Submission rules

The rules in brief

• Rate your own experience, or the experience of someone you support, from the last 3 years.
• Do not include names, dates, places, ages or reference numbers.
• Describe your experience and how it affected you. Do not accuse anyone of wrongdoing.
• Do not mention court or family proceedings.
• This website cannot help in an emergency. If someone is in danger, call 999.

Who can rate a council service

You can rate a council service if you have used it, or had contact with it, in the last 3 years. The form asks how you were involved, and the options depend on the service. For example, you can rate if you:

• used the service, or received support, yourself
• are a parent or carer of a child or young person who used the service
• are a family member of someone who used the service, or were helping someone else
• are an unpaid carer
• are an advocate or supporting professional who does not work for that council
• contacted 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. Staff can raise concerns through their employer or whistleblowing routes.

You can only rate council services that are accepting ratings. Ratings open nation by nation and service by service. If a council or service is not accepting ratings yet, we will tell you.

Please submit one rating for each experience. Do not submit the same experience more than once, and do not ask other people to submit ratings as part of a campaign.

What you can rate

You rate six areas of your experience, from Very poor to Very good, and give an overall rating. You must rate at least 3 of the six areas. Read about the six areas.

You can also tell us whether you made a formal complaint and what happened. A comment is optional and can be up to 1,000 characters.

Keep it anonymous

Do not include:

• the name of anyone, including staff, children, family members, professionals or councillors
• initials or nicknames
• dates, days of the week, times or years
• addresses, postcodes or neighbourhoods
• the names of schools, hospitals, surgeries, care homes or centres
• anyone's age
• case numbers, reference numbers, NHS numbers or National Insurance numbers
• phone numbers, email addresses, websites or social media names
• vehicle registration numbers
• details that could identify someone without a name, such as a job title together with a team or place

People who know your situation may recognise it from a detailed description, even without names. Keeping your comment general protects you, your family and others.

Share experiences, not allegations

We publish opinions about experiences. We do not publish allegations. An allegation is a statement that accuses someone of a crime, dishonesty or misconduct.

Describe what happened to you and how it made you feel, rather than what you believe someone did.

If you believe something wrong happened and want it looked into, use the council's complaints procedure. Our help guides explain how. For social services in Wales, read our complaints guide.

Court and family proceedings

Do not mention court or family proceedings. This includes care proceedings, hearings, judges, Cafcass, guardians, and placement or adoption orders.

The law restricts what can be published about these cases, especially cases involving children. This includes section 12 of the Administration of Justice Act 1960 and section 97 of the Children Act 1989. We will not publish comments that refer to court or family proceedings. You can still submit your ratings.

If someone is at risk

SocialCareScore cannot respond to safeguarding concerns. We do not know who you are, so we cannot contact you or send help.

If your comment suggests that someone may be at risk, for example of harm or self-harm, we will show you where to get help before you submit. The comment will be held for priority review and will never be published.

If a child or adult is in immediate danger, call 999. If you are worried about someone but they are not in immediate danger, contact the social services team at the council where they live, or call the police on 101. Get help now.

Content we will not publish

We will not publish comments that contain:

• threats, abuse or harassment
• swearing or offensive language
• discriminatory or hateful language
• advertising, spam or links
• content that is not about council services
• content that is not about your own experience, or the experience of someone you support

What we remove automatically

Before a comment is stored, we automatically replace details that could identify someone with a label in square brackets. You will see exactly how your comment will look before you submit it. Your original wording is not stored.

Automatic checks are not perfect. They may remove words that are not identifying, and they may miss some details. That is why a person checks every comment too.

How we check ratings and comments

• Ratings count towards scores after a 48-hour cooling-off period.
• We look for signs of misuse, such as a sudden rise in ratings, repeated text or automated submissions. Ratings flagged by these checks are held and reviewed by a person before they count.
• Each day, we accept up to 2 ratings for the same council, and 5 ratings in total, from one internet connection. If you share a connection, for example in a library, you may need to try again the next day.
• Your browser does a small calculation in the background to show it is not an automated program. This does not collect information about you. If JavaScript is turned off, you can still submit, but a person will review your rating before it counts.
• A person reads every comment before it is published. We aim to do this within 5 working days. Comments that suggest someone may be at risk are reviewed first.
• Moderators only see comments after automatic removals. They can remove more words, but they never add or change wording.
• We cannot tell you whether your comment was published, or why not, because we do not know who you are.

A comment may not be published if it:

• contains information that could identify a person
• states an allegation rather than an experience or opinion
• refers to court or family proceedings
• contains a safeguarding disclosure
• is abusive, threatening, harassing, discriminatory or hateful
• is not about experience of council services
• is spam or promotion
• is not about your own experience, or the experience of someone you support
• duplicates another comment

A rating may not be counted if it appears to be spam, a test, a duplicate, part of a coordinated campaign, or from someone who works in the council department being rated.

Withdrawing a rating

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

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

Reporting a comment

If you think a published comment breaks these rules, report it. We hide the comment straight away while we review it.

Councils can publish an official response on their council page.

How long comments are shown

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. Read our privacy notice and content and moderation policy for more detail.

Last reviewed: 15/09/2026