Background

Adult social care services are vital in helping people live with dignity and independence whilst also protecting their rights under human rights and equality legislation. These services are likely to touch all our lives at some point, either because we need to access services ourselves or because our loved ones need care.

Good, effective systems that allow people with care needs and their families to raise concerns and challenge decisions are at the heart of enabling people to live independently and with dignity whilst also promoting their rights.

The Local Authority Social Services and National Health Service Complaints (England) Regulations 2009 set out the process councils must follow when responding to complaints about adult social care services. This includes where the council has commissioned another organisation to provide care or services on its behalf. In those cases, where we find issues with the commissioned organisation’s complaints handling, we find the council at fault. We have put the word “must” in bold throughout this guide to highlight statutory requirements of the regulations and other legislation.

There is no statutory guidance to accompany the regulations and it is for each council to decide how best to meet their legal duties based on local circumstances. We already hold local councils and social care providers to account for poor standards of complaint handling and failure to properly review decisions about people’s entitlement to care and financial support. This guide sets out our view of good practice for handling adult social care complaints as well as review and appeal processes 

The adult social care statutory complaints process forms a key part of wider complaint systems in local councils. This guide supports a consistent approach to complaint handling across different processes by focusing on councils creating accessible processes which aim to resolve complaints quickly through a proportionate approach to complaints. This guide should be read in conjunction with other good practice guides we have produced on complaint handling. These are aimed at complaint handlers, complaint managers, commissioned services, senior leaders and elected representatives.

The regulations also apply to health organisations. The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman has produced the NHS (National Health Service) Complaints Standards which set out good practice for health organisations when handling complaints under the regulations. This guide mirrors the good practice set out in those Standards to support joint working between social care and health organisations when responding to complaints.

The regulations do not apply to independent adult social care providers where an individual has directly commissioned services themselves, rather than through their local council. We can deal with complaints about the actions of independent social care providers in these circumstances. We have published a range of resources to support care providers to handle complaints effectively.