The Care Opinion platform is a place where people receiving care (and their cares, loved ones and friends) can share their feedback about their experience of care with their service providers. It is designed to host constructive conversations that are based on personal experiences of care.
The important difference between posting on social media and sharing a story is that on Care Opinion, all postings are moderated against a set of moderation principles.
These principles were developed with legal advice to ensure all parties using the platform are treated fairly and legally (not named and shamed), and that we avoid individuals sharing their stories being identified. This is important because stories are publicly available once they have been published on the Care Opinion website.
Types of edits we make
- Removing specific dates and times of the care experience.
- Removing identifiable information about the storyteller and/or consumer (e.g. names, genders, age).
- Generating new screen names if the created screen name contains identifiable information or matches a person's email address.
- Removing identifiable information about a staff member(s) if the posting or comment is negative (e.g. replacing their name, gender of description with their job title).
- Leaving a first name only of a staff member when the posting or comment is positive. If the storyteller only knew the staff member's last name, we'll do what we can to try to find out their first name.
You can read more about this on our page called 'Keeping Everyone Safe'
Moderating for Safety and De-identification
The ability to identify who a storyteller can depend on who is reading the story. For example, we can ensure a storyteller remains anonymous in the public domain by removing their name, gender and age, and specific dates and times of care from a story.
If we read your story and believe that staff members are likely to remember the person receiving the care, we'll email you to let you know and make sure you are comfortable with your story being published knowing you may be identified by staff providing the care.
This is something to keep in mind when sharing your story because while we do everything in our power to keep you anonymous, there are times when staff might remember you, regardless of how we moderate your story.
Stories we can't publish
We always publish stories that meet our moderation principles. Some examples of when we cannot publish stories include:
- stories about experiences that ended over two years ago
- when the story is about a third-party who has not consented to their experience being published
- when the story is mostly made up of obscene, abusive or defamatory comments
- when we need to clarify details about the story and the storyteller has not responded to emails asking for the information
- there are concerns that the storyteller is very vulnerable and may not have the cognitive capacity to consent to the story being published.
If we are unable to publish a story, we will always reach out to the storyteller to explain why this is.