Complaints

Complaints about a Local Authority service
Complaints about a private care service
Complaints to the Care Inspectorate
Complaints about an NHS service
Patient Advice and Support Service
Complaints to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman
Complaints to the Mental Welfare Commission

If you are unhappy with the service you receive from a registered care provider, you can complain.

Each service provider must:

• have an appropriate complaints procedure
• investigate complaints within a reasonable timescale
• make service users aware of their rights to take their unresolved complaints to the Care Inspectorate.

Complaints about a Local Authority service

If the service is provided by your Local Authority, you should use your Local Authority's complaints procedure.  Every Local Authority must have such a Complaints Procedure and make it available to you when you ask for it.

If you wish to complain about Social Work services, you should call or write to your local Social Work Department, or the office that last dealt with you and they will be able to provide you with information on how to complain.

The complaints process will have three parts:

• an informal problem solving stage when every attempt will be made to resolve your complaint
• unresolved complaints will then be investigated by specially designated staff
• if your complaint remains unresolved, you can ask for an independent Complaints Review Committee to consider it.

 

If you are not satisfied with the outcome, you can then raise your complaint with the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO)

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Complaints about a private care service

If the service is provided by a private care provider, you should use the provider's complaints procedure.

If you have been paying for a care service from a private or voluntary organisation yourself, the Local Authority cannot deal with complaints about it through its normal complaints procedure.  However, if they arranged the service for you, or if they pay for you to use the service, they may be able to support you in your complaint.

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Complaints to the Care Inspectorate

The  Care Inspectorate register and inspect care services in Scotland.  If you have raised your concern directly with your service provider and you are not satisfied with the outcome, you can ask the Care Inspectorate to carry out an investigation.

The Care Inspectorate's policy is that a complaint should be raised directly with the service provider.  If there are reasons why you would not wish to do this and would prefer to raise the matter directly with the Care Inspectorate, you can do so and you can request that the service provider is not told who has made the complaint.

How soon do I need to complain to the Care Inspectorate?

You should try to make your complaint as soon as possible.  The Care Inspectorate will not usually investigate complaints more than 12 months after the event you want to complain about has happened.

How do I complain to the Care Inspectorate?

If you want to complain about a care service registered by the Care Inspectorate, or about the Care Inspectorate itself, you can contact them at:

Care Inspectorate

Compass House
11 Riverside Drive
Dundee
DD1 4NY
Tel: 0845 603 0890

They also have offices across Scotland that you can visit.

What happens after I complain?

The Care Inspectorate will

• send you a letter to let you know they received your complaint
• tell you the name of the person who is looking at your complaint.
• look into your complaint and find out what has happened.
• try to sort out your complaint as quickly as possible
• let you know what the outcome is

 

To make a complaint to the Care Inspectorate about a care service please use their Complain about a care service page.

If you are unhappy with how the Care Inspectorate has dealt with your complaint, you can ask the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman to look into the matter.

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Complaints about an NHS service

You can complain to the NHS about

• care or treatment you have had or are having in the NHS
• anything to do with the place where you are seen, for example, a doctor's surgery, a hospital or an ambulance
• any member of NHS staff involved in your care
• how NHS services in your local area are organised, if this has affected your care or treatment.

 

You can complain if you have 

• had or are having NHS care or treatment, or
• visited or used NHS services or facilities.

 

You can complain for someone else if you 

• have their agreement to complain (the person would also need to agree to let staff look at their health records if necessary)
• are their parent, guardian, or main carer (and the child is not mature enough to understand how to make a complaint)
• have a welfare power of attorney or a welfare guardianship for the person
• are a relative of, or had a relationship with, a person who has died and you were concerned about how they were treated before they died, or
• are acting as an advocate for the person. 

 

Normally you must make your complaint within six months, and no longer than 12 months, after the event you wish to complain about has happened.

For full details on how to complain about the NHS, please see the following leaflet, produced by Health Rights Information Scotland.

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Patient Advice and Support Service

If you have a complaint about the NHS you may wish to contact the Citizen's Advice Bureau's Patient Advice and Support Service (PASS).  This service offers free, confidential and impartial advice. 

The service:

• helps you understand your rights and responsibilities as a patient
• provides information, advice and support for anyone who wishes to give feedback or comments, or raise concerns or complaints, about health care delivered by NHS Scotland
• provides practical help with making a complaint, including writing letters, making phone calls and supporting you in preparing for and attending meetings
• works with the NHS by using feedback to improve your healthcare and NHS service provision

You can find more information about PASS on the Citizens Advice Scotland website at www.cas.org.uk .

Where to find help

Please contact your local Citizens Advice Bureau. They will provide information, advice and support and, where appropriate, refer you to a specialist caseworker.

There is also a national helpline, 0808 800 0121 for both the general public and prisoners. The helpline is open from 9-5 Monday to Friday. Calls to this number are free and confidential on all landlines and 97% of mobiles.

To find your local branch of Citizens Advice Bureau, visit them online.

The following Adviceguide webpages provided by CAB also provide information and advice on making a complaint about the NHS.

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Complaints to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman

If you have been through the complaints procedure of the NHS or a local authority, or the Care Inspectorate, but you still feel your complaint has not been settled, you can take your complaint to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO).

When can the Ombudsman deal with a case?

The SPSO can deal with complaints about the NHS, and about services provided by local authorities. They can also deal with complaints about private or voluntary sector services if the services were paid for by the NHS or your Local Authority. The rules are much the same as for those organisations' complaints procedures; for example, if the complaint could be taken to court or a tribunal, the SPSO cannot deal with it.

The SPSO will only look at your complaint if you have already been through the complaints procedure at a local level - either the NHS local resolution procedure, or your Local Authority's complaints procedure. The SPSO does not have to investigate your complaint if they do not think it is justified.

How do I appeal to the Ombudsman?

The SPSO normally expects you to put your complaint in writing, and to provide proof that you have already used the appropriate local complaints procedure - usually, letters to and from the Local Authority concerned.

SPSO
Freepost EH641
Edinburgh
EH3 0BR
Tel: 0800 377 7330
Text: 0790 049 4372
Email: ask@spso.org.uk 
Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm, except Tuesday 10am to 5pm 

Further information is available in leaflets at the SPSO website here.

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Complaints to the Mental Welfare Commission

The Mental Welfare Commission will investigate if they think that someone with a mental illness or learning disability is not getting the right care and treatment and think that their case highlights wider concerns within the health, social care or justice system.  They also deal with complaints from people who feel they have been wrongly detained under mental health legislation.

Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland
Thistle House
91 Haymarket Terrace
Edinburgh
EH12 5HE
User and carer advice line: 0800 389 6809
Textphone prefix: 18001
Monday - Thursday 9am to 5pm, Friday 9am to 4.30pm

Further information is available in leaflets at the MWC website here.

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last updated 04/05/2012