PIF’s latest Health and Digital Literacy report launches
- Area of Work: The ALLIANCE
- Type: News Item
- Published: 19th May 2026
The results of PIF’s survey give some cause for optimism – but equal cause for concern.
Patient Information Forum’s Health and Digital Literacy report outlines the results of our 2025/6 survey of health organisations. It sets out progress on the crucial areas of health literacy and digital inclusion since the last survey in 2022/3.
Here are some of the key findings:
- 4 in 10 organisations now have a health literacy policy in place or in development, compared to 3 in 10 in 2022/23.
- This is significant progress since 2019 when the number of organisations with a policy stood at just 13%.
- Progress is slower in the NHS where the total stands at 30% compared to 47% in the charity sector.
- Only 7 in 10 organisations are assessing the equalities impact of digital services – this is a drop from 8 in 10 in 2022/23.
- This is an area where the NHS risks lagging behind: 80% of charities considered the equalities impact of digital services compared to 48% of NHS organisations.
- And confidence in a digital-first NHS as a force for inclusion is low, with only 1 in 3 expressing confidence.
The report makes a series of recommendations to improve health literacy and digital inclusion, and an executive summary is available to view on the PIF website. For more information, visit: https://pifonline.org.uk/resources/health-and-digital-literacy-survey-202526/
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