Methodology

1. Provider census

The roster is a snapshot of NHS trusts and foundation trusts in England, NHS boards in Scotland, local health boards and NHS trusts in Wales, and Health and Social Care Trusts in Northern Ireland.

Organisation names and official codes come from published national lists. The snapshot date is 23 August 2026. Respondents choose one organisation. The survey does not invent a UK-wide employer list of its own.

2. Who can respond

Anyone with direct knowledge of how the organisation deploys physician associates may respond. That includes doctors, nurses and allied health professionals, managers and governance leads, Freedom to Speak Up guardians, and union or professional representatives.

Respondents select their role category and attest that they have direct knowledge. Individual answers may still be marked as uncertain.

3. Named and unnamed responses

Unnamed mode does not collect a name, email address or role title. The response can still be attributed to the organisation if the respondent permits it.

Named mode collects a work email, name and role title. DAUK may ask a follow-up question or offer a right of reply if the respondent gives permission. Named respondents receive a management code and can request a correction or withdrawal before analysis is locked. Unnamed responses cannot be managed through the public form.

4. Questions and branching

Every respondent is asked whether the organisation employs physician associates. If the answer is no or not known, later employment questions are not shown and must not be submitted.

Some questions test national implementation expectations in England, recommendations accepted in principle in Wales, and local adoption in Scotland and Northern Ireland. The form states that difference next to the question. It does not treat an NHS England document as if it bound another nation.

5. Evidence basis

Implementation answers use five statuses. They are fully in place, partly in place, not in place, not known and not applicable. An answer of Not applicable needs a reason.

The respondent records the main basis for each answer as direct knowledge, a document they have seen, information from someone else or unknown.

6. Review, contradictions and right of reply

The review step shows every stored answer and lets the respondent change a section before submit. DAUK may later compare two responses about the same organisation. Contradictions are retained, not silently resolved.

Before publishing a finding attributed to an organisation, DAUK will send the factual claim to the provider and allow 14 calendar days for correction or evidence. The record will show response received, correction, no response and the final publication decision.

7. Verification

Reviewers assign one of five evidence tiers: self-report, public document, named confirmation, provider response, or independently corroborated. A larger number of respondents does not by itself decide which account is correct.

The question pages do not collect files or free-text evidence. At final review, a respondent may optionally upload up to three files that support the response as a whole.

8. Pilot, fieldwork and reporting

Before collection opens, 8 to 12 people across the four nations and relevant clinical, supervisory, governance, management and Freedom to Speak Up roles will test how they understand the questions. The final instrument receives a new version and is then frozen.

The fieldwork plan uses advance notice seven days before launch, reminders 14 and 28 days after launch, a final reminder at day 42 and close at day 49. Reporting will show provider coverage, response counts, named and unnamed split, evidence rate, missing answers, exclusions and verification tiers.

Results are descriptive. The report will give numerators and denominators and will not claim a margin of error for voluntary responses or workforce prevalence. Aggregate respondent cells below five are suppressed, while a reviewed status for a named provider may be published because the provider is the stated unit of analysis.

9. Limits

This voluntary survey cannot prove that a policy is followed on every shift. Headcount and full-time equivalent figures may be estimates.

Findings will be reported by organisation and nation only where the number and quality of responses support that. Absence of a response is not evidence that a control is missing.