In July 2018 VHS sent out a membership survey to its 156 member organisations. We received 73 completed surveys. 32 member organisations provided their details whilst 41 provided responded anonymously.

The purpose of the survey was to get feedback on VHS’s current work programme, as well as to guide our future work and the topics of events that we hold. The survey gathered information regarding:

• VHS’s priority health themes
• VHS’s other policy areas
• VHS’s communications

The survey also sought to help build a profile of our member organisations, their areas of work and interests.

Some interesting findings include:

The top three reasons organisations were members included: wanting to develop solutions to Scotland’s health challenges, being inspired by new learning, ideas and connections and wanting to be a part of a powerful network.

All of the respondents felt that Public Health was very important or important to them, followed by Health Inequalities, Mental Health and Health and Social Care Integration. In previous years the other three priority health themes have been seen to be more important to our members than Public Health.

The single largest cohort of respondents was national health charities, followed closely by local health charities and social care service providers, but the wide range of types of organisations responding illustrates the breadth and richness of VHS’s membership base.

You can find the full survey results here – VHS Member Survey Report December 2018