Some stories sent to Care Opinion may raise concerns that someone, or some people, are being abused or grossly neglected.
Concerns like this are also called “safeguarding issues”.
Care Opinion itself has no powers to investigate concerns about abuse or gross negligence, but we can help to make sure such concerns are reported to the proper authorities.
How we act on concerns of abuse or gross negligence
The first thing we do, for every story we receive, is to ask: “Does this story raise any concerns suggesting current abuse or gross negligence?”
If the story does raise such concerns, we will not publish it on Care Opinion. Instead, if we judge the story author is able to report their concerns, we will direct them to the proper authority, according to their location.
If we judge the story author is unable to report their concerns themselves, then Care Opinion will forward the story to the relevant proper authority. We expect this to be a rare event.
In either case, the story will not appear on Care Opinion.