Privacy Policy

Last updated: 15 October 2026

Who we are

NHS CHC — Evidence & Experience is an independent website about NHS Continuing Healthcare in England. It is operated by Simon Brazendale and is not affiliated with the NHS.

Website: https://watkin.care/
Privacy contact: admin@watkin.care

Simon B is responsible for the personal information collected through this website.

Information we collect and why

Depending on how you use the website, we may collect:

  • Your email address and information you provide when contacting us.
  • Your name, email address, comment and technical information when submitting a WordPress comment.
  • Responses submitted through our Microsoft Forms questionnaire.
  • Technical information about visits, including pages viewed, browser and device information, and cookie preferences.

We use this information to respond to enquiries, manage comments, understand submitted CHC experiences, maintain website security and improve the website.

You do not need to submit a comment or questionnaire response to read the website.

Our lawful bases for using personal information

Where information identifies you, or could reasonably be used to identify you, we rely on the following lawful bases under the UK General Data Protection Regulation:

  • Consent: for using identifiable questionnaire contributions and for optional follow-up contact. Separate permissions govern the use of anonymised summaries and quotations.
  • Legitimate interests: for responding to routine enquiries, administering voluntarily submitted comments, preventing misuse and maintaining website security. Our interests are operating an informative website and communicating with people who contact us, while respecting their privacy.
  • Consent for optional analytics: where Google Analytics processes personal information through optional analytics technologies, we rely on visitors’ consent.
  • Legal obligation: where we must retain or disclose information to comply with a legal requirement.

Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing undertaken before withdrawal.

Genuinely anonymous information, from which individuals cannot reasonably be identified, is not personal information.

Questionnaire responses

The questionnaire is for people aged 18 or older sharing an adult’s experience of NHS Continuing Healthcare in England. It gathers evidence about assessment, review, challenge and related processes.

Responses submitted through the website form are stored in the website’s WordPress database, hosted by Freeola. The form does not ask for your name. It records your answers, the submission date and time, and technical information including your IP address, browser information and referring webpage address. Responses are therefore not anonymous at the point of collection.

Please do not include names, addresses, dates of birth, NHS or case numbers, identifiable care records, or other information that could identify you or another person.

You may voluntarily provide an email address if you agree to follow-up contact. It will be used only for the contact purposes you select. It will not be published or included in government submissions.

Participation is voluntary. Separate questions ask whether your response may be included in anonymised summaries and whether anonymised quotations may be used. These permissions cover:

  • This website.
  • Submissions to the Department of Health and Social Care, ministers or senior government representatives.
  • Evidence supporting a future petition.

Your choices will be respected. Permission for follow-up contact is separate from permission to use your contribution. Completing the questionnaire does not sign a petition.

Before using a contribution in a summary or quotation, we will review it and remove or generalise potentially identifying details. We will omit quotations where identification remains reasonably possible.

Original responses, associated technical information and optional email addresses are retained for 12 months from submission, then deleted from the website’s form records and working copies or exports held by the website operator. Genuinely anonymous summaries may be retained longer.

Responses previously submitted through Microsoft Forms remain subject to the permissions given when they were submitted and the same 12-month retention period. They will be deleted from Microsoft Forms and working copies or exports at the end of that period.

To request withdrawal of your response or permission for contact, email admin@watkin.care. We may need enough information to locate your submission. Please do not send identity documents or identifiable care records. Contributions already combined into genuinely anonymous findings may no longer be separable.

Protecting people’s identities

Please focus on your experience of the CHC process. Do not include names, addresses, NHS numbers, care records or other details identifying you, the person receiving care, professionals or other individuals.

Removing a name does not necessarily make a story anonymous. Exact dates, locations, unusual circumstances and detailed descriptions may identify someone when combined with other information.

The questionnaire is not intended to collect identifiable medical records or identifiable health information about another person. Permission to describe your own experience does not automatically authorise the use of another adult’s personal or health information.

Responses will be reviewed before publication or external use. Identifying details will be removed or generalised, and material that cannot be adequately anonymised will be omitted. Unnecessary identifying information submitted accidentally will be removed from working records or the affected response deleted.

How long we keep information:

  • Questionnaire responses and optional email addresses: 12 months from submission, then deleted from Microsoft Forms and operator-held working copies or exports.
  • Genuinely anonymous summaries and combined findings: may be retained longer.
  • Published comments and associated records: while the relevant page remains published, unless removed earlier.
  • Routine enquiry emails: 12 months after the enquiry is resolved.
  • Correspondence needed for an ongoing complaint, dispute or legal obligation: retained for as long as necessary for that purpose, then deleted.
  • Google Analytics information: according to the settings described above.
  • Hosting logs and statistics: according to Freeola’s arrangements described above.

Providers may retain limited backup, security or service records under their own retention arrangements. Deletion from the website operator’s working records does not necessarily mean immediate deletion from every provider backup.

Withdrawing a response or permission

You can withdraw permission for follow-up contact or request withdrawal of your response by emailing admin@watkin.care.

Please provide enough information to help locate your contribution, without sending additional confidential care information.

We may be unable to identify a response submitted without contact details. Contributions already incorporated into genuinely anonymous combined findings may no longer be separable.

Comments

When you submit a comment, WordPress collects the information entered in the comment form, including your display name, email address and comment. It may also record your IP address and browser information for security and spam prevention.

Published comments and display names are publicly visible. Your email address is not displayed publicly.

Please do not include confidential care records or information identifying the person receiving care, professionals or other individuals.

You can request removal of your comment by emailing admin@watkin.care. Removing it from this website cannot guarantee removal of copies held by search engines or other people.

Cookies and Google Analytics

Cookies are small files stored on your device. Similar technologies may also be used to support website functions or understand how the website is used.

The website may use necessary cookies for functions such as security, remembering privacy choices and administering WordPress. WordPress may also offer to remember your comment details if you choose that option.

Google Analytics is used to understand website usage, including which pages are visited and how visitors navigate the website. Google may process technical information such as browser and device details, approximate location and online identifiers.

Optional analytics technologies are enabled only after you consent through the website’s cookie controls. You can reject optional analytics and later change or withdraw your choice through those controls.

Rejecting optional analytics does not prevent you from reading the website.

You can also manage cookies through your browser settings, although blocking necessary cookies may affect some website functions.

Google Analytics is configured to retain event-level data for two months and user-level data for 14 months, without resetting user retention on new activity. These settings do not apply to standard aggregated reports, which may remain available longer.

Further information: Google Privacy Policy.

Hosting and technical logs

Freeola provides website hosting and maintains technical logs for operation, security and usage statistics. These logs may include IP addresses, access times, requested pages and browser information.

Freeola has advised that:

  • Web logs are retained for 90 days.
  • ModSecurity logs rotate when they reach 300 MB.
  • Apache and Nginx logs rotate on a five-day cycle.
  • Information incorporated into AWStats or Webalizer statistics databases may be retained longer.

Freeola has not supplied a specific retention period for information held in those statistics databases. Log rotation does not necessarily mean that all related information is immediately deleted.

Service providers and information sharing

We use services provided by:

  • Freeola, for website hosting and email services.
  • Microsoft, for Microsoft Forms and storage of questionnaire responses.
  • Google, for Google Analytics.

These providers may process information needed to deliver, secure and maintain their services. Their own privacy terms also explain processing they undertake for their own purposes.

Microsoft’s privacy information is available at: Microsoft Privacy Statement.

Questionnaire evidence shared publicly or with government representatives will be anonymised and used according to the permissions selected. Optional contact email addresses will not be included.

We do not sell personal information or use questionnaire contact details for advertising.

Personal information may also be disclosed where required by law or where necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

Processing outside the United Kingdom

Microsoft and Google operate internationally, so information processed through their services may be stored or accessed outside the United Kingdom.

Their published privacy information describes the countries involved and the safeguards they use. Depending on the service and destination, these may include UK adequacy arrangements, the UK Extension to the EU–US Data Privacy Framework, or approved contractual safeguards.

Further information is available in the Microsoft Privacy Statement and Google’s data transfer information.

You can contact us for information about the arrangements applicable to personal information collected through this website.

Keeping information secure

We use reasonable measures to protect personal information and limit its use to the purposes described in this policy.

Please avoid sending confidential clinical documents or unnecessary identifying information through comments, questionnaire answers or routine email.

No internet transmission or storage system can be guaranteed completely secure.

Your data protection rights

Depending on the circumstances and the lawful basis involved, you may have the right to:

  • Access your personal information.
  • Correct inaccurate or incomplete information.
  • Request deletion of your information.
  • Restrict how your information is used.
  • Object to processing based on legitimate interests.
  • Receive certain information in a portable format.
  • Withdraw consent where processing relies on consent.

These rights are subject to applicable legal conditions and exceptions.

To make a request, email admin@watkin.care. We may need limited information to verify your identity or locate the relevant records. We normally respond within one month; where a lawful extension applies, we will explain this.

We cannot provide or remove genuinely anonymous information as an individual record if we cannot identify which contribution is yours.

We do not use your information to make solely automated decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects on you.

Complaints

If you have concerns about how your personal information is handled, please contact admin@watkin.care.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK data protection regulator:

Website: https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/

You do not have to contact us before approaching the ICO.

The website contains links to other websites and may embed services such as Microsoft Forms. Those services may process technical information when you open or interact with them.

This policy covers processing for the purposes of this website. Other organisations’ privacy policies explain how they handle information through their own services.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy when the website, questionnaire or information-handling arrangements change. The date at the top identifies the latest revision.