How the weekly trust-pressure signal works
A directional indicator for short-term pressure on Public Trust — deliberately separate from the formal rating.
Formal ratings change slowly. Public attention does not. The weekly trust-pressure signal exists to capture short-term direction of travel without contaminating the quarterly formal assessment.
Each week the UK institutions receive one of three labels: Positive, Neutral or Negative pressure. The signal is based primarily on Public Trust — news flow from major UK outlets and specialist coverage, plus conversation volume and tone on X. A strict decision table governs when the signal can move.
Hard constraints apply. A single story is not enough. Ambiguous or mixed weeks default to Neutral. The signal cannot, by design, change the formal rating. It is labelled provisional on every institution page.
Peer institutions do not receive a weekly signal. Their formal ratings update only on the quarterly cycle, which keeps the comparative frame stable and avoids noise from foreign media cycles the team cannot track at the same intensity.
The practical workflow is straightforward: a draft signal pack is produced, reviewed, and signed off before publication. Over time the signal archive will show whether weeks of Negative pressure cluster before formal outlook changes — or whether the two layers remain largely independent.