The NHS started rolling out invitations this month for its latest round of feedback on children's hospital care. Families of youngsters treated as inpatients or day cases between March and May face a choice: fill in the form or let another opportunity to document systemic strain pass unrecorded.
The national Children and Young People's Patient Experience Survey, run by the Care Quality Commission and Picker, targets those up to age 15. Its stated aim is to capture views on the quality of care and treatment received. Fieldwork continues until October, with results due in March 2027.
Participation remains voluntary and confidential. Responses will not reach hospital staff. Officials stress that taking part will not affect future treatment. Invitations arrive by letter, with options for online or paper completion and possible text reminders. The exercise carries section 251 support under the NHS Act 2006 to permit use of contact details.
Feedback that rarely shifts the fundamentals
Surveys of this type deliver granular insight. They record whether children felt involved in decisions or whether privacy was respected. Yet previous cycles have also exposed persistent gaps: failure to account for existing needs, inadequate help while waiting. These are not minor niggles. For families already navigating an overstretched system they compound anxiety and delay recovery.
Frontline clinicians see the gap between reported experience and daily reality. Tritania Chasiya, Head of Nursing for Family Health at University Hospitals of Northamptonshire, said:
We are always looking to provide the best care possible for our patients. Surveys like this help us to learn what we do well and the areas that we could improve to make our services better for those who need them. I would ask that anyone who receives the invitation or would like to take part please takes the opportunity to do so and provide this valuable feedback to us.
Her call for participation is sincere. Yet it sits within a public monopoly that has struggled for years to convert feedback into structural reform. Long waiting lists, variable staffing and regional disparities continue to define the experience for too many children. Patient surveys risk becoming bureaucratic comfort rather than catalysts for change.
