Feedback Centre
The reviews published on the Healthwatch Norfolk website are individual opinions of service users and are not those of Healthwatch Norfolk. We do not endorse any of the opinions expressed by reviewers.
Healthwatch Norfolk reserve the right to remove a review at any time for any reason.
Healthwatch Norfolk recommends that visitors to our website use the reviews alongside information and feedback on services from other sources including the Care Quality Commission and the NHS website.
- Purpose of Healthwatch Norfolk Feedback Centre
The purpose of the Healthwatch Norfolk Feedback Centre is for individuals to publicly share their experiences of health and social care services in Norfolk. Each review reflects an individual’s views and experiences of a particular service and the reviews should not be taken as an objective evaluation of the quality of local provision. Healthwatch Norfolk does not endorse any of the opinions expressed by reviewers. Healthwatch Norfolk are not affiliated with any third-party service which is listed on this website.
All reviews submitted to the Healthwatch Norfolk Feedback Centre are subject to the agreement of the website’s terms and conditions. The ‘Leave a Review’ feature allows you to leave a review about the service that you, a friend, or a family member received. If you are leaving a review on behalf of someone else, we expect that you have their permission to share their experience with us.
When you leave a review and choose to remain anonymous, we will not publish your personal details on the website or share them with the organisation you are reviewing, except in exceptional circumstances. Examples of exceptional circumstances might include anyone reporting serious self-harm or posing a threat to others.
- Consent
By reading and accepting these terms and conditions and submitting your review to the Healthwatch Norfolk Feedback Centre, you have consented to your review being public facing and therefore anything you share will not be confidential due to the nature of the website. You do not have to leave any personal details along with your review and can tick the box to say your review will be anonymous.
If you do not want to give Healthwatch Norfolk permission to use your contribution on the Healthwatch Norfolk Feedback Centre, please do not submit your review.
By submitting your review to our Feedback Centre, you are giving permission for us to use your feedback anonymously in promotional materials. This includes, but is not limited to, featuring your review in reports, on our website and on our social media channels.
- The role of service providers
The service provider will be able to respond to your comments to demonstrate where improvements have been made, or to help you find or access helpful information. You will be notified if the service provider has responded to your review. You will not be able to reply to their response, but you can get in contact with the service provider directly if you have any further comments.
Service providers are not obliged to read or respond to reviews about their service. If you want a reply to your feedback, you should contact the service provider directly. Using the ‘Leave a Review’ feature on the Healthwatch Norfolk website is not a formal complaint procedure and if you wish to make a complaint you should read our guide to making a complaint: www.healthwatchnorfolk.co.uk/information-and-advice/complaints.
You should be aware your review may allow service providers to guess who you are even when you post anonymously. We do not allow service providers to share your identity in any response they submit on this website.
Service provider responses to reviews are also checked and moderated before publishing.
- The content of reviews
Healthwatch Norfolk welcomes all feedback but in very few cases we may be required to make some amendments to a review in order to meet the below Terms and Conditions. These amendments should not substantively alter the original content of the review. Due to the volume of feedback we receive we cannot guarantee that we will contact you for minor amendments.
All contributions to Healthwatch Norfolk’s website must be:
Respectful of others
Any reviews containing unlawful, harassing, abusive, threatening, obscene, sexually suggestive, racist, homophobic, sexist language, or language promoting hatred of any group or individual will be amended or not be published.
Reviews that stereotype sections of society will also be amended or not be published.
Any swearing or offensive language in reviews will be removed.
Reviews overusing capital letters will be changed to sentence case.
Of a nature which ensures the safety of other service users, carers, and individuals working in the health and social care sector.
Reviews should avoid using personally identifiable information (e.g. names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, or social media handles). This information will be removed by Healthwatch Norfolk during the moderation process.
To avoid defamation, we will remove staff names from critical reviews. When staff are mentioned positively, we will not publish the full name of the staff member, we will change to first name or last name only.
Relevant
If a review could be better attributed to an alternative service, Healthwatch Norfolk will edit the placement during the moderation process. If the review could be attributed to more than one service Healthwatch Norfolk will either choose which service provider the review would be most appropriately attributed or, if appropriate, will duplicate the review to both services.
All reviews must be relevant to helping people make choices about health and social care services in Norfolk. Reviews should be informative, constructive, and not abusive. Reviews which are deemed as not relevant may be amended or may not be published. Any generalisations of experience may also be amended or archived.
Fair, truthful, and honest
Any reviews that contain speculative information or knowingly untrue statements will not be published because they can damage a person/service provider’s reputation and are against the law (The Defamation Act). Any reviews that are clearly intended to discourage a person from using a service may be moderated or removed.
Up-to-date
Healthwatch Norfolk endeavour to capture reviews within the last two years. If you leave a review and explicitly state that it is older than two years, Healthwatch Norfolk may archive this review in the moderation process.
In your own words
Any reviews that have been copyrighted from another source will not be published.
Contributions must not:
Make accusations of clinical negligence in which an individual is identified.
Reviews of this nature will not be published and if you have consented to be contacted you will be contacted and informed of our decision. The relevant formal complaints procedure will also be explained at this time.
Make accusations of criminal activity
If you have left a review of this nature you will be contacted and informed to contact the organisation/service provider directly or in more serious cases, the police.
Be made where there is a formal investigation currently taking place.
Healthwatch Norfolk will consider the implications of publishing the review on the public facing website and may decide not to publish the review.
Contain commercial information.
All reviews trying to promote, advertise, or market anything will be removed.
- Removing reviews
Healthwatch Norfolk reserves the right to remove any reviews at any time for any reason and are under no obligation to publish any reviews.
A breach of any of our terms and conditions can lead to your review being archived. All reviews, whether published or not, contribute to our work and help us build a picture of health and social care services in Norfolk.
Service users are welcome to leave a review for each separate experience they have with a service provider. Healthwatch Norfolk will not publish multiple reviews of the same experience of care.
Healthwatch Norfolk will not remove reviews in cases where a reviewer and a service provider disagree about facts in the review. Healthwatch Norfolk are independent and impartial and it is not possible for us to determine what happened or who is right about the experience of the reviewer.
Healthwatch Norfolk strive to ensure that feedback is not duplicated and is genuine. If you have any concerns about the content which appears on the Healthwatch Norfolk website, please contact [email protected] and we will look at it as soon as possible. Healthwatch Norfolk will then decide whether to remove the review.
- Email addresses and postcodes
Healthwatch Norfolk captures your email address so that you can be contacted if:
- The review contains any information which could be interpreted as a safeguarding issue.
- The review contains information which needs some clarification.
- Healthwatch Norfolk is unable to publish the review for one of the detailed reasons.
- You tick the box wishing for more information surrounding the complaints procedure.
- You would like to receive the Healthwatch Norfolk newsletter.
- A service provider responds to your review
Your email address will never be displayed on the public facing website and we will not share your personal information unless we have concerns for your safety or for the safety of someone else.
We ask for the first half of your postcode so that we can share your experience with the people who are responsible for your care. It will also help us to find out if other people in your area have had a similar experience.
- Moderation Process Timeframe
Healthwatch Norfolk will endeavour to moderate all incoming reviews within one working week of receiving them. There are some instances whereby one working week will not be long enough and if this is the case Healthwatch Norfolk will moderate the reviews as soon after this time as possible. Reasons for delays in moderation are as follows:
- A large input of reviews – for example, due to the collection of a number of reviews at an engagement event
- Staffing levels due to staff absence
- The review may be very long or complex, taking time to moderate effectively
- Healthwatch Norfolk may need to contact the reviewer to clarify the experience or to ask further questions
- The review may raise legal/safeguarding issues whereby advice will be sought.
- Safeguarding concerns
If Healthwatch Norfolk is concerned that a review may constitute a risk of abuse or neglect, the review will be passed onto the Healthwatch Norfolk Safeguarding Lead and appropriate actions will be followed to ensure the safety of the individual(s). This could be to contact you and signpost you to a support agency or to inform you that the details of the review will be passed onto the Safeguarding Team at Norfolk County Council and also to inform you that the review will not be published.
- The future
At Healthwatch Norfolk we are continuously learning and building on our Feedback Centre. Healthwatch Norfolk reserves the right to amend or update the moderation guidelines and Terms and Conditions at any time.
If you have any questions or concerns about our moderation guidelines or Terms and Conditions please contact us on [email protected].
Using our site
This Healthwatch website is maintained for your personal use and viewing. Access and use by you of this site constitutes acceptance by you of our Terms and Conditions, which take effect from the date of first use.
Copyright
The material featured on this site is subject to copyright protection unless otherwise indicated.
This Healthwatch website’s copyright protected material may be reproduced free of charge in any format or medium for research, private study or for internal circulation within an organisation. This is subject to the material being reproduced accurately and not used in a misleading context.
Where any of this Healthwatch website’s copyright items from this site are being republished or copied to others, the source of the material must be identified and the copyright status acknowledged.
Permission to reproduce this Healthwatch website’s protected material does not extend to any material on this site that is identified as being the copyright of a third party. Authorisation to reproduce such material must be obtained from the copyright holders concerned.
Use of the Healthwatch logo
We don’t allow external organisations to use our logo – including all registered providers. The only exceptions may be partner organisations that work closely with us on specific projects. In these cases, we may give permission for our logo to be used.
Our policy on the use of the logo is designed to prevent the public from being misled. Therefore, no provider – including registered providers – are allowed to use the logo.
The Healthwatch logo is a registered trademark and is protected under trademark law. If an external party uses it without permission, this constitutes infringement of our trademark.
Disclaimer
This website and material relating to Healthwatch , information, products and services (or to third party information, products and services), is provided ‘as is’, without any representation or endorsement made and without warranty of any kind whether express or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of satisfactory quality, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, compatibility, security and accuracy.
We do not warrant that the functions in the material contained on this site will be uninterrupted or error free, that defects will be corrected, or that this site or the server that makes it available are free of viruses or represent the full functionality, accuracy, or reliability of the materials.
In no event will we be liable for any loss or damage including, without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage, or any loss or damages whatsoever arising from use or loss of use of, data or profits arising out of or in connection with the use of this website.
Virus protection
We make every effort to check and test material at all stages of production. It is always wise for you to run an anti-virus program on all material downloaded from the Internet.
We cannot accept any responsibility for any loss, disruption or damage to your data or computer system which may occur whilst using material derived from this website.
You may not use the website or access it for any purpose, and/or to upload any content or data, which involves the transmission or other making available of any computer code, file, or program that is harmful or invasive or is intended to damage or hijack the operation of, or to monitor the use of, any hardware, software, or equipment (including, without limitation, any virus, worm, Trojan horse, Easter egg, time bomb or spyware).
Links from your website to this Healthwatch website
You are welcome to link to this website. However, please ensure you comply with the following conditions:
- You must not imply in any way that this Healthwatch website endorses your organisation.
- You may not use any version (local or national) of the Healthwatch logo without written agreement from us.
- It is your responsibility to ensure deep-links to this Healthwatch website are kept updated. We will not notify you if we move content.
Links from this Healthwatch website to your website
At this time this website only links to organisations that fit the following criteria:
- Listing and linking of external websites should not be taken as endorsement of any kind.
- External websites must have a clear aim, be highly relevant to the local Healthwatch audience and must contain quality content.
- Government and public sector agency sites – i.e. departments or non-departmental government bodies
- Statutory bodies
- Educational establishments
- Sites that have some connection with government or established authority – e.g. BBC, Stationery Office
- Selected voluntary bodies and charities with advocacy functions of national importance
- Selected trade, professional associations and unions.
Any links we add to our site must be directly relevant to specific sections or pages of this Healthwatch website.
We reserve the right to refuse or include links to any website.
- Links must be directly relevant to specific sections or pages of the Healthwatch website.
- Sites for which there are grounds for doubting the accuracy of the content will be excluded. A site may be excluded if the professional reputation of the site owner is unknown and/or there are grounds for doubting the accuracy of the content or suspecting critical bias.
- Sites that push particular agenda or interests that might run counter to government policy or main messages will be excluded.
- Private sector sites that promote company products or services will not normally be included.
Although we will endeavor to maintain links to other websites, we cannot guarantee that these links will work all the time and we have no control over the availability or reliability of linked pages.
