Social media and comment moderation policy

The following moderation guidelines relate to our social media channels. This includes Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, and YouTube.

These guidelines are in place to help create a safe place where you can engage with us, make comments, suggestions and ask questions.

Moderation guidelines

Keep our guidelines in mind when submitting comments and direct messages to our social media channels.

We moderate all messages and reserve the right to remove those which break our moderation guidelines. This is not about censoring your views. Moderation will not be used to suppress legitimate, reasoned discussion, criticism or complaints.

Inappropriate comments or content may include:

Malicious or offensive messages that could constitute a personal attack on a person’s character, including other people using our social media channels, and our staff.
Inciting hatred on the basis of race, religion, gender, nationality or sexuality or any other personal characteristic.
Sharing personal details, such as private addresses, phone numbers, email addresses or other online contact details.
High volumes of overly long messages which could constitute as spamming.
Repetitive negative messages which aim to provoke a response or do not constructively add to the conversation.
Comments that impersonate or falsely claim to represent a person or organisation.
Swearing, hate-speech or obscenity.
Comments which break the law - this includes libel, condoning illegal activity, and breaking copyright.
Advertising commercial products and services - you can mention relevant products and services as long as they support your comment.
Breach of any of the terms of any of the social media platforms themselves.

We reserve the right to remove comments, at our discretion, deemed inappropriate at any time. If we remove a comment for a reason listed above, we will try to reply to the commenter explaining our reason. We will invite them to make appropriate changes so that the comment can be reconsidered. Repeated breaking of these guidelines could result in the commenter being banned from viewing or commenting on our social media channels.

X, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube

We use X, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube as tools in our effort to communicate clearly, quickly and in an engaging manner to people who use our services and are interested in our work.

All our official channels display verified badges which confirm that they are recognised as authentic pages for our organisation and services. Social media pages that attempt to replicate our name, service, or branding should not be treated as trusted sources of information.

This page lists all our official channels. Be cautious of malicious pages operating on channels where we do not yet have a social media presence, such as WhatsApp and TikTok.

We run 21 social media accounts.

Content

We use social media to publish a variety of content about the NHSBSA and our services. This includes:

guidance on how to access our services
links to NHSBSA news, blog posts, videos, guidance and other approved, publicly available NHS material
topical questions related to our work intended to provoke discussion
proactive social media campaigns (including paid advertising) targeted to different audiences within the health and social care sector, and the public
links to relevant information produced and published elsewhere (work of other NHS organisations, patient organisations, researchers, news organisations and others) - this can include videos, blog posts, and retweets (RTs) from other Twitter users
interesting figures, facts, quotes from our staff, or observations related to our work

Retweets (RT) and shares

Content we retweet (RT) or share on social media does not imply endorsement. We may retweet news, links and personal observations we believe are relevant to the work we do.

Following

Our decision to follow particular accounts does not imply endorsement. We follow accounts on Twitter we believe are relevant to our work. This could include following the Twitter accounts of companies and other commercial enterprises, or their employees, who comment on NHS-related issues, or politicians from different political parties.

Availability

We are committed to updating and monitoring our social media accounts during regular office hours. These operating hours vary between our different services and accounts.

However, like many social media accounts, we may monitor and respond at other times of the day. We accept no responsibility for lack of service due to Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn’s downtime.

Replies and direct messages

We read every comment and respond wherever we can. We try to answer your questions where possible, but cannot handle every type of enquiry through social media.

Due to the volume of traffic on our social media accounts, it is not always possible to respond. We encourage you to use other ways to contact us if your question or comment requires urgent attention.

Handling your queries

Providing information and evidence on social media

To resolve your query, we may request personal information or evidence to verify your identity and locate your record.

You need to be aware that any information or evidence you share with us by a direct message may be used by your social media provider in line with their privacy policy and terms and conditions.

Contacting us on behalf of someone else

In some instances, third parties such as family, friends, or organisations may want to contact us on behalf of someone who needs help with one of our services.

We need explicit consent from the customer before talking to a third party (including family members) about their record.

The customer can provide consent by contacting us by phone or email.

Complaints, media requests, and freedom of information requests

We encourage you to follow traditional channels to make a media request, freedom of information (FOI) request, or complaint. See details of other ways to contact us.

NHSBSA staff social media

Some of our staff post on social media under their own names or pseudonyms. Despite their professional affiliation with the NHSBSA, their social media posts do not represent the official position of the NHSBSA or our Board and should be considered the product of each individual as a private citizen.