A page a parent, a teacher or a journalist would read.

If something is urgent

HereHum is not an emergency service. It cannot send help or ring anyone for you. When someone tells HereHum that a person may be in danger, it gives them the number to ring before anything else.

If you smell gas, or a carbon monoxide alarm goes off, ring the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999. It is free, day and night. If you are on a mobile, ring from outside. Open doors and windows, don’t smoke or light anything, and don’t touch any electrical switches. Turn the gas off at the meter, but never go into a cellar or basement to do it. If a carbon monoxide alarm goes off, or anyone feels unwell, turn off your gas appliances and get everyone outside into fresh air.

If there is a fire, ring 999. If the fire or smoke is in your home, get out, stay out and shut the doors behind you. In a block of flats, follow your building’s fire plan.

If someone is seriously ill or hurt, or anyone is in danger right now, ring 999. If you need medical help and it is not life-threatening, ring NHS 111 or go to 111.nhs.uk. It is free, day and night.

If you have just been robbed, burgled, attacked or threatened, ring 999 from somewhere safe, and don’t follow or challenge the person who did it. When the police answer, say first if anyone was pushed, hit or threatened, and whether the person is still nearby. If it happened a while ago and nobody is in danger now, ring the police on 101 or report it online at police.uk. If you work in retail, the Retail Trust’s helpline is free, day and night, on 0808 801 0808.

For a power cut, ring 105. For the police when it is not an emergency, ring 101. If you are struggling to cope, Samaritans are there on 116 123, free, at any time.

If you cannot speak on the phone, you can register to text 999: text the word register to 999 and follow the reply. The gas emergency line also takes Relay UK calls on 18001 0800 111 999.

Young people

On text and web chat, HereHum treats everyone as possibly under eighteen unless told otherwise in that conversation.

It never sends links that are not its own, never collects more than it needs, and knows when to say “talk to someone” and give the number.

What we collect, and what we do not

Your phone number, so we can reply, and what you asked for, so we can help with it.

Nothing you tell HereHum is sold to anyone. Organisations see numbers (how often people asked for them), not names.

A conversation is kept for twelve months, then deleted; a call recording, where made, for thirty days.

What happens to a conversation

Your request is used to find local options and, where you ask, to pass a note to a connected organisation.

A note carries what you need and how to reach you, and nothing else.

How an organisation is listed and removed

Organisations are listed from public information, with a plain note that they are not connected.

Any organisation can correct or remove its listing at any time from its listing page.

How HereHum orders what it tells you

When you ask HereHum for something, it reads every listing in your area and works like this.

First it drops anything that does not match what you asked: a plumber for a leaking tap, not a kitchen fitter.

Then, among the ones that match, it lists first the paid members of HereHum, the organisations that pay HereHum a monthly fee, as long as they match about as well as the best of the others. With those, HereHum can do the next step for you rather than only give you a number: pass them a note, book in their diary, or put you straight through. The levels are Connect (£49 a month: notes), a desk on HereHum (£99 a month: bookings and answers) and answered day and night (from £199 a month: the organisation's own receptionist). Inside that group, the ones HereHum can book with or put you through to come before the ones it can only pass a note to.

Inside each group, the order is how well they match what you asked and, when you have said where you are, how near they are. How often local people have asked for an organisation by name also counts a little.

Then the organisations that have not joined, in the same order of match and distance. Nothing that matches what you asked is left out; the line offers a few at a time and tells you how many more there are, and if you ask "who else?" you hear the rest. If you ask for an organisation by name, it comes first whatever its level.

Joining is not the whole of it. HereHum only keeps an organisation among the ones it can act for while that ability is real: the notes it passes are reaching someone and being answered, the diary it books into can be reached, and the receptionist it puts you through to picks up. If one of those stops working, HereHum writes to the organisation and gives it seven days to put things right. If it is still not working after that, the organisation keeps its listing but moves back among the ones HereHum can only tell you about, with a note on its page saying HereHum cannot act for it at the moment, until it is working again. The detail is in the organisation terms.

What never moves an organisation up: paying HereHum anything beyond its level, a review, or anything it says about its own quality.

A place in this order is never a recommendation. HereHum has not checked any organisation's qualifications, insurance, prices or quality, whether or not it has joined. It tells you what each organisation says it does and what HereHum can do for you with it, and that is all.

Who runs HereHum

HereHum is run by Every Call Handled Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales.

Company number 17069453. Registered office: 128 City Road, London EC1V 2NX.

How to complain

Email hello@herehum.com with the word Complaint in the subject.

We reply within five working days.