profiles that organisations have.
Site-level results are shown for the selected trust. To view a specific site, select the trust using the drop-down filter, the sites that are mapped to this trust will appear. If a known site does not appear, it may be that there were no respondents.
Please note that site level scores are not case-mix adjusted and so comparisons between sites should be made with caution. Sub-group breakdowns are not available for site level results.
Understanding the survey results
Only evaluative questions in the questionnaire are scored. These are the questions that address the quality of the patient experience. The score shows the percentage of respondents who gave the most favourable response.
For each evaluative question, responses are identified as positive, negative, or neutral. Scores are calculated by dividing the number of positive responses by the total number of positive and negative responses. Neutral scores (e.g., 'Don't know / can't remember') are excluded.
Some questions are descriptive or used for routing. These questions are not scored.
Adjusted scores allow for fair comparisons between organisations by accounting for differences in patient populations. These are adjusted for based on five sub-groups: sample age group, 'which of the following best describes you?', self-reported ethnicity, cancer type, and deprivation (IMD quintile).
Adjusted data, together with expected ranges, should be used to understand whether an organisations results are significantly higher or lower than national results taking account of their patient population.
Unadjusted scores reflect patients raw responses and are useful for understanding local context and tracking trends over time. Therefore, they should not be used when making comparisons.
Data is suppressed for two reasons: to ensure unreliable results based on very small numbers of respondents are not released, and to prevent individuals being identifiable in the data.
In cases where a result is based on fewer than 10 responses, the result has been suppressed. For example, where fewer than 10 people answered a question from a particular organisation, the results are not shown for that question for that organisation.
For organisations with an eligible population of 1,000 or fewer, data relating to the respondent and their condition has been suppressed where 5 people or fewer were in a particular category. In instances where only one has been suppressed, the next lowest category has been suppressed to prevent back calculation from the total number of responses. For a full list of the data which this applies to, please see the Technical Document on the latest results page.
Survey results are estimates based on responses, not exact values. Confidence intervals describe the uncertainty around these estimates.
We report 95% confidence intervals around some results. This means that if the survey were repeated 100 times, we would expect the 'true' score to fall within the interval in 95 of those cases.
Wider confidence intervals indicate greater uncertainty. If confidence intervals overlap for two different scores, it means we cannot be certain whether there is a difference between them.
The expected range shows where an organisation's score would typically fall if its performance were similar to most organisations, taking into account sample size. This allows for smaller sample sizes that may give a misleading view.
Organisations with scores outside this range are flagged as outliers, either performing better or worse than expected. This helps identify organisations with notably different performance.
This approach is designed to help understand the performance of individual organisations and identify areas for improvement. A full explanation of the methodology can be found in the Technical Document on the latest results page.
Trust results are derived using the NHS trust where each patient received cancer related treatment. Trust results are presented at the ‘National’ level, meaning results include patients with addresses in England and elsewhere in the UK. Some patients may receive care at a trust which is not near to where they live.
Alliance and ICB results are derived using a patients home postcode, reflecting the experience of people living in that area rather than where they were treated. This mapping is achieved using lookup files released by the Office for National Statistics. Alliance and ICB results are therefore presented at the ‘England’ level and exclude other UK postcodes.