Hello Bear 🐻

At the end of last year, we sadly announced the end of our collaboration with Monkey Wellbeing after 8 years. While we were sad to see Monkey go, we wish him the best in his retirement.

However, this change also presented us with an opportunity to develop our own Care Opinion character to assist children and young people sharing their experience of health and social care services.

We are delighted to announce our new character, Bear! 🐻

So, what do we know about Bear?

Bear is a calm, compassionate, gentle bear and we imagine them as a wise but playful soul. They are prepared to help children sharing their experiences to make them feel supported and empowered. For children & young people, this is how Bear introduces themselves and encourages them to share their experience:

"Hi there, I’m the Care Opinion Bear with a heart as big as the mountains. I love listening to stories, because it brings us closer together. I am here to listen to what you have to say and lend you a helping paw!” 

Where is Bear available?

Bear is now available on our homepage to support children in telling their stories, which can be accessed, here. Additionally, Bear is now available as a theme for our invitation links.

What will happen to promotional materials?

We are still working on updating our promotional materials to include Bear! This addition has given an opportunity to review our materials and identify what our subscribers will find most useful for promotion and engagement for children and young people. Bear joining our team gave us a good chance to review our materials and what we need our subscribers will find the most useful. We hope to release the new Bear-themed promotional items in the next couple of months, and I can assure you that we have a few surprises up our sleeve!

How can I obtain Bear images?

We know a lot of you have been waiting for our newest character’s images to create your own promotional materials. If you would like a suite of our Bear images, please get in touch with your Subscriber Support Officer, who will provide you a copy along with a brief brand guideline for the character.

What happens in the future?

We have some exciting plans in store for the future! We envision Bear being joined by even more friends to further enhance our platform and support children and young people in sharing their stories. The 'pawsibilities' are endless!

While these are long-terms goals, we are continuously working towards making the Care Opinion site an even more inclusive and supportive platform for all.