Care Support Independence

Some pages on the website include the ability for readers to add their own comments. David Behan and the care and support Green Paper team encourage you to respond, sharing your thoughts and experiences. We just ask that your comments are constructive, polite and tasteful.

Every comment is read before it is published and must comply with our rules. Every comment is judged individually. We ask for your email details purely in order to contact you about your comment.

We reserve the right (on behalf of ourselves and any moderator which we may appoint) to edit, not put on the website or delete any comments you submit if, in our view, you have not complied with the rules of conduct set out below.

Postings should relate to your own personal experience. You should not name any individuals (other than yourself) or include information through which someone else could identify such an individual. If you want to comment on someone else’s experience, (e.g. a relative or someone you care for) then you may do so if you ensure that you are not named in the posting and you state how the other person is connected to you (e.g. ‘my father’).

While we acknowledge that references to political parties and their policies may often be inevitable, we reserve the right to exclude comments which are purely party-political in nature.

Do not write comments that are unlawful, harassing, defamatory, abusive, threatening, harmful, obscene, profane, sexually suggestive or racist, homophobic, sexist or inciting of hatred against any group. No comment with swearing or profanity will be published. Do not incite people to commit any crime, including incitement of racial hatred. Comments advocating criminal or immoral activities will not be allowed.

Multiple or repetitive postings will be deleted.

Impersonating someone is unacceptable as is using offensive nicknames. Please don’t be offended if you are asked to verify who you are if you claim to be someone well-known.

You are legally liable for the things you write, so think carefully about what you say. Your comments should be truthful and reflect your honestly held opinions. The Department of Health is legally liable for publishing the comments but you could also be sued for making them.

You should not use our comments feature to make complaints about individual hospitals or treatment centres where the matter should be dealt with under the NHS complaints procedures.

If you find any comments offensive or objectionable you may make a complaint by contacting careandsupport@dh.gsi.gov.uk.

Violation of any of the rules above may lead to your comment being rejected and an order to block correspondence from your e-mail address. We also reserve the right to delete any comment, at any time, and for any reason.