The Care Panel is an independent publication about arranging care at home and in care homes across England. This notice explains what we do with personal data, and what you can ask us to do about it. It is written to be read, not to be survived.
Who is responsible for your data
The Care Panel is the data controller for this website and for any enquiry you send us. We can be reached at [email protected], which is the address for every question, request or complaint covered by this notice.
What we collect
- Enquiry details. If you use our enquiry form, we collect your name, email address, telephone number, postcode, who the care is for, the type of care needed, when it is needed, and anything you choose to tell us in the free-text box.
- Funding checker. If you use our home care funding checker, we collect your name, email address, telephone number and the postcode of the person needing care, together with your answers — which may include information about their health — and a summary of the results. We use these, with your explicit consent, to show you the results and to contact you about them and about options for care. We do not share them with any care agency unless you separately agree.
- Analytics, only if you agree. If you accept analytics cookies, Google Analytics records which pages you visit, roughly where in the world you are, and what kind of device you used. It does not tell us who you are. If you accept, Microsoft Clarity also records clicks, scrolling and movement on our pages so we can see where the site is hard to use (anything typed into a form is hidden), and PostHog records which pages you view so that, if you later send an enquiry, we can link those visits to it using a coded reference rather than your name or email. We also keep a short record on your device of how you first reached us and the last 30 pages and actions on our site, which is sent with any enquiry or sign-up you make. If you decline, none of this is collected.
- Server and security logs. Our host records IP addresses and requests to keep the site running and to block attacks. These are kept briefly and are not used to build a profile of you.
Why we are allowed to use it
We handle enquiry details on the basis of your consent, given when you submit the form, and to take steps you have asked for, such as preparing your shortlist and sending your enquiry to the providers shown to you (featured partners for your area, plus any others you leave ticked). Information about health or care needs is special category data, which we handle only with your explicit consent. We use analytics only with your consent, which you give or refuse through the cookie banner. We keep security logs under our legitimate interest in running a site that is not defaced or taken offline.
Who else sees it
We do not sell your data, and we do not pass it to marketing lists, data brokers or lead-generation networks. There are a few exceptions, and we want to be plain about them.
- The care providers shown to you on the form: featured partners for your area, plus any others you leave ticked. The Care Panel earns money from care providers on our panel, who pay us a fee for each enquiry we send them. When you ask for help, we show you the providers your details will go to before you send: featured partners for your area, who always receive your request, plus any rated providers you leave ticked. Nobody else gets your details. Each provider that receives your enquiry then becomes responsible for how it uses your details, under its own privacy notice.
- Google, if you accepted analytics. Google Analytics processes site usage data on our behalf. This may involve transferring data outside the UK, including to the United States, under the safeguards Google applies for international transfers. Declining analytics cookies stops this entirely.
Microsoft, if you accepted analytics. Microsoft Clarity processes recordings of how pages are used on our behalf. Form fields are hidden. Microsoft may process this data in the United States under approved safeguards for international transfers.
PostHog, if you accepted analytics. PostHog processes page views and actions on our behalf on servers in the European Union. It identifies people who send an enquiry only by a coded reference, never their name or email address.
- Our hosting provider. The company that hosts this website processes data on our instructions in order to serve the pages and keep backups.
No one else receives your personal data unless the law requires us to disclose it.
How long we keep it
Personal data is deleted one year after we receive it. That applies to enquiry details, correspondence and analytics records alike. If you ask us to delete something sooner, we will.
Cookies
Cookies needed to make the site work are always on. Analytics cookies are set only if you accept them — the tag that would set them is switched off by default until you choose. You can change your mind whenever you like: open the cookie settings and pick again. Your choice is remembered for six months, after which we ask once more.
If you accept analytics, these may be set: Google Analytics (_ga, _ga_*, up to 2 years); Microsoft Clarity (_clck, up to 1 year, and _clsk, 1 day); PostHog (ph_*_posthog, 1 year); and our own browser storage, cp_attr and cp_path (how you first reached us and your last 30 pages and actions, cleared after 180 days) and cp_sess and cp_cta (this visit only, cleared when you close the tab). If you choose Reject, our own storage is deleted straight away and none of the others are set.
Your rights
Under UK data protection law you can ask us to:
- give you a copy of the personal data we hold about you
- correct anything that is wrong
- delete it
- stop or limit what we do with it
- send it to you, or to someone else, in a portable format
- stop relying on consent you previously gave — withdrawing consent does not undo what was lawful beforehand
Write to [email protected] and we will respond within one month. There is no charge.
If you are unhappy
Tell us first and we will try to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK regulator, at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113. You do not need our permission to do so.
Changes to this notice
If we change how we handle personal data, we will update this page and change the date below. We will not quietly broaden what we do with data you have already given us.
Last updated 23 October 2026.
Care enquiries
When you send a care enquiry, we collect your name, email address, optional phone number, postcode or town, the type of care needed, when it is needed, who it is for, how it may be paid for, and anything you choose to tell us.
We use it to pass your enquiry to the care providers shown to you on the form (featured partners for your area, plus any others you leave ticked), to email you a confirmation and a list of highly rated providers near you, and to keep a record of who we sent it to. Our lawful basis is your consent, which you give on the form. You can withdraw it at any time by emailing us; this does not undo enquiries already sent.
Each provider you choose receives your details and becomes responsible for how it uses them. Providers agree to use them only to respond to your enquiry. Providers pay us a fee for each enquiry; this never affects how we rank them.
We keep enquiry details for 12 months, then delete your name, contact details and message. We do not sell your details or share them with anyone you did not choose.
List emails, reviews and alerts
Email me this list: if you ask us to email you a list of providers, we keep your email address and the town you asked about so we can send the list and two follow-up emails with tips. Every email has an unsubscribe link. We delete these details after 12 months.
Reviews: if you write a review, we publish your star rating, your review and the name you choose to show. We keep your email address privately to check the review is genuine and never show it. If we passed an enquiry to a provider for you, we may email you once, about a month later, to ask for a review.
Rating alerts: if you ask for an alert, we keep your email address and the service you chose until you unsubscribe.
Checklist and guide emails
If you ask for our care home checklist, we keep your email address, the town you gave (if any) and the page you signed up on, so we can send the checklist and up to five short guides over the following month. Every email has an unsubscribe link, and the guides stop if you send us an enquiry. We delete these details after 12 months and never share them.
Your contact details and care providers
Our enquiry and sign-up forms ask for your name, email address and phone number, and may ask about the care needed and where. We use these to send you what you asked for and to contact you about your request.
We share your details with care providers only when you tick a box that says so: on an enquiry form, only with the providers you tick; on a sign-up form (such as our checklist, cost estimate, list or rating alerts), only if you also tick the separate box, and then with featured partners for your area and up to three relevant rated providers near you. Each provider then contacts you directly and is responsible for how it uses your details.
You can withdraw consent or ask us to delete your details at any time by emailing [email protected]. We anonymise enquiry details after 12 months.
Shortlist reminder email
If you tick “If I don’t finish, email me this shortlist once” on an enquiry form, we save your email address, your name if you gave it, and your answers so far (type of care, when it is needed and postcode). If you don’t finish within two hours, we send you one email with your shortlist and nothing else. Our lawful basis is your consent. We delete these details after 30 days, or sooner if you complete your enquiry, and we do not share them with any provider unless you later send an enquiry.
Care alerts for your area
If you choose “Get alerts” after an enquiry, we use your email address and the town you searched to email you when a care service there gets a new CQC rating or a new service opens. Alerts start only after you confirm by email, and we send at most one a week. Our lawful basis is your consent. We keep your details until you unsubscribe, using the link in every alert or by emailing us.
Sending your enquiry to more providers
After an enquiry you can choose to send it to up to two more providers. We share your name, email, phone number and care needs only with the providers you tick, and we keep a record of that choice.
How you found us
When you send an enquiry or sign up, we record how you reached our site (for example a search engine, an advert or a link), the page you started on, and the page and button you used. If you accepted analytics, this also includes the pages you viewed and the actions you took on earlier visits from the same device (the last 30 steps). We keep this with your enquiry to understand which parts of our site help families, under our legitimate interest in improving the site, and delete it with your enquiry details after 12 months.
Care cost reports
If you ask for a free care cost report, we use your postcode or town to work out the local prices and services in the report, and your name, email address and phone number to send it and to record your request. We remove your personal details from our records after 12 months, keeping only a record of your consent for six years. We only share them with care providers if you tick the box asking providers near you to contact you.
Ask a care question (AI assistant)
If you use the “Ask a care question” assistant, the questions you type and the page you are on are sent to Groq, Inc. (USA), which runs the AI model that writes the answer. Transfers to the USA are covered by standard contractual clauses. Groq does not keep these requests by default. We keep the conversation (with any email addresses and phone numbers removed), the page you were on and, if you accepted analytics cookies, how you found our site, for up to 90 days so we can improve the assistant. If you then send us a request, from the chat or any form on the site in the same visit, we add the conversation to your request so we can help you, and keep it with your request for up to 12 months. We never pass the conversation to care providers. Please do not type names, contact details or health information into the assistant. Answers are general information, may be wrong, and are not medical, legal or financial advice.