National Quarterly Pulse Survey (NQPS)
The primary purpose of the National Quarterly Pulse Survey (NQPS) is to provide an additional and more frequent opportunity to hear from staff to help understand employee experience, and to support decision making and actions for improvement with the ambition of making the NHS the best place to work.
Frequency: Quarterly - excluding quarter 3
Background to the collection
The primary purpose of the National Quarterly Pulse Survey (NQPS) is to provide a consistent and standardised approach to listening to staff at more regular intervals, and to support employee listening strategy in the NHS. It provides frequent opportunities to hear from staff to help understand employee experience and employee engagement. The aim is to support decision making and actions for improvement at a national, regional, system and local level.
Organisations are required to collect data in Quarter 1, 2 and 4. There is no requirement to collect National Quarterly Pulse Survey data during Quarter 3 (October), when the NHS Staff Survey is undertaken. For the remaining 3 quarters, during the months of April, July and January, each trust will need to ask all staff the 9 engagement theme questions from the annual NHS Staff Survey.
Launch and submission dates
| Quarter | Data collection | Data reporting period | Data submission (start date) | Data submission (deadline) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q4 2024/25 | 1 to 31 January 2025 | February 2025 | 1 February 2025 | 10 February 2025 at 11:59pm |
| Q1 2025/26 | 1 to 30 April 2025 | May 2025 | 1 May 2025 | 9 May 2025 at 11:59pm |
| Q2 2025/26 | 1 to 31 July 2025 | August 2025 | 1 August 2025 | 8 August 2025 at 11.59pm |
| Q4 2025/26 | 1 to 31 January 2026 | February 2026 | 1 February 2026 | 9 February 2026 at 11:59pm |
Last edited: 16 June 2025 10:46 am