Socialheads
Built for
real use
Co-designed with young people, care professionals, and safeguarding experts.
Why Socialheads matters
Four people have to get something out of this before it sticks. Here is what each of them gets.
For practitioners
Frontline workers carrying too much admin
- A familiar chat, finally sanctioned, with the record ready to export when you need it
- A work account on your own phone, so your personal number stays yours
- Messaging young people already know how to use
For managers
A record of staff and young person contact you can stand behind
- Evidence for an inspection, from a trail written as things happen
- Staff-led conversations, so every conversation starts with someone your service named
- Conversations and files live with the service, rather than on personal phones
For organisations
Leaders needing visibility and control
- Communication in one approved place, with a record of it
- Governance designed around the responsibilities you already hold
- The same standard across every team and site
For young people
Young people seeking safety and control
- You can see who supports you, and ask for a copy of what is held about you
- A space that feels natural, not institutional
- Personal data encrypted field by field, and never mined
Built for your service
We set Socialheads up with you, around the processes you already run: what can be shared, the titles your team uses, and what staff can do. From a simple, restricted messaging channel to a fuller app with media and guidance built in.
How Socialheads compares
The other columns are filled in from what each product says publicly. If you are working out where it sits alongside your existing systems, where Socialheads fits covers that. Where they do not say, we show a dash rather than guess. One row is a win for WhatsApp, because that is the honest picture. There is also a plain guide to choosing a messaging platform.
Legend:
Full support | Partial support | Not supported | Not stated publicly
Other platforms are shown as described in their own public materials. Where they do not address a point, we say so rather than assume. Last checked against their published materials on 27 August 2026.
Your team, day one
A group chat for your team
Work accounts on the phones they already carry. Personal numbers stay personal.
Chats start with a worker
Only staff can open a chat. Your service decides which staff.
Turned on in stages
Staff first. Messaging the people you support is a separate switch, with who agreed recorded.
Reaching the people you support
A browser is enough
An invite opens on a library computer, a shared tablet or a friend’s phone. Nothing to install, and it works without an app store account or a bank card.
A named parent or carer, in one conversation
One person, one conversation, the same rules and record as everyone in it.
When you need to look back
A worker leaves. The record stays.
Their access ends. The chats stay with your service.
A record you can show an inspector
One person’s messages as a PDF or a spreadsheet, made in the product. They can ask for their own copy too.
Kept for as long as you decide
Nothing is deleted on a timer. Deletion requests go to your DPO.
Who can see what
You can answer “who looked at this?”
Views, joins and exports are logged. Opening the log is logged too.
Reading a conversation is never quiet
Named people, a written reason, a time limit, and every admin told.
A young person can always flag a message
It goes to the safeguarding lead, never back to the sender.
Encrypted, with a governed way in
Not end to end, on purpose, so a safeguarding lead can review a conversation when they need to. How review works here.
You’re always talking to a person
Messages are never sent to an AI company and never used to train a model.
Core is from £3,000 a year, prices are published, and your data is never the product. See pricing.
Where data is held, what we do as your processor, and every company we rely on: trust and security.
Reading this because someone has invited you, rather than because you are buying it? Who can see my information answers the same questions in plain words.
How Socialheads saves time and money
See estimated annual savings based on your service size. Less time on admin, and a record that writes itself as you work.
Any questions?
Check out the FAQs
Still have unanswered questions and need to get in touch?
Reach outSocialheads is a paid service. Core starts at £3,000 a year for a single service, and our pricing page sets out what each plan includes. We never monetise or sell your data, and our articles of association hold us to that. See our privacy policy.
Chats are staff-led: only staff can start conversations. Depending on your service model, conversations are either assigned to specific young people or open to any staff member in your service. This is configurable, so it matches how your service works.
WhatsApp is built for private life, where not being accountable to an employer is the whole point. So the account belongs to the person, the history leaves with the handset, and there is nothing to produce when someone asks what contact a person had. Socialheads keeps the familiarity and gives the conversation to the service instead, with a record of it. Our buyer's guide is the vendor neutral version of this question.
Yes. Everything travels over an encrypted connection, and personal data is encrypted field by field in the database rather than sitting in readable columns. Reading a conversation is limited to the people in it, and any other access, ours included, needs a recorded reason your service can see. Our trust and security page is the governance detail, and we will send the full pack to whoever is running your review.
Inspectors ask what contact a person had, how the service responded, and how you know. Socialheads produces a document per person, covering a period, in minutes rather than by collecting phones.