Make an Adult Social Care Complaint

We hope that all your contact with the Council is positive, but we acknowledge that there are occasions when things can go wrong. If you have a complaint, you can contact us about this by clicking the link below.
The Council is obliged to have a formal complaints process in place, and this is a two stage process. However, you retain the right to contact the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) after the Council has responded at Stage 1.

Please be aware that where the consideration of a complaint received leads to concerns about the welfare of someone who uses social care services, these will be referred to the Safeguarding Team in line with safeguarding policies and guidance. The handling of any associated complaint may be suspended whilst the safeguarding investigation is ongoing as this will take precedence.

Stage 1

At Stage 1, the complaint will be investigated by the Service Manager with responsibility for the Service that is being complained about.

You will receive a written acknowledgement of your complaint within 5 working days of the date we receive it, confirming the concerns that are to be addressed. The acknowledgement letter will also advise you of the name and contact details for the Service Manager who will be dealing with the matter, and when you can expect to receive a response.

We will always aim to provide you with a full written response within 20 working days of the date your complaint was acknowledged. There may be some occasions when this is not possible, so we may need to extend the timescale slightly, but we will always ensure that you are kept updated about the timescale that we are working to.

The Service Manager will investigate your complaint, and will gather evidence to establish what actually happened in the case. The Service Manager may contact you to find out more information, or may invite you to a meeting to discuss your concerns further. This will enable them to make an assessment as to whether the correct process has been followed, and to consider whether any further action is required to resolve your complaint. The Service Manager will write to you setting out the findings of their investigation and any action that they will take to resolve matters.

We hope that we would be able to satisfactorily resolve your complaint at this stage of the process. However, if at the end of Stage 1 you remain dissatisfied, you can contact the Complaints and Customer Care Team and request that your complaint is escalated to the next stage of the process, Stage 2.

Alternatively, you can exercise your right at this point to take your complaint direct to the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO), who are independent from the Council and investigate complaints about maladministration.

You can find out more about the LGSCO here.

If you do choose to escalate the matter to Stage 2 of the Council’s complaints process and allow us the opportunity to consider your concerns further, this does not at all affect your right to approach the LGSCO at the end of the process and to ask them to consider your case if you remain dissatisfied.

Stage 2

You can ask us to review your complaint at Stage 2 if you are unhappy with the response received from the Service Manager, or if your complaint has not been responded to by the date we committed to.
To further investigate the matter at Stage 2 of the process, we will need to know:

what part of the complaint you feel was not handled well at stage 1, or;
what in your complaint response you disagree with, and;
what further action you would like to be taken as a result of progressing your complaint.

We will always aim to provide you with a full written response within 20 working days of the date your complaint was acknowledged. However, there may be some occasions when this is not possible, so we may need to extend the timescale slightly, but we will always ensure that you are kept updated about the timescale that we are working towards

Any complaint progressed to this stage will be investigated by the Assistant Director with responsibility for the Service that is being complained about; they will assess the whole case and look at how the complaint was managed at Stage 1. As part of this process a decision will be made whether it is felt that the Council should take any further action to resolve your complaint, or if the original complaint decision is deemed to be correct and final.

Stage 2 is the final stage of the Council’s complaints process. If at the end of the Stage 2 process, you do not feel that a suitable resolution has been found and you remain dissatisfied by the Council's final response, you can complain to the LGSCO.
You can find out more about the LGSCO here.