Children and young people's survey 2024

Page last updated: 29 May 2025

What we found

Most children, young people and their parents and carers reported positive experiences about care overall. This included being involved in decisions about care and treatment, staff providing information that parents and carers can understand, and staff giving children and young people enough privacy. Results were less positive in some areas, including parents and carers’ concerns being taken seriously, children and young people’s existing needs being taken into account and getting help while waiting in hospital.

Positive findings

Overall experience

More than 7 in 10 (73%) children and young people aged 8 to 15 said that they were ‘very well’ looked after in hospital.

Involving children and parents in decisions

Eight in 10 (79%) children aged 8 to 11 years were involved in decisions about their care and treatment.
Nearly 9 in 10 (87%) young people aged 12 to 15 years were involved in decisions about their care and treatment as much as they wanted to be.
More than 9 in 10 (92%) parents and carers of children aged 0 to 15 years said they were involved as much as they wanted to be.

Giving information parents can understand

Eight in 10 (81%) parents and carers said staff had ‘definitely’ given them information about their child’s care and treatment in a way they could understand.
Among parents who received written information about caring for their child to take home with them, 78% of parents and carers understood this ‘very well’.

Privacy during children and young people’s care and treatment

More than 8 in 10 (83%) children and young people aged 8 to 15 years and parents and carers of children aged 0 to 7 years said they or their child were ‘always’ given enough privacy when receiving care and treatment.

Knowing who to contact after leaving hospital

Most parents and carers (90%) of children aged 0 to 7 years said staff told them who to contact if they were worried about their child when they got home.
Nearly 9 in 10 (88%) children and young people aged 8 to 15 years said they were told who to talk to if they were worried about anything when they got home (53% were told directly and 35% said their parent or carer was told).

Ability of parents and carers to be with their child

Nearly all parents or carers (95%) said they were ‘always’ able to be with their child as much as they wanted.

Parents being treated with dignity and respect

Three-quarters (74%) of parents and carers of children aged 0 to 15 years said staff ‘always’ treated them with dignity and respect.

Key areas for improvement

Responding to concerns raised by parents and carers

Six in 10 (59%) parents and carers raised a concern about their child’s care or treatment, but only 62% of them said their concerns were ‘definitely’ taken seriously.

Accounting for children’s existing individual needs

A third (32%) of parents and carers said staff took their child’s existing needs (such as language support or physical adaptations) into account ‘to some extent’ (24%) or not at all (8%).

Help while waiting in hospital

Most children and young people (82%) spent time in a waiting area in hospital. Of these, 30% were ‘sometimes’ able to get help, 7% were not able to get help.

Awareness of medical history

Four in 10 (40%) parents and carers said staff did not always seem to be aware of their child’s medical history.

Listening to children and young people’s fears and worries

Four in 10 (41%) parents and carers of children aged 0 to 7 years said staff did not always listen to their child’s fears and worries.
While this was lower among older age groups, 30% of children and young people aged 8 to 15 years said staff did not always listen to their fears and worries.

Age appropriateness of the ward

Fifty-seven per cent children and young people aged 8 to 15 years said the ward was ‘very’ suitable for their age.
Thirty-five per cent of children and young people aged 8 to 15 years said they were not around people their own age on the ward.

How experience varies for different groups of people

Children admitted in an emergency had worse experiences in almost every area of care, compared to children admitted for planned treatment.

Children and young people with a mental health condition, autistic children and young people, and disabled children and young people had poorer experiences across several areas of care.

Experiences were also worse among younger children aged 0 to 7 years, better among children aged 8 to 11 years, and mixed among young people aged 12 to 15 years.

Results for NHS trusts

A-Z list of survey results by NHS trust

Each trust has been provided with a benchmark report, which provides:

details of the survey methodology
headline results
the trust score for each evaluative question, and
banding for how a trust score compares with all other trusts.

View these reports on the NHS surveys website.

Reports

Open data

Supporting information

How will results be used?

We will use the results from the survey to build an understanding of the risk and quality of services and those who organise care across an area. Where survey findings provide evidence of a change to the level of risk or quality in a service, provider or system, we use the results alongside other sources of people’s experience data to inform targeted assessment activities.

Other organisations

NHS trusts

Trusts, and those who commission services, use the results to identify and make the changes they need to improve the experience of people who use their services.

NHS England and the Department for Health and Social Care

Information collected nationally in a consistent way is essential to support public and Parliamentary accountability. The results are used by NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care for performance assessment, improvement and regulatory purposes.