If you wish to submit a review for a home care or nursing agency, please click here
IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT REVIEWS
- The Review Score is based on user Reviews and the maximum Review Score is 10. There are 5 Points available for the Average Rating on users of all Reviews (Excellent 5, Good 4, Satisfactory 3, Poor 2, Very Poor 1). There are 5 Points available for the total number of positive Reviews in the last 12 months.
- We receive approximately 25% of Reviews through website submission and 75% of Reviews through Review Cards (only available to Enhanced / Premium Service subscribers more info).
- We only accept/publish Reviews that are submitted by a Client/Service User or their Friends/Family (cannot be submitted anonymously) and comply with our Content Standards (eg are relevant, informative, civil and do not contain allegations of abuse, negligence or criminal activity).
- Before publication, we check that all reviews comply with our Review Policy and we show all reviews to care providers so that they may make a response to be published with the review.
- The Reviews submitted to our site do not represent our views and we accept no responsibility or liability for any such Reviews.
If you have any feedback or require further information on our reviews, please email reviews@homecare.co.uk or call 01488 684321 and ask for the Review Team.
REVIEW POLICY
General
Our website homecare.co.uk allows users and third parties to post comments and ratings of care provider experiences (“Reviews”). The primary purpose of these Reviews is to help potential service users / clients to find the right home care or nursing agency. The Reviews also provide service users / clients with an opportunity to provide feedback to care providers and for care providers to use this feedback to make improvements.
This is not a formal complaint procedure or to be used for allegations of negligence, abuse or criminal activity. Reviews cannot be submitted anonymously through homecare.co.uk, we require the name and telephone/email of the reviewer and the option to share these with the care provider, so that we can properly authenticate reviews. If you wish to make a complaint or have a serious allegation of negligence, abuse or criminal activity, you should contact the care provider, the relevant regulatory authority or the police.
The views, comments and opinions expressed in the Reviews submitted to our site do not represent our views and we accept no responsibility or liability for any such Reviews. All Reviews are left in accordance with our terms and conditions.
Moderation – Pre-Screening of Reviews
a) The Review is posted online or it is received from a Review Card and then entered onto our system by the Review Team.
b) Reviews that do not comply with the Review Policy are not accepted or published.
The Review Team reject Reviews for the following reasons:
- The Connection of the Reviewer is not valid (see section below ‘Who Can Submit Reviews’).
- The Review does not conform to our Content Standards (see section below ‘Content Standards’).
Then, an email explaining the primary reason why the Review has not been accepted is sent to the reviewer (where we have their email address) and also to the contacts of the care provider record. When a Review is rejected for not conforming to the Content Standards, the email to the Reviewer, states that they can amend and re-submit the Review.
Then an email explaining that the Review has not been accepted is sent to the reviewer and also to the contacts of the care provider record.
c) Reviews that appear to comply with the Review Policy are authenticated with the reviewer:
- We have a number of data checks to authenticate Reviews (submitted from same IP address, same name/email/telephone as a current Review etc..)
- For a number of Reviews, the Review Team telephones/emails the reviewer. If they are a friend/relative they may ask if they can provide the name of the service user for confirmation.
Then:
- If the Review Team cannot authenticate, an email is sent to the contacts of the care provider and to the reviewer stating that the Review could not be authenticated.
- If confirmed authentic, then the Review will move to pending publication.
d) Reviews Pending Publication:
When a Review moves into Pending Publication, an email is sent to the Reviewer notifying them that we aim to publish their Review within 14 days and an email is also sent to the contacts of the care provider with a link to the Review. The care provider is informed that the Review will automatically be published after 14 days unless they select one of the following options:
1) Publish Immediately. The Review will be published and email sent to reviewer and to the contacts of the care provider saying the Review is live.
2) Publish adding a response to the Review. The Review Team verify the response to ensure they abide by the terms of the Review Policy and then the Review will be published with an email sent to the reviewer and to the contacts of the care provider saying the Review is live.
During the moderation process, your personal details may be used by us or passed on to the organisation you are reviewing in order to contact you for the purpose of verifying/responding to your review.
Homecare.co.uk will decide, in its sole discretion, whether a Review complies with the Review Policy.
We reserve the right to edit and alter Reviews to ensure that the Review complies with our Review Policy. As a general rule, we will only edit Reviews to remove names from the content of the reviews and to correct spellings or basic grammar.
We will try to publish as many Reviews as we can but cannot guarantee that all Reviews will be published and we may reject a Review with or without giving reasons for such rejection. If homecare.co.uk rejects a Review submitted by you, if you wish, you can edit the rejected Review and resubmit it. We reserve the right to take down at any time any Review.
We cannot guarantee how quickly Reviews will be posted on our site. We try to process the Reviews as quickly as we can, but on occasions, it can take up to 30 days for them to be Published or deemed non compliant with our Review Policy.
The moderation process is identical for care providers we have a commercial relationship with and for those we do not.
We endeavour to ensure that any Reviews posted on the site are fair and that care providers always have an opportunity to provide their own point of view and to make clear where they disagree with anything being said by a reviewer. By engaging with us in this process care providers acknowledge that the Reviews and associated material published together constitute a fair and balanced set of opinions about their services.
Review Responses
The Review Team verify all Review Responses before publication to check they comply with the Content Standards. For the avoidance of doubt, Review Responses must not reveal specific personal information about the reviewer, the service user or a third party (e.g. the person’s diagnosis or treatment) as this may breach data protection legislation (unfair processing of personal or sensitive personal data) and would also be likely to breach the care provider's duty of confidentiality to the reviewer or service user. Review Responses must be submitted within 3 months of the submission date of the relevant review. We try to verify all Review Responses the same working day but we cannot guarantee this.
Notice & Take Down Procedure on our website
If you believe that someone’s Review on our website does not comply with our Review policy you can alert one of our moderators by clicking on the link provided to report a Review. You will need to provide your email address and/or telephone together with a short explanation why you believe the Review does not comply with our Review Policy. Reporting a Review will not automatically remove it, but will ensure we look at it as soon as possible. The moderators may suspend the Review during the investigation and then will decide whether to remove it permanently or reinstate it. We reserve the right to take down at any time any Review.
If you have submitted a Review and wish it to be taken down from our website, you can contact one of our moderators by clicking on the link provided to report a Review. You will need to provide your email address and/or telephone and to state that you previously submitted the review and now wish for it be removed.
Who can submit Reviews?
Reviews of care providers can only be submitted by residents/service users or their family/friends.
Reviews are not accepted from:
For Reviews submitted on Review Cards, assistance can be given to clients/service users by their family/friends but NOT by staff members. The family/friends 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.
People under 16 should get permission from a parent or guardian before posting on our site.
Content Standards
Reviews must:
Reviews must not:
How Reviews are Submitted
We receive approximately 25% of Reviews through website submission and 75% of Reviews through Review Cards (only available to Enhanced / Premium Service Subscribers more info). For the avoidance of doubt, we only accept Review Cards in their original format ie we do not accept photocopies of Review Cards or Review Cards that are scanned and emailed to us.
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 (see below).
Invite to Review
Care providers using the Invite to Review service shall at all times comply with the requirements of the Data Protection Act 1998 in respect of any data including data relating to their customers and relatives of their customers used in requesting and obtaining feedback.
If a customer or relative of a customer no longer wishes to receive electronic requests for feedback for their care provider, they should contact the care provider directly.
Fraudulent Reviews
Homecare.co.uk is committed to ensuring the integrity of the content it collects and provides to its website users.
Any attempts to mislead, influence or impersonate a service user / client or their friend / family is considered fraudulent, and is subject to penalties. Such fraudulent behaviour includes but is not limited to:
i) Attempts by an owner or agent of a home care or nursing agency to boost the reputation of an organisation by:
- Writing a review for their own organisation or for any organisation they own, manage or have a financial interest in.
- Utilising any optimisation company, marketing organisation, or third party to submit reviews
- Impersonating a competitor, a service user or a friend / family of a service user
- Offering incentives or inducements (including discounts, free prize draws or any special treatment) to service users or friends / family of service users in exchange for reviews or to influence the content of a review
- Submitting reviews on behalf of a service user or friend / family of a service user
- Copying in-house comment cards, letters or reviews from other websites and submitting them as reviews
- Selectively soliciting reviews (by e-mail, through the review cards or by any other means) only from service user or friends / family of service user who have had a positive experience
- Pressurising service users or their friends / family to submit a positive review, remove a negative review or to make changes to a review
- Asking service users or their friends / family to remove their reviews in return for a discount or incentive
- Prohibiting or discouraging service users or their friends / family from posting negative or critical reviews of their experience
- Attempts to damage competitors by submitting a negative review
ii) An owner or agent of a home care or nursing agency writing a review on a direct competitor, even if the review describes a genuine experience.
Whilst investigating a potential fraudulent review, we may suspend the review and then we will decide whether to remove it permanently or reinstate it. If we discover a fraudulent review, as well as removing that review, we may also remove all reviews for that care home / service and any care homes / services in the same group.
Privacy
When you make a Review you will be asked to provide your full name and either your telephone number and/or email address. These details will not be published and will be used to verify/respond to your Review as is necessary. We will retain indefinitely the information / contact details that you provide to us in connection with a particular Review for ongoing verification purposes. We will review our policy on this retention every 2 years. The information may be shared with the care provider but we will not pass on the information to any other third parties.
Reviewers are also asked to provide a 'Display Name' to be shown on the website together with the Review. It is our policy not to publish surnames and where required our Review Team will edit the 'Display Name' appropriately.
Use of your Review
Reviews are published on our website and potentially other selected websites. By submitting a Review to our site, you agree to grant us a non-exclusive, perpetual royalty-free, transferable and sub-licensable licence to use that Review. Although you will still own the copyright in your Review, we will have the right to freely use, edit, alter, reproduce, publish and/or distribute the material contained in your Review. The right to edit and alter the Review will be exercised in order to ensure that the Review complies with the relevant law, this policy and to protect the privacy of individuals. We also have the right to remove Reviews from the site. You further grant us the right to pursue at law any person or entity that violates your or Tomorrows Guides' rights in the Reviews by a breach of these terms. By submitting a Review, you are warranting that you have the right to grant the licence above.
Individual Ratings
There are 6 individual ratings on each review for ‘Overall Standard’, ‘Care/Support’, ‘Treated with Dignity’, ‘Staff’, ‘Management’ and ‘Value For Money’.
For each of these individual ratings, the reviewer can rate a home care or nursing agency: ‘Excellent’, ‘Good’, ‘Satisfactory’, ‘Poor’ or ‘Very Poor’
Review Score
The maximum Review Score for a home care or nursing agency is 10, which is made up of Average Rating of Reviews over all time (maximum of 5 points) and Number of Reviews in the last 12 months (maximum of 5 points):
a) 5 Points are available for the Average Rating of all Reviews over all time. For each review the home care or nursing agency is rated Excellent, Good, Satisfactory, Poor or Very Poor on a number of areas eg Staff, Management etc. The home care or nursing agency receives points for each rating as follows: Excellent = 5. Good = 4. Satisfactory = 3. Poor = 2. Very Poor = 1. These points are added up and then divided by the total number of completed ratings to generate the average rating.
b) 5 Points are available for the number of Positive Reviews in the last 12 months. A Positive Review is defined as any Review with ‘Extremely Likely’ or ‘Likely’ in answer to the question ‘How likely are you to recommend this care provider to friends and family if they needed similar care or treatment?’
The 5 points available are broken down as follows: 3 points for the first Positive Review, 0.5 points for each of the next 4 Positive Reviews ie a home care or nursing agency needs 5 Reviews to receive the maximum score of 5 points.
When a Review is submitted by someone who has previously submitted a Review, only the latest Review will be published and count towards the Review Score.
Group Review Score
The Group Review Score is derived from the average of all the Review Scores of its Members with a Review Score. 50%+ Members of the Group must have a Review Score before a Group Review Score can be achieved.
Homecare.co.uk reserves the right to alter or update this policy at any time.
