Frequently asked questions

SocialCareScore is an independent website where people can anonymously rate their experience of council services, such as social care, housing, and bins and recycling. We combine ratings with published oversight reports and official performance data to give each council department a score from 0 to 100. Each council also gets a council score, which brings its department scores together.

Read more about us.

You can rate a council service if you have used it, or had contact with it, in the last 3 years. This includes people who used the service or received support themselves, parents and carers, family members, unpaid carers, people helping someone else, and advocates or supporting professionals who do not work for that council. For some services, you can also rate your experience of contacting the council for a business, charity or organisation.

You cannot rate a council department if you work in it. For example, if you work in a council's housing service, you cannot rate that council's housing service. Read our submission rules.

We are opening ratings nation by nation. Each nation, and each council service within it, is switched on separately, so you can only rate councils and services that are accepting ratings. If a council or service is not accepting ratings yet, we will tell you. You can still find information about how to complain on the council's page.

We cover these council departments:

• Adult social care
• Children’s social care
• Education and additional needs
• Housing and homelessness
• Council tax and benefits
• Bins, recycling and street cleaning
• Planning and building control
• Roads, transport and parking
• Environmental health, licensing and trading standards
• Libraries, leisure and culture
• Parks, green spaces and community services
• Customer contact and complaints handling

Each department has its own score, for example a housing score. Social care also has a combined social care score, covering adult social care and children's social care. Ratings open nation by nation and department by department, so a service may not be accepting ratings where you live yet.

Our help guides explain what each service does and how to complain.

Not every council runs every service. In two-tier parts of England, the county council and the district council run different services. For example, the county council runs social care and the district council runs housing.

In Northern Ireland, some services are run by other organisations, such as Health and Social Care Trusts, the Housing Executive, the Education Authority, the Department for Infrastructure and Land & Property Services.

Where a council does not run a service, we name the organisation that does. To see which council runs each service for a postcode in England, Wales or Scotland, use find your council. Our help guides explain what each service does and how to complain.

Yes. For example, you can rate a council's adult social care and its libraries separately. Choose the service on the form. Please submit one rating for each experience, and do not submit the same experience more than once.

No. Comments are optional. Your ratings count towards the score whether or not you write a comment.

You cannot edit a rating, because we do not know who you are. You can withdraw it using your withdrawal code, and then submit a new rating.

No. A rating is not a complaint, and no one will investigate it. If you want the council to look into what happened, make a complaint to the council. Our help guides explain how. For social services in Wales, read our complaints guide.

At the moment, SocialCareScore is only available in English. If you live in Wales, you have the right to make a complaint to your council in Welsh or English.

There are a few possible reasons:

• The form timed out. For your privacy, forms expire after 2 hours. Please start again.
• The limit for your internet connection has been reached. Each day, we accept up to 2 ratings for the same council, and 5 in total, from one connection. If you share a connection, please try again tomorrow.
• JavaScript is turned off. You can still submit, but a person will check your rating before it counts.

If none of these apply, email hello@socialcarescore.co.uk.

No. There are no accounts, and we never ask for your name, email address or phone number when you rate a council.

No. To prevent misuse, we turn your IP address into a scrambled code, using a secret key that changes every day. We only use this code to limit how many ratings come from one connection, and we delete it after 48 hours. Our server logs do not record IP addresses.

We do not collect information that identifies you, so we cannot tell anyone who you are. We also remove names, dates, places and other details from comments.

However, someone who knows your situation might recognise a very detailed description. To protect yourself and others, keep your comment general.

No. We do not use cookies, analytics or tracking on public pages. Read about cookies.

When you submit a rating, we show you a 12-character withdrawal code. It is not linked to your identity. You can use it to withdraw your rating and any comment.

Keep it safe. We cannot show it again or recover it.

Published comments are shown for up to 36 months. Anonymous ratings are kept for up to 6 years, but only ratings from the last 24 months count towards current scores. The exact time of a submission is kept for 90 days, and after that only the month is kept. Withdrawn ratings are deleted straight away.

Read our privacy notice.

Each department a council runs has its own score, for example a housing score. A department score combines three parts: public feedback (50%), oversight reports (30%) and official performance data (20%). If a part is not available, it is left out and its weight is shared out between the other parts. Recent ratings count more, and scores based on few ratings are pulled towards the national average.

Social care also has a combined social care score. The council score is the average of the council's department scores that have a full score, not a provisional one, with each department counting equally. A council needs at least 3 department scores with a full score to get a council score.

Scores run from 0 to 100 and are calculated monthly. Every step is published.

See how scoring works.

No. Our scores are not official ratings or inspection judgements. Official inspections are carried out by regulators and inspectorates, which differ between services and nations. For example, Care Inspectorate Wales inspects social care in Wales. Where published inspection or other oversight reports are available, we use them as one part of the score.

We only show a score when there are enough recent ratings to give a fair picture. If a council or service shows "Not enough ratings yet", it needs more ratings. If it shows "Not yet accepting ratings", ratings have not opened for that council or service yet. A council score also needs at least 3 department scores with a full score.

A provisional score is based on a smaller number of ratings: an effective sample size of 10 to 29. We show it with a caution, and we do not include it in rankings.

Scores are calculated once a month, for the previous month. A member of our team reviews each update before it is published. New ratings are accepted every hour, once they have passed a 48-hour cooling-off period.

Older ratings gradually count for less, and ratings older than 24 months stop counting. Scores can also change when new oversight reports or performance data are published. A council score can change when any of the council's department scores changes.

We have several protections:

• ratings only count after a 48-hour cooling-off period
• we limit how many ratings can come from one connection
• we check for unusual spikes and repeated text, and hold suspicious ratings for review
• scores based on few ratings are pulled towards the national average
• ratings from people who work in the council department being rated, or from coordinated campaigns, are not counted

Not necessarily. People choose whether to take part, so ratings are not a random sample. That is one reason we combine ratings with oversight reports and performance data, and show how certain each score is.

They are automatic checks based on published rules, such as a sharp fall in a score or a low score in one area. They show where it may be worth looking more closely. They are not accusations or findings of wrongdoing.

Read about indicators to watch.

Each nation has different laws, inspection systems and performance data. Comparing councils across nations would not be fair, so we only rank councils within the same nation. In England, county councils and district councils run different services, so their council scores are only ranked against councils of the same type.

We automatically remove details that could identify someone, such as names, dates, places and reference numbers. They are replaced with labels like [name removed]. Automatic checks are not perfect, so they sometimes remove words that are not identifying.

We cannot tell you, because we do not know who you are. We aim to check comments within 5 working days. After that, look on the council's comments page.

Common reasons are that the comment could identify someone, makes an allegation, refers to court or family proceedings, suggests someone may be at risk, or contains abusive or discriminatory language.

Read our submission rules.

Use our report a comment form. We hide the comment straight away while we review it.

No. We remove comments that break our rules, not comments that are critical. Councils can publish an official response on their council page.

Yes. Councils can send us an official response, which we publish on their council page. Find out how to contact us.

Contact us with details of the figure and a link to the published source. Oversight and performance data are entered and checked by two different people. If we find an error, we will correct it.

People who work in a council department cannot rate that department. For example, someone who works in a council's housing service cannot rate that council's housing service. Staff who have concerns can use their employer's procedures or whistleblowing routes.

SocialCareScore is run by [Operator legal name — to be confirmed before launch]. We are not part of, or funded by, any council, government department, regulator or inspectorate.

Yes. Scores, rankings and other aggregate figures are available from our open data service. We propose to license aggregate data under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC BY 4.0). The licence will be confirmed on our open data page.

Include the council, the score you are citing (for example the council score or the housing score), the period, the methodology version and the date you accessed it. Our press page has examples.

No. We do not know who they are, and we never try to find out.

No. Original comments are never stored. We only keep the version with identifying details removed.

If someone is in immediate danger, call 999. If not, contact the social services team at the council where they live, or call the police on 101.

Get help now.

No. SocialCareScore is not a way to report concerns, and no one will act on a rating or comment. We cannot see who you are or contact you.

Before you submit, we show you where to get help. The comment is held for priority review and is never published. We cannot see who you are, so we cannot contact you or send help.

We cannot take up individual cases or give advice about your situation. Our help guides explain how to complain about council services. For social services in Wales, our complaints guide and escalation routes explain where to go. Advocacy services can help you make a complaint.