Complaints about adult social services

We are committed to providing good quality services to adults receiving support through Adult Social Services. We value your feedback either personally, through a family member, friend, carer or advocate. We will use this to monitor effectiveness and improve the services we deliver to you.  

If you tell us what you think of Adult Social Services, we can use your experience to show when we have got things right, or when we need to improve to make things better. 

Comments

You can pass us a comment if you think we could do things differently or better. You can also make suggestions on how we might improve the services you received from us. 

Compliments

You can pass us a compliment if you think we have got things right or you feel satisfied with the service we have provided. 

You can let us know about your comments or compliments by using our online forms. 

If you are not happy with something relating to Adult Social Services, you can register a complaint with us. 

Who can make a complaint

Anyone who receives an adult social care service or has applied to use a service, can make a complaint.  

Asking someone to make a complaint for you

If you want someone to complain to us on your behalf (for example, a friend, relative or representative), we will work with them to resolve the issue. 

 However, we will always need evidence that you have given your permission for that person to make the complaint for you, or that they have lasting power of attorney or deputyship.     

You can find out much more information about this in our complaints policy and procedure.

Before you make a complaint

The best way to resolve a complaint is to speak to the person you are dealing with or their manager. Most problems can be sorted out this way.  

Making a complaint

If you still feel that you need to make a complaint, you can tell us in one of two ways:

• by using our online form
• by writing to our complaints manager - this can be done via email or post. 

We will acknowledge all complaints within three working days. 

Stage 1 complaint  

Stage 1 complaints are dealt with by the team manager or service manager of the team your complaint relates to. 

We will aim to respond within 20 working days where possible. If the case is complex, this may take longer and we will let you know.  

Stage 2 investigation  

If you are not satisfied with our response to your complaint, you can contact us again. We will review the response and your comments and decide if there is more that we can do to put things right. If this is the case, we will contact you to tell you what else we intend to do to resolve your complaint.  

If we believe the service has done all they reasonably can, we will write to advise you of this. We will signpost you to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGO).  

Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGO)

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGO) can investigate complaints about all adult care services, whether they are paid for by the council or by someone with their own money. 

Our complaints policy is in place to ensure that all complaints are investigated and responded to within set timescales. We also capture learnings from them. 

Feedback from comments, compliments and complaints gives us crucial insight into the experiences of people who draw on support. This includes carers and their families. Learning from complaints adds a level of richness to our understanding of service provision. 

We will publish an annual report on our website after the end of each financial year.