Adults and health compliments and complaints

When you first contact us about getting care, we'll always try and involve you in decisions made about you. This is your chance to let us know about something that you are not happy with. Most problems can be sorted quickly in this way.

How to make a complaint

Speak to the service first

It’s easier and quicker to first raise a complaint directly with the service involved. You should speak to a member of staff as soon as possible before making a formal complaint.

Make a formal complaint about our services

You must make a complaint within 12 months of the event or of finding out you have a reason to complain. See how you can contact us to make a complaint.

We will need to know:

• your full name, address and how we can contact you
• as much information about the complaint
• what went wrong and who was involved
• what you would like to happen to resolve this complaint
  

Anyone can make a complaint on your behalf and we'll need your written permission to share this information with them.

Make a complaint about private or voluntary care services

If you want to complain about a private or voluntary care provider, contact the Care Quality Commission.

Our complaints process

1. You let us know of a complaint.
   
2. We acknowledge your complaint within three working days and let you know who is dealing with it.
3. We discuss the complaint with you to try and understand why you are not happy and what you want to happen after. We will agree a timescale.
   

Our complaints process has two stages and we will always try and resolve your complaint in stage one:

After your complaint has been investigated

If you’re still unhappy with the decision or how we dealt with your complaint, you can ask the Local Government Ombudsman to review your case. They will only deal with a complaint if it:

• has been through our complaints procedure
• happened less than 12 months ago
  
• is not already being considered in court

See the Local Government Ombudsman website for more information.

Compliments

We record all your compliments and suggestions so that we can continue to improve our service. Tell us when we have done something well by contacting us.

See how we have dealt with compliments and complaints received between April 2020 and March 2021 on our annual report page.