What does my review have to include and is there required content standards?

As a review site we pride ourselves on including the most detailed and factually accurate reviews in the care industry. For that reason Reviews must be:

• Accurate (where it states facts)

• Genuinely held (where it states opinion)

• Relevant (about the care/service provided)

• Informative

• Civil and respectful of others

• A first-hand personal experience (no second-hand information, rumours or quotations from other sources)

• 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)

• A maximum of 1,000 characters (with spaces) in length, which is approximately 150 words

• Written in English and comply with acceptable standards of spelling and grammar

• Submitted in a reasonable time frame - the resident/service user must have used the care provider within the last 12 months

• Complete ie all Review fields must be completed

• Comply with the laws applicable in England and Wales and in any country from which it is posted

What can’t my review include and are there required content standards?

Reviews must not: 

• Contain specific unwarranted accusations of negligence, abuse or criminal activity

• Be defamatory of any individual or organisation

• Be obscene, offensive, hateful, threatening, inflammatory or be likely to harass or calculated to seriously alarm or annoy any other person

• Be made with malicious intent or be made as part of a campaign to sully the reputation of the care provider

• Promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age

• Contain abusive language

• Disclose the name, address, telephone, mobile or fax number, e-mail address or any other personal data in respect of any individual

• Contain any reference to the Review Score of the organisation/business being reviewed

• Contain references to other specific Reviews

• Stereotype sections of society

• Name any organisations/businesses other than the organisation/business that is being reviewed

• Infringe any copyright, database right or trade mark of any other person

• Refer directly to a past or ongoing civil, court or tribunal proceedings or investigations/proceedings by regulatory bodies (eg regulatory authorities, social services, ombudsman)

• Refer to matters that are the subject of ongoing civil, court or tribunal proceedings or investigations/proceedings by regulatory bodies (eg regulatory authorities, social services, ombudsman) even where no direct reference is made to those proceedings or investigations

• Breach any legal duty owed to a third party, such as a contractual duty or a duty of confidence

• Be in contempt of court

• 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

To help maintain the integrity of our site, we do reserve the right to carry out a full audit of all reviews and if we are alerted to the possibility of fraudulent reviews or if we are suspicious about reviews (e.g. several reviews submitted with the same handwriting or all reviews have an excellent rating for all categories). When performing an audit, we may ask all or some of the following questions:

Did you complete the review card yourself?

Did you submit the review online yourself?

Where did you complete the review?

Were you able to take the card away to complete it at your leisure?

Did you choose all the ratings yourself?

Were you asked to hand the card back to the care provider (sealed or unsealed) before posting?