Cookies

Cookies are small text files which are transferred to your computer or mobile when you visit a website or app. We use them to help us understand how people are using our services, so we can make them better.

Please be aware that some systems on our website require the use of cookies, however where non-essential cookies are in use, we will only collect the information with your permission.

They improve your experience by:

  • Remembering settings and information (like the names of health or social care services you've searched for) so you don't have to keep re-entering them.
  • Helping us understand how people are using our website, so we can make your experience even better
  • Telling us if our emails have been read and if you find them useful

Types of cookies and how we use them

First party cookies

First party cookies are our own. We control them and use them to provide information about the way you use our website.

Has_js
Some parts of our website use javascript - a web language - to display content. If your web browser has javascript disabled, it helps us to know so that we can display the page to you in another way. This cookie allows our website to know if you have javascript enabled or not.

healthwatch_cookiecontrol
This maintains the open/closed state of the "Cookie Control" dialog.

lang
This is set by the Twitter widget and simply stores a language code.

Third party cookies

Third party cookies are set by someone other than the owner of the Healthwatch site. For example, when you share a link from our website onto your social media platform, the platform may set a cookie on your browser.

We have no control over third-party cookies, you can turn them off but not via Healthwatch England. You should check the other websites for more information about their cookies.

Functional, performance and advertising cookies

We also use functional, performance and advertising cookies to make your experience more enjoyable. If you don’t want to enable these cookies you can select ‘decline’ in the cookies banner.

We will only use this cookie type if you have agreed. See below for examples of these cookies and how we use them at Healthwatch England.

Facebook Pixel

This Cookie is placed by Facebook.  It enables us to measure and build audiences for advertising campaigns displayed on Facebook. In particular, it helps us to see how our users move between devices when accessing our website and Facebook. This is to ensure that our Facebook advertising is seen by people who most likely to be interested in such advertising by analysing which content a user has viewed and interacted with on our website. For further information about the Facebook Pixel please see: About Facebook pixel | Facebook Business Help Centre

Hotjar

We use Hotjar to better understand our users’ needs and to optimise this service and experience (e.g. how much time they spend on which pages, which links they choose to click, what users do and don’t like.) This enables us to build and maintain our service with user feedback.

Hotjar uses cookies and other technologies to collect data on our users’ behaviour and their devices. This includes a device's IP address (processed during your session and stored in a de-identified form), device screen size, device type (unique device identifiers), browser information, geographic location (country only), and the preferred language used to display our website. Hotjar stores this information on our behalf in a pseudonymised user profile. Hotjar is contractually forbidden to sell any of the data collected on our behalf.

You can find out more through Hotjar.

Measuring website usage through Google analytics

We use Google Analytics to view statistics on the way you use our website. We can check:

  • how many people have visited our website and what content they look at.
  • how many times documents have been downloaded.
  • what people are looking for on our website. We use the following third-party cookies set by Google Analytics.

For more information, please read Google's Privacy Policy at www.google.com/policies/privacy/

How long do cookies last?

Some are erased when you close your website browser. Others stay longer and are saved onto your device when you come back. Some can be deleted by deleting your browser history.

Managing the cookies on your computer

You can restrict or block cookies set by our website and others by changing the settings in your browser. However, doing this may impact the way our website works for you in the future.

Visit the About Cookies website to find out more about restricting or blocking cookies in different browsers.

You can also learn more about cookies on the DirectGov website.

To find out more about information that we collect and how we use it, visit our privacy policy.