Content and moderation policy
Every comment on SocialCareScore is read by a person before it is published. This policy explains what we publish, what we do not, how moderation works, and how to report a comment.
Why we have these rules
Comments help explain what scores mean. They also carry risks: a comment could identify a child, a family or a worker, repeat something that is unfair or untrue, or break the law that protects the privacy of family court proceedings. We keep everyone anonymous and we treat everyone fairly, including the people who work in council services. When we are unsure whether a comment is safe and fair to publish, we do not publish it.
Our rules apply equally to positive and negative comments.
Our content standards
We publish a comment of up to 1,000 characters only if it:
- describes your own experience, or the experience of someone you support, and how it affected you;
- is your honest opinion, and explains why you hold it;
- is about the service, not about an individual;
- does not include anything that could identify anyone, including you;
- does not accuse anyone of a crime, dishonesty, abuse or other wrongdoing;
- does not mention court or family court proceedings;
- is not abusive, threatening, discriminatory or promotional.
What we do not publish
- Identifying details: names, initials, ages, addresses, postcodes, neighbourhoods, schools, care homes, dates, times, phone numbers, email addresses, links, case or reference numbers. We also remove descriptions that could identify someone when combined, such as a job title and where the person works, or unusual family circumstances.
- Comments about named or identifiable workers, including praise. We publish comments about how a service treated you, not about individual staff.
- Allegations, such as saying someone lied, abused someone, broke the law or covered something up. Saying "I think" does not change this.
- Court and family proceedings. Publishing information about family court cases involving children can be against the law, even without names.
- Quotes from documents, such as assessments, case notes, reports or emails about you or your family.
- Safeguarding disclosures, including anything suggesting someone is being harmed or is at risk. These are never published. Read our safeguarding policy.
- Abuse, threats, harassment, hate or discrimination, including against staff.
- Comments from council staff about the council department they work in.
- Spam, advertising, campaigning and repeated or copied comments.
Opinion or allegation: examples
| We would not publish | Why | A way to say it that we could publish |
|---|---|---|
| "The social worker lied in her report." | Accuses an identifiable person of dishonesty | "I did not recognise how my family was described, and I did not feel listened to." |
| "Children's services here are corrupt." | Allegation of wrongdoing | "I lost trust in the service because decisions were not explained to me." |
| "The team manager at the local office bullied me." | Identifies a person by role and place, and makes an allegation | "I found meetings intimidating and did not feel able to speak." |
| "They covered up what happened to my brother." | Alleges bad faith | "I still do not feel I have had a full explanation of what happened." |
| "After the hearing, the guardian said we could not see our children." | Refers to family court proceedings | We cannot publish comments about court proceedings. Our complaints guide explains other options. |
| "Our social worker Sarah was brilliant." | Names a worker, even though it is praise | "Our social worker was brilliant and kept us informed." |
Examples of comments we can publish: "Nobody returned my calls for three weeks and I felt ignored." "I felt the assessment focused on what I could not do, rather than the help I needed." "The carers treated my dad with dignity."
How moderation works
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Details are removed automatically
As you write, the form warns you about details that could identify someone. When you check your answers, you see your comment exactly as it would be stored, with removed details marked, for example "[name removed]". Your original wording is never stored.
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A person reads every comment
A trained moderator reads every comment before it can be published. Moderators only see the version with details removed. They can remove more words, but they never add or change wording.
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Timescales
We aim to review comments within 5 working days. Comments that may involve a safeguarding concern are reviewed within 1 working day and are never published.
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Difficult decisions get a second opinion
If a moderator is unsure, a different moderator or administrator makes the final decision. We also check a sample of published comments again.
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Published comments
Published comments are shown for up to 36 months. Ratings count towards scores after a 48-hour cooling-off period, whether or not a comment is published.
Reasons a comment may not be published
- Contains information that could identify a person
- States an allegation rather than an experience or opinion
- Refers to family court or other protected proceedings
- Contains a safeguarding disclosure
- Abusive, threatening or harassing
- Discriminatory or hateful
- Not about experience of the council service being rated
- Spam or promotion
- Not a first-hand or supported-person experience
- Duplicate of another comment
- Other (explain in note)
Report a comment
Anyone can report a published comment, including a person who thinks a comment is about them, a council, a legal representative or a member of the public.
What happens next:
- we check the comment against these standards;
- if it does not meet them, we remove it permanently;
- if it does meet them, a second person must agree before it is shown again. If you tell us a comment is about you, we will not restore it without legal advice;
- if you give contact details, we tell you the outcome. Contact details are optional and are deleted 12 months after your report is closed;
- if the same comment is reported again, or posted again, we hide it and review it again.
Because comments are anonymous, we cannot pass your report to the person who wrote the comment, and we cannot tell you who wrote it. We do not have that information.
Formal legal correspondence can also be sent to hello@socialcarescore.co.uk. Please include the comment's reference, which is shown with each comment.
Right of reply for councils
Councils can send an official response about their page, their scores or the comments published about their services. We publish responses on the council's page with the job title of the person responding and the date we received it.
Responses must follow the same standards as comments. In particular, they must not identify anyone, discuss individual cases or suggest who wrote a comment. We may ask for changes, but we will not rewrite a response. A council can ask us to withdraw its response at any time. Councils can contact us at hello@socialcarescore.co.uk.
If your comment is not published
We cannot tell you about the decision, because we do not know who you are. Your ratings still count if only your comment was not published. You are welcome to rate again with a comment that follows these standards, within our normal limits. We will not discuss whether a particular comment was received.
If you want to withdraw your rating, use the withdrawal code you were given on the withdraw a rating page.
Transparency
Every quarter we publish figures on ratings and comments received, how many were published or not published and why, how quickly we moderated them, reports received and their outcomes, council responses, and any requests from police, councils or courts. We also publish changes to this policy and to our methods for removing identifying details.
Read more about our submission rules, our terms of use and how scoring works.