Editorial standards and complaints

• Everything we publish is read and approved by a member of our team before it goes live. Nothing is published automatically.
• We check facts against more than one source where we can, and we would rather hold a story back than publish something we are not sure of.
• Where a story comes from an organisation — the council, a hospital, a police force, a trust — we credit that organisation. Where we have reported it ourselves, it is credited to the Sheffield Essentials newsdesk.
• We do not copy other news outlets. If we learn of something from somewhere else, we check it ourselves and write it up in our own words.
• We keep a close eye on the official feeds of the organisations that serve this area, and on what people send us, and we tell you where information came from.

If something we have published is wrong — a name, a number, a date, a venue, a photo — tell us and we will put it right. We correct the story itself, and where the mistake has already been shared we will update the version people have seen. You do not need to prove your case beyond a reasonable doubt; a clear explanation and, where possible, a link or a document helps us move faster.

If you are named, photographed or clearly identifiable in something we have published and you feel your side has not been told, get in touch and we will add your response to the story. If we contacted you before publishing and you chose not to reply, we will say so fairly in the piece.

We will remove these on request, usually the same day: home addresses and house numbers, phone numbers and email addresses, school and nursery names, and the names or photographs of children who are not the subject of the story.

For a whole story, we look at each request individually: how old the story is, whether it is still relevant, how much of a public figure the person has become, and whether the public interest in keeping it up outweighs the harm to the person in it. Where we can, we will update, anonymise or take down rather than simply refuse. We will always tell you what we have decided and why.

• We describe charges and pleas as alleged or accused until a court has decided, and we say what the outcome was when we learn of it.
• We respect reporting restrictions and what a court has ruled must stay out of the papers. If you think we have published something that should not have been reported, say so and we will look at once.
• If charges are dropped, a case collapses, or someone is cleared after we reported the earlier stage, tell us and we will update or remove the original story.

We take advertising, and it is always marked as advertising. We do not accept payment to write a news story, to leave a story up, or to take one down. A business paying us for advertising does not get a say in what we report about them.

Email hello@sheffieldessentials.co.uk or message us on WhatsApp 0114 321 31 31. Please include the web address of the page, what you believe is wrong or harmful, and what you would like us to do about it.

We aim to reply within five working days, and far sooner if something is urgent or seriously wrong. You will hear from a named member of the team, not an automated reply.

We are not a member of a press standards regulator, so there is no external press complaint service to refer editorial complaints to. We would rather fix it with you directly, and we will keep talking to you until we have explained our decision properly.

If your complaint is about how we have handled your personal information and you are not happy with our answer, you can raise it with the Information Commissioner’s Office at https://ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113. Our privacy notice explains your rights in full.

These standards are set and applied by Essentials Media Ltd, which runs Sheffield Essentials, the other Essentials town sites, Radio Essentials and Sheffield Podcast.