Consent for case studies and photography

How to get consent for a case study or photography

An emotive case study and a great photo can catch people's attention and engage your audience. Whether it's for social media, your website or publications, case studies and photography are vital to help you tell people's stories.

It's important that you make sure the people in your case studies and photos understand where and how the resource will be used by collecting their written permission. 

You can use the case study and photography consent form below to get people's permission.

Guidance on using Healthwatch England photography

What support is available?

Using your own local photography may not always be possible. We carry out regular photoshoots with the public and in health and care services so that you can use free and high quality photos in your work. Visit our photo library.

What does our consent form state?

To be photographed, a member of the public is asked to sign a consent form. This makes clear that the photograph will be used by our network to promote Healthwatch for up to five years. But it also makes clear that if someone withdraws their consent or when the time period for use comes to an end, the image will no longer be used in any new publications or materials.

We make clear that the image may remain on existing publications and materials because the photos were used within the window of consent in accordance of GDPR and had a lawful basis. For example, this could be in old reports/news stories, past social media posts, or backdated collateral.

What should you do when the right to use an image has ended?

When we can no longer use an image going forward, we remove it from:

• The photo library, so the image is no longer available to use
• Current pages on our website (e.g. landing pages), as well as from the Communications Centre
• Other social media and communications systems where the image may be stored (such as Facebook Ads Manager, Canva library, MailChimp library, Eventbrite, personal drives etc.)

What if someone withdraws consent?

In the case where an individual comes forward before the five year consent period is up and actively revokes their consent, then we do our best to remove the photo from wherever this is practical. For example, an image can be changed on old news stories but removing an image from a publication that has already been printed is not.

We ask that you take similar steps and will alert you when consent for an image has expired. On the very rare occasion someone withdraws consent, we will also alert you and ask you to no longer use the image and to remove it from your systems.

Reducing the administrative burden

To save time when asked to remove an image, we would ask that whenever you use an image, you take it from our image library (either on Flickr or our communications centre) and delete the image from your personal computer or shared drive once used. This will reduce the chance of you using an image for which consent has expired.