About the Under 16 Cancer Patient Experience Survey
The Under 16 Cancer Patient Experience Survey is a national survey that has run annually since 2020, to understand children’s tumour and cancer care. The survey captures the experiences of children who were aged over 8 and under 16 at the start of the fieldwork period, and the parents and carers of children who were aged under 16 at the time of their care.
The survey has been designed to measure patient experiences of cancer care across England to give NHS organisations valuable insights into their performance and the experiences of their patients. Results from the survey are used by providers to improve the experience of cancer patients at a national and local level. The survey is run by Picker on behalf of NHS England.
This dashboard allows you to explore results from the survey. For more information about the survey, please visit the survey website.
Using this dashboard
Results are organised by reporting level. The navigation menu on the left allows you to select results at a national or PTC level.
On each page, there are a set of filters allowing you to view the results of interest to you. The results can be filtered by survey year and organisation, and can be broken down by patient demographics.
You can choose whether to view scores (summary positive scores) or frequencies (which show each response option for each question). See 'How are questions scored?' below for more information on the scoring used for the survey.
Several features are included on each page within the dashboard:
- Charts and tables: in most cases, results are presented in charts and tables. Charts typically take the form of bar or line charts. These are not included in cases where it is too complex to visualise the data, for example when splitting results by two breakdowns. The content of charts and tables can be controlled via the dropdown menus directly above them. Presented data for a given category can be hidden by clicking the label in the legends, and reshown by clicking it again or clicking the 'Reset Legend' button. The dropdowns vary by page. Descriptions of each are included in the relevant sections of this guide.
- 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.
- Suppression: In some cases, data is “suppressed” - removing a value and replacing it with a symbol. Suppression occurs 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. More information on suppression can be found below under 'Why is data suppressed and how does it work?'.
More detail about what is included on each page is available below.
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, 2022 and 2023 results.
You can also look at results for different sub-groups. This can be for one year only or for comparisons between 2021, 2022 and 2023.
You can view one sub-group at a time (for example results by sex registered at birth) by using the 'Choose your first breakdown' drop-down. Or you can look at two sub-groups at a time (for example results by deprivation (IMD quintile) and ethnic group) by adding a sub-group from the 'Choose your second breakdown' drop-down.
Please note that some sub-groups have small base sizes, so caution should be taken when interpreting the results.
Use this page to view year on year comparisons and sub-group breakdowns at individual Principal Treatment Centres (PTCs).
The 'Organisation' drop-down allows you to select the Principal Treatment Centre of interest.
By using the 'Year' drop-down you can see results for one year only or you can explore comparisons between the 2021, 2022 and 2023 results for the selected PTC.
You can also look at results for sub-groups. You can view one sub-group at a time (for example results by long term condition) by using the 'Choose your first breakdown' drop-down.
Please note that some sub-groups have small base sizes, so caution should be taken when interpreting the results.
Understanding the survey results
A score has been created for questions that address performance in relation to patient experience. This applies to most survey questions, excluding filter questions and demographic questions such as sex registered at birth or ethnic group. Response options that are not scored (for example, “don’t know/can’t remember”) or not applicable, are removed before the score is calculated.
All scores are presented as the percentage of positive responses out of all scored responses. For X59 “Overall, please rate your child's cancer or tumour care from 0 (very poor) to 10 (very good)”, we also report X59 mean alongside the score, as the average of respondents’ overall rating of care on a scale of 0-10.
For further information on how questions are scored please see the Technical Appendix.
Assuming the sample is representative of the organisation, confidence intervals are a method of describing the uncertainty around results. The most common methodology, which was used here, is to produce and report 95 percent confidence intervals around the results.
At the 95 percent confidence level, the confidence intervals are expected to contain the true result 95 percent of the time (i.e. out of 100 such intervals, 95 will include the true figure), based on the sample of information we have.
Where confidence intervals overlap, and the comparison is valid, there is not enough statistical evidence to conclude whether there is a “true” difference between the two.
For further information regarding confidence intervals please refer to the Technical Appendix.
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.
Where the total number of responses to a question is less than 10, data for the question has been suppressed.
Where the data is semi-identifiable (e.g. a demographic), and there are 5 or fewer respondents in a particular category, the data has been suppressed. In instances where data from only one group has been suppressed, the data from the next lowest group has also been suppressed. This is to prevent back calculation from the total number of responses.
For further information on suppression please refer to the Technical Appendix.