Recent experience of care provision
To ensure reviews are relevant and current, all reviews must be based on a first-hand experience of care provision to a client/service user within the past 12 months.
Care provision starts when the care provider starts providing the client/service user’s care after it has been agreed, for example the first care visit or the first day of live-in care. It counts even if the care stops soon afterwards.
Before the care is agreed, contact to help decide whether to use the provider is not care provision. This includes trial or taster visits, introductory visits, consultations, assessments, meetings, and phone or video calls.
If legal proceedings led you to delay submitting your review beyond 12 months, see the exception under ‘Content Standards’ below. An ongoing complaint or investigation does not prevent you from submitting a review, as long as it meets our content standards, including on contempt of court.
Who can submit Reviews?
Reviews can only be submitted by:
Clients/service users (excluding potential clients/service users, ie people who have not yet started receiving care from the care provider, including people who have only had a trial, taster or introductory visit)
Family/friends of clients/service users
Legal representatives of clients/service users (guardians, power of attorneys, court-appointed deputies, solicitors, independent advocates, independent case managers)
homecare.co.uk considers an Independent Case Manager to be a professional who:
has personally arranged or overseen the care of the client/service user, and has first-hand experience of the care provided within the last 12 months
works for an independent case management company (or practises independently) - not employed or engaged by the NHS, a local authority (including social services) or an integrated care board (this means NHS and local authority care coordinators, discharge coordinators and social workers do not qualify)
has no other professional or financial connection to the care provider or its wider organisation beyond their role as the client's case manager, including any referral fee, commission or other payment from the provider
People under 16 should get permission from a parent or guardian before posting on our site.
Who can't submit Reviews?
Reviews are not accepted from the following connections, even if they are family/friend of a client/service user:
Members of staff, ex-members of staff (within the last 12 months), owners, volunteers, students and work experience participants
Anyone with a professional connection to the care provider or client/service user e.g. doctor/nurse/therapist/social workers etc. (legal representatives of clients/service users are permitted)
Anyone who is an owner or member of staff of a direct competitor
Immediate family of all the above (mother, step-mother, father, step-father, sister, step-sister, brother, step-brother, daughter, step-daughter, son, step-son, spouse/partner).
For clarity, these restrictions generally apply to the home care service and, where relevant, its wider organisation. For the purposes of this policy, a wider organisation may include home care services under common ownership, control or management, or operating as part of the same group, franchise or branded network, even where they are separately owned or operated.
The exception is the competitor restriction, which applies only to direct competitors of the home care service being reviewed. Direct competitor means another home care service or care provider that competes for the same clients in the same local market as the home care service being reviewed.
Asking for reviews and incentives
If care providers are asking for reviews, they should do so in a fair, neutral and unbiased way.
Care providers are not permitted to:
Offer incentives to write a review (including discounts, free prize draws or any special treatment)
Selectively solicit reviews
Pressure clients/service users or their friends/family to submit a positive review or remove a negative review
Prohibit or discourage clients/service users or their friends/family from posting a negative review
Ask clients/service users or their friends/family to remove their reviews in return for a discount or incentive
Submitting reviews directly
Reviews are not accepted if they are submitted on behalf of a client/service user or family/friend of a client/service user. Care providers or other third parties must not copy or submit in-house comment cards, letters or reviews from other websites as reviews. Reviewers may submit their own review even if they have also posted it on another website, as long as it complies with our Review Policy.
Assistance for reviews
For reviews submitted online on homecare.co.uk, our general policy is not to permit assistance and we require the named reviewer to directly submit the review.
For Reviews submitted on Review Cards, assistance can be given to clients/service users by individuals with a valid connection e.g. their family/friends or their legal representatives but not by staff members. The person assisting must provide their name, connection and contact details. Clients/service users must sign the review and be willing and able to give all of the information for the review. The connection is published next to the review which clearly states assistance has been given.
Contact Details
For reviews submitted online through homecare.co.uk, we require the reviewer’s personal email address and telephone number. The email address of the home care provider, or a member of staff of the home care provider, will not be permitted. Reviewers who do not have their own personal email address should submit their review on a Review Card.
For reviews submitted on Review Cards, we require either the reviewer’s personal email address or telephone number.
Reviewer Identity and Anonymous Reviews
Reviews cannot be submitted anonymously to homecare.co.uk. We require the reviewer’s full name and contact details so that we can authenticate reviews and help ensure they are genuine.
Each review must be submitted by, and in the name of, one reviewer. If a review is submitted in more than one name, we will treat the person whose contact details have been provided as the reviewer and publish the review in their name only. Anyone else who shared the experience is welcome to submit their own review.
The reviewer’s full name is normally made available to the care provider. This helps the care provider understand who has provided the feedback, respond personally where appropriate, and investigate or address any concerns raised.
Your full name is not displayed publicly on homecare.co.uk. When your review is published, we display your first name and surname initial, or you can choose to display only your initials.
Care providers must not include your full name or contact details in a public reply to your review.
Language & Communication Support
Reviews must be submitted to homecare.co.uk in English, but reviewers do not need to speak English.
For reviews submitted online, the named reviewer must complete and submit the review themselves. They may use translation software, speech-to-text technology or other self-service accessibility tools. Another person must not write, translate, transcribe, edit or submit the review on the reviewer’s behalf.
For reviews submitted using a Review Card, a client/service user may be assisted by a family member, friend or legal representative. Assistance must not be provided by a staff member or by anyone with a professional or financial connection to the care provider. The person assisting must provide their name, connection to the reviewer and contact details. The client or service user must provide the information and opinions expressed in the review, sign the Review Card, and be willing and able to confirm its contents. The assistance and the person’s connection to the reviewer will be stated alongside the published review.
Authentication will normally be carried out by email, allowing reviewers to use self-service translation tools where needed. Where additional verification is required, we may use another suitable method, which may include a telephone call with an independent interpreter or other communication support approved by homecare.co.uk.
We will not reject a review solely because of the reviewer’s language or communication needs. However, a review may not be published if, after reasonable and proportionate attempts, we are unable to authenticate it.
Multiple Reviews from the same Reviewer
When a Review is submitted by someone who has previously submitted a Review, the latest Review replaces the older Review. The older Review is no longer published and does not count towards the Review Score.
Multiple Reviews from different Reviewers about the same client/service user experience
As a general guideline, we consider up to five reviews per client/service user to be a reasonable representation of their care experience. Publishing more than five reviews may risk distorting the overall picture of the care provided.
General
To ensure reviews are relevant and current, all reviews must be based on first-hand experience of care provision to a client/service user within the past 12 months. If legal proceedings led you to delay submitting your review beyond 12 months, see the exception under ‘Content Standards’ below.
Content Standards
Reviews must:
Be relevant (about the care/service provided)
Be first-hand experiences (no second-hand information, rumours or quotations from other sources)
Be based on an experience of the provision of care services (ie if the care services are cancelled before they have been provided, then the review will not be compliant) – see ‘Recent experience of care provision’ above
Be submitted within 12 months - the client/service user must have received care from the care provider during the 12 months prior to submitting the review. If legal proceedings about the experience you describe led you to delay submitting your review beyond 12 months, you may still submit it within 3 months of the proceedings ending (including any appeal), as long as they began within 12 months of the care ending and the care ended no more than 3 years before you submit your review. Legal proceedings means proceedings in a court or tribunal which concern the matters discussed in the review, including criminal proceedings, coroners’ inquests and, in Scotland, fatal accident inquiries. It does not include complaints or investigations, for example by a regulator, an ombudsman, a local authority or the police, unless they lead to legal proceedings. Your review must still meet our content standards, including on contempt of court. We will ask for evidence of the proceedings, including when they began and ended.
Be a maximum of 1,000 characters (with spaces) in length, which is approximately 150 words
Be written in English and comply with acceptable standards of spelling and grammar
Be complete ie all Review fields must be completed, with these exceptions for ratings: for Reviews submitted online, the Value for Money rating is optional; for Reviews submitted on Review Cards, at least half of the ratings must be completed, including Overall Experience (a ‘Don’t know’ answer does not count as a rating)
Comply with the laws applicable in England and Wales and in any country from which it is posted
Reviews must not:
Be defamatory (for example, allegations of abuse, material negligence, or serious criminal behaviour - without that setting any limit on the interpretation of the general term defamatory)
Be obscene, offensive, hateful, threatening, harassing or unlawful
Constitute discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, or, age or promote such discrimination by others
Contain abusive language
Disclose the full name, telephone number, email address or postal address of any individual. You may include personal data about yourself in a review. You may include first names of other people and information about their circumstances in a review where this is appropriate given the context, however publication will be at our reasonable discretion. Where a review makes a negative or prejudicial comment about a named individual, we will remove their name and any other personal data about them, and publish the rest of the review. You must not include any other personal data in a review.
Contain any reference to the Review Score of the organisation/business being reviewed
Contain references to other specific Reviews
Stereotype sections of society
Name other organisations/businesses in a way that is misleading, promotional, defamatory, or irrelevant (at our reasonable discretion we will remove it).
Infringe any copyright, database right, trade mark or other right of any other person
Breach any legal duty owed to a third party, such as a contractual duty or a duty of confidence
Be in contempt of court or breach of a court order
Be made in an attempt to blackmail any person
Be made with a view to gain for the person submitting the content/comment or for another, or with the intent to cause loss to another, in exchange for offering to remove a ‘negative’ review or post a ‘positive’ review
Impersonate any person, or misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person
Give the impression that the Review emanates from us if this is not the case
Advocate, promote, incite any third party to commit, or assist any unlawful or criminal act
Contain a statement which you know or believe, or have reasonable grounds for believing, that members of the public to whom the statement is, or is to be, published are likely to understand as a direct or indirect encouragement or other inducement to the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism
Contain any advertising or promote any services or web links to other sites
Our general approach is that we take a neutral stance in factual disputes between care providers and reviewers. If a care provider disagrees with the reviewer over the experience, we recommend that the care provider writes a reply to the review sharing their version of events so that website users can see both perspectives.