How your adult social care feedback is dealt with

When we receive your comment, we will write to thank you. A manager will let you know within 25 working days how we will put your suggestion into practice, or will explain why we can't.

When we receive a compliment, we will write to thank you and will pass your thanks to all people concerned. We will ensure that your thanks are recorded. We will use all the information we receive from you to learn and improve our services.

Who to complain to

Complaints about services that are privately arranged

If your complaint is about an independent care provider with whom you have made a private arrangement to fund your own care, you will need to raise your complaint with them directly.

Complaints about services arranged by the council

If your complaint is about an independent service provider and your support is fully or partially funded by the council you should raise your complaint with the provider first. If you do not feel able to resolve the problem with the provider yourself, please contact the complaints team who will be able to help you, the Council can contact the provider on your behalf.  

Complaints about Council Services

The time limit for making a complaint is 12 months from the date that you became aware of the problem. If you are unhappy about a service or the way you have been treated, raise this with the person concerned or their manager, or contact the complaints team.

 Please let us know if:

  • We tell you that we will do something but we do nothing
  • We take too long to do something we have promised to do
  • We tell you that we cannot help you, when you believe we should
  • You think a member of our staff is disrespectful
  • You are dissatisfied with any other aspect of our service

As soon as you let us know that you have a concern or complaint, we will contact you to agree the best way forward.

We will agree with you the best way to reach a satisfactory outcome and to do this we will:

  • Go through the reasons for your complaint, identifying each aspect of the complaint, to make sure that we understand your concerns properly. We would normally do this by phone, but we are able to meet you if that suits you better
  • Agree a complaint ‘plan’ if necessary, including how we will investigate your complaint and the time it will take. Our aim is to complete most complaints within 25 working days, but some complaints may take longer to resolve
  • Ask you what you would like to happen as a result of your complaint and tell you if we think this is realistic
  • Ask you how you wish to be kept informed about the progress of your complaint, and make sure we contact you regularly – this can be by phone, letter, email or through a third party such as an advocacy or support service

How we will deal with your complaint

Early resolution

We hope that most concerns can be settled by talking to the member of staff you originally contacted about your complaint. If you tell them what it is that is worrying you, they will try to find a solution by the end of the next working day if possible. It is important to give them all the information you have as this will help them to assess your concerns correctly and resolve them quickly.

If you are not able to sort things out with this person, or their manager you can contact the Complaints Manager by phone, by email or in writing

Next steps

If an early resolution has not been possible, your concerns will then be logged as a formal complaint and acknowledged within three working days. We will make every effort to resolve it quickly and effectively.

We will appoint someone to investigate your complaint and they, or a member of the complaints team, will contact you to agree with you the best way to reach a satisfactory outcome.

If you are still not satisfied

If you feel your concerns have not been resolved, we will consider your reasons and investigate further if necessary until we are able to reach a final agreed resolution or agree no further progress can be made. You will be involved in every step

If you are not satisfied with the Council's final response

We will send you a full and final response at the end of our investigations into your complaint. If at that stage you are still dissatisfied, you can ask the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman. The Ombudsman will consider any complaint you have made and give you their views.

The Ombudsman will usually ask that you use the Council’s complaints procedure first and will only investigate complaints that are considered to be about maladministration – this is, inefficient or unfair administration.

You can write to the Ombudsman at :

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman
PO Box 4771
Coventry
CV4  OEH

Adult Safeguarding Enquiries or Criminal Investigations

In some rare circumstances a complaint might have to be put on hold whilst there is an adults safeguarding enquiry going on or a criminal investigation is taking place. In these situations each case will be considered individually and assessed to see whether it is appropriate to proceed with a complaint. If it is decided that the complaint needs to be put on hold you will be written to setting out the reason why and the complaints team will keep you updated.

Advocacy 

An advocate is an independent person with suitable training and experience who can speak for you and express your views when you find it difficult to do so yourself. They will also help make sure you understand what is happening. The Advocate's only role is to help you be involved and make sure your voice is heard. They  work independently of the Council.

How do you get advocacy support?

To get the support of an advocate the Council needs to work out if you have a substantial difficulty in:

  • Understanding the work being undertaken with you, or
  • You have difficulty in clearly expressing your view about what you need for your care and support,
  • And you have no one suitable around you to support your understanding and involvement

A social worker will assess this when you, or someone for you, first contacts the council.

If you think that you, or someone you are supporting, might need advocacy, please contact our Access Team on:

Someone will talk about your option, or refer you to the right service to help you. 

What help can I get?

You can get independent advice from Citizens Advice Wandsworth.   They can also help draft your complaint.

Other help

You can also get in touch with your local Councillor or Member of Parliament, who will contact us on your behalf. You can do this in person, by phone, by letter or by email.

Find your Councillors

If you want to make a comment, complaint or compliment, you can contact us by telephone, email, or letter

Freepost RTKU EGLA ZZGT
Room 162
Wandsworth High Street
Wandsworth
London SW18 2PU

Email: adultscomplaints@wandsworth.gov.uk
Telephone: 020 8871 7648

 

Up to Adult social care complaints, comments and feedback

Updated: 01/11/2023