• The survey was open between 20 December 2019 and 9 January 2020 and was sent to all trust executive directors.

  • Despite being open over the Christmas break the survey received a very strong response, with 437 individuals submitting a response. These came from approximately 188 trusts (84% of all trusts). Given the confidential nature of the information requested, respondents were not asked to identify themselves or their trust in the survey. Therefore, in estimating the total number of trusts represented in the results we cannot take into account responses from directors who have roles in more than one trust, or the small number of respondents who may have used the generic survey link after not being included in the original distribution.

  • The highest number of responses came from those in HR, workforce and organisational development roles (18%), with chief executives (17%) and those in finance and commercial roles (16%) also well represented.

  • All trust types including ambulance, community, mental health and acute trusts, and all regions are covered in the survey, and response rates by these attributes are broadly in line with the wider proportions throughout the country.