Call To Make Care Home Complaints Easier

Complaints about the treatment of residents at Scotland’s care homes will be included in a single, streamlined system for the first time under proposals being considered by ministers.

A review of the complaints system set out for Scottish public services by expert advisers has found that residents and relatives who complain about the standard of care face a “postcode lottery”.

They have called for a tougher standard that is easier for the public to understand, with a simplification of complaints systems used by councils and housing associations also proposed.

John Swinney, the minister for public-sector reform, is expected to say in the next few weeks which parts of the reform he wants to push forward.

Complaints systems across the public sector were found to be too confusing, with overlapping and frontline staff poorly prepared to handle complaints. There have not been changes in 10 years, and pressure is rising, with a 20% increase in complaints over five years.

According to the action group’s report, seen by The Herald, the proposed reforms would mean a single complaints system for all of Scotland’s 32 local councils, instead of “32 varieties”. Care homes would have one system. There would be one system for all housing associations. Throughout the public services, a phone-based “signposting service” with a single point of contact would be set up to provide advice to consumers.

Under the plans, the vulnerable and those from disadvantaged groups would be given the support of advocates.

The reform would give a stronger role to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman, a post held by Professor Alice Brown, though she is soon to step down. Her judgments have stressed the need for public agencies to be more willing to learn from the complaints and to apologise to complainers.

Under the proposed reforms, that strengthened role would be to ensure quality and consistent complaints system, backed with legal authority, and to handle a widened extent of appeals, newly drawing in social work, education and prisons.

The review was led by Douglas Sinclair, who chairs the Scottish Consumer Council. He argued the key to reform is simplification for the public. “There are people who know how to complain. We need to redress the balance to help give those less likely to have a voice the confidence to complain as well.

“In the private sector, consumers who are not satisfied with the way their complaint has been dealt with can switch to a different service provider. But that freedom does not exist in most of our public services where consumers are captured’. The reality of captured consumers places an added responsibility on service providers to be as responsive as possible.”

The report says the top priority for reform is the care sector, which includes 940 older people’s residential homes. It is the subject of “a significant level of complaints and where the impact of service failure is greater given the vulnerability of many consumers”.

Care homes are required to have a complaints system, but there is no standard process. “The ease with which an elderly person living in a care home can complain is not subject to a common national standard but to a postcode lottery,” says the report.

Ranald Mair, chief executive of Scottish Care which represents private and voluntary care homes, said there are four ways to complain; to the home’s management, the Care Commission, the local authority or to the new vulnerable adults’ protection system. “We have a well- and robustly regulated care sector.”