Choice Review Survey

According to a recent Ipsos survey, eight in ten people (81%) say having a choice in public services is important, in particular for parents or guardians who had to choose a school in the last two years (94%). Less than half (46%) of service users felt they were given a choice of providers to select from. In fact, most hospital (63%) and social care users (65%) do not feel they had a choice of provider. Nevertheless, the vast majority of service users (87%) are happy with the provider they ended up using - including 8 in 10 (80%) of those who say they did not have a choice of service at all. Overall, most people who feel they had a choice in service provider are happy with the process. However, a core of around one in three (36%) still experienced some sort of problem or difficulty when considering their choices, or expressed concern with the range of choice.

Other findings:

• Users of social care services (56%) and those who have recently chosen a school (43%) who are more likely than hospital users (32%) or those who have recently changed GP (29%) to have expressed a problem, difficulty or concern with the process of choosing.
• Perceptions of zero choice are higher among those from social classes C2DE, and have household incomes of less than £21,000 per annum. A notable 7 in 10 people (70%) with no access to the internet say they had no choice compared to 49% of those with internet access.
• By far, the main consideration when selecting a service is location (55%) or ease of access (10%). Quality and reputation - both mentioned by 15% - rank joint second as key considerations but behind location by some way.
• Location (and attendant problems such as the cost of travel) also appears to be the main barrier to choice, mentioned by one in five (22%) of those who say they had difficulties or problems choosing or had no real choice.

Technical note The survey data was used to inform an independent review to the barrier of choice conducted by David Boyle for the Open Public Services Programme (Cabinet Office). The data in the Ipsos report, which is quoted extensively in the Review report is based on 2,573 telephone interviews conducted with adults aged 18+ across England. The interviews took place over three waves of an omnibus survey (29 November – 2 December, 7-9 December, 14-16 December 2012). Data have been weighted to match the profile of the population. All respondents were asked a series of four screener questions to establish whether they had recent experience (in the last two years) of:

• Registering a child at a school
• Registering with a GP surgery
• Being a patient at a hospital (excluding A&E), or
• Being a user of or carer of someone that uses social care services.