Complaining about care feels risky, because the person you are complaining about is coming back tomorrow morning. It is still the right thing to do, and there is an order to it that makes it work.
One thing first. If someone is being harmed, neglected or is at immediate risk, that is not a complaint. Ring the council’s adult safeguarding team, or the police on 999 if it is urgent. Safeguarding runs in parallel with everything below.
Start with the agency, in writing
Every registered agency must have a complaints procedure and must give it to you if you ask. Ask for it, then use it.
Put the complaint in an email even if you have already said it on the phone. The email is what starts the clock and what everyone later refers to.
Keep it factual and dated. “The 8am call was missed on 3, 7 and 11 September, and on 11 September no cover was arranged” gets a different response from “the service has been terrible”. Say what you want to happen, too, because otherwise somebody else decides that for you.
You should get an acknowledgement quickly and a proper response within about four weeks. Ask for their timescale in the acknowledgement.
Then it depends who is paying
If the council arranged or funds the care, and the agency’s answer does not resolve it, the complaint goes to the council next. It commissioned the service and it is accountable for it.
If you arrange and pay for it yourself, there is no council stage. You go from the agency to the ombudsman.
The ombudsman
In England, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman looks at both council-arranged and privately funded adult social care. It is free, and it can recommend an apology, a refund, a change to the service and a payment for distress.
Two rules catch people. You normally have to exhaust the provider’s own complaints procedure first. And you normally have twelve months from when you knew about the problem.
In Scotland, complaints about a registered care service go to the Care Inspectorate, which takes them directly and can investigate without the service having finished with it first. The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman covers council-arranged care.
Where the CQC fits, and where it does not
The Care Quality Commission does not resolve individual complaints. It cannot get you a refund and it will not make the agency apologise.
Tell it anyway. It uses what people report to decide where to inspect and what to look at when it gets there, and a pattern of reports about one agency is exactly the signal it acts on. Think of it as evidence for the next inspection rather than a route to a remedy.
What to keep
- A simple log: date, time, what was supposed to happen, what did.
- The care plan and the daily notes. You are entitled to see the records about the person you care for, and the agency should provide them on request.
- Every email. Follow up phone calls with a short “just to confirm what we discussed” message.
The log is the thing that changes outcomes. Most complaints fail on detail rather than on merit.
Will they drop you
It is the fear that stops most people, and it is worth being straight about. An agency can end a contract with notice, and occasionally one does after a complaint.
That is one more reason to put it in writing and to name the notice period in your email. It is also why the complaint should go in early, while it is one missed visit, rather than after six months of quietly coping.
If the council commissioned the care, it has a duty to meet the assessed needs, so it has to find an alternative. Say that in your complaint to the council if you are worried.