About SocialCareScore
SocialCareScore gives people a safe, anonymous way to rate their experience of council services. We turn those ratings, together with published evidence, into fair and open information that helps services improve.
Our mission
Council services shape everyday life, and they matter most when life is hardest. People who use council services, and the families, carers and advocates who support them, often have no simple way to say what worked and what did not.
SocialCareScore collects anonymous ratings and removes anything that could identify a person. We combine the ratings with published oversight reports, such as inspections, and official performance data, using a method that anyone can check. The result is a clear, balanced picture of each council service, and of each council as a whole, for the public, councillors, journalists, researchers and the services themselves.
What we do
- We collect anonymous ratings. People rate six areas of their experience of a council service, such as communication and respect. They can add a short comment if they want to. Read about the rating categories.
- We protect people's identity. We do not ask for names or contact details. We remove names, dates, places and other identifying details from comments, and a person checks every comment before it is published.
- We publish fair, open scores. Each month we calculate a score from 0 to 100 for each council department with enough ratings, such as a housing score, and a council score that brings a council's department scores together. We show how certain each score is. See how scoring works.
- We help people find the right route. Our help guides explain how to complain about council services. For social services in Wales, we also explain how to complain and where to go next. Anyone can find out where to get urgent help.
- We share data openly. Journalists, councillors and researchers can use our open data.
Our principles
- Independent. We are not part of, or funded by, any council, government, regulator or inspectorate.
- Anonymous by design. There are no accounts, and we never store names, contact details or IP addresses with ratings.
- Fair and balanced. We publish opinions about experiences, not allegations. Councils can publish an official response on their page.
- Transparent. Every part of our scoring method is published, including its limits.
- Evidence-led. Scores combine what people tell us with published oversight reports and official performance data.
- Safe. We check every comment before it is published, and we always point people to urgent help.
- Constructive. Our aim is to help services improve, not to blame individuals.
- Accessible. We write in plain English and aim to meet the WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility standard. Read our accessibility statement.
Our independence
SocialCareScore is independent. We are not part of, or funded by, any council, government department, regulator or inspectorate, and none of them decide what we publish.
Councils cannot pay to change their scores or to have comments removed. They can publish an official response on their council page, and they can tell us if they think published data is wrong.
How we are funded: [Details of how SocialCareScore is funded — to be confirmed and published before launch]
What we are not
- We are not an official rating or inspection. Official inspections are carried out by regulators and inspectorates. For example, Care Inspectorate Wales inspects social care in Wales.
- We are not a complaints service. Rating a council is not the same as making a complaint, and no one will investigate your rating.
- We are not an emergency or safeguarding service. We do not know who you are and we cannot respond to concerns about anyone's safety.
- We cannot take up individual cases or give legal advice.
- We are not a campaign. We do not take sides.
Where we are now
We are opening ratings nation by nation and service by service. Each UK nation, and each council department within it, is switched on separately. If a council or service is not accepting ratings yet, you can still find complaints information on the council's page.
We plan to cover council services across the UK. We only compare councils in the same nation, because each nation has different laws, inspection systems and data.
How we hold ourselves to account
- Our scoring method is published in full, with a version number and a record of changes.
- A person checks every comment before it is published. Comments that may carry legal risk are checked by a second person.
- Oversight and performance data are entered by one person and checked by a different person.
- Monthly scores are reviewed before they are published.
- Actions by our team are recorded in an audit log.
- Anyone can report a published comment. We hide it straight away while we review it.
- Councils can publish an official response on their council page.
Who runs SocialCareScore
SocialCareScore is run by [Operator legal name — to be confirmed before launch].
You can email us at hello@socialcarescore.co.uk. More details are on our contact page.