What difference are we making?

The purpose of Care Opinion has never been to collect data. The purpose, as our mission makes clear, is to make it safe and simple for people to give feedback in ways which lead to learning and change. The point is to make a difference.

So I am excited to be able to share Care Opinion's first impact report (what took us so long?) which aims to set out at least some of the impact we are creating in health and social care through public online feedback.

The impacts of online feedback can be hard to identify, let alone quantify, in part because they can be very diverse. For example, sharing a story online may create worthwhile benefits for:

• the story author

• other patients or carers

• staff in the team providing care

• others in the providing organisation

• other local healthcare organisations such as commissioners, funders, patient groups, local authorities

• healthcare regulators

• policymakers

• researchers

• teachers and students in health professional training

And the impact for any of these groups may affect morale, confidence, understanding, culture, information or other things.

We've tried in our report to give a flavour of the diversity of impacts we see. But if you see other impacts too, please let us know, either by posting a comment below or via social media.

I hope you find the report informative and helpful in your own discussions around the value of public online feedback in health and social care.