CarePlace – a great way to profile your service

What is CarePlace? CarePlace is a web based information and advice directory profiling and promoting organisations. It is designed to help residents make informed choices about support and care available to them. Residents can search by name or by category (for example ‘help at home’), type in their postcodes and access a broad range of information and lists of local organisations.

Why are we telling you about CarePlace? It will become an important source of information for professionals, residents and the wider public. Ealing Council’s adult social care staff use CarePlace ( to find information and services to meet their residents’ needs. We want to ensure that local voluntary and community sector services are represented on CarePlace. Currently ONLY 10 organisations are listed under Charities, Clubs and Societies for whole of Ealing. It is important to make sure you are there and visible

What do you need to do? It is important to build a profile that helps people find you. Make the time to do this thoroughly Ealing CVS are here to give you tips and support on how to do that. By registering, you get a free directory profile which enables you to describe your service, add pictures and locations and link back to your own contact number, and website.

How do you do it? If you are already there, time to update your profile! Find out if you have a profile by typing your organisation name into the search box… Register for a profile. Once approved, create an organisation profile. Once approved by the administrators list all your services on separate service pages. Make time to do this thoroughly so people can easily find relevant info.

Areas to focus on There are four key areas that groups need to focus on when building their profiles: 1.Service type – allocate your services so that they appear in search results. 2.Info fields – choose from drop down menus. Add as many fields as apply to you. 3.Content description (can be searched for key words) 4.Check you are allocated to the appropriate categories under the “Marketplace Settings” section.

Use images and logos. This is eye-catching for users among a list of results. If you have a lot of services to list consider using volunteers to help update your profile. You can edit your profile at any time. Be patient. Sometimes you need approval to make changes. They are generally very quick to respond. Log in to your profile regularly, every 3-6 months to ensure the information is correct.  After 6 months you will get a reminder.  After 12 months, if you do not log in, your profile will be de-activated. This is to ensure the information on the site is correct.

And Finally… CarePlace will be launched to Ealing residents in summer 2015 once the site has been redesigned and is easily accessible on mobile devices and tablets. Get your information on CarePlace before the launch so that local people can benefit from the support and services you offer.