Inspectorate to review complaints procedures

Scotland’s social care scrutiny and improvement body is considering changes to the way it handles complaints about care.

The Care Inspectorate inspects and regulates more than 14,000 care services across Scotland, and last year it investigated more than 3,788 concerns about care, with 1,129 complaints upheld.

And now the Inspectorate is asking people who use care services, or people who know someone who does, to make their views known on ways the complaints procedure could be improved.

The aim is to make the process more accessible and person-centred, as well as to better support care providers and complainants through the process.

Annette Bruton, chief executive of the Care Inspectorate said: “Almost everyone in Scotland will use a care service at some point in their lives, and even though the majority of services in Scotland perform well, we are here to help when things aren’t as good as they should be.

“We value complaints. They help us to get an accurate picture of the level and quality of services being offered and delivered from the perspective of people using or choosing registered care services.

“But we want to improve the process with an emphasis on quicker and simpler complaints handling with local, early resolution by empowered well-trained staff.

“Our aim is to work with registered care services to help ‘get it right first time’ with a focus on resolving complaints at the frontline wherever possible.

“This consultation asks people to answer some questions about the way complaints are handled. We hope that by taking on the views of people who use care services we can better tailor the process to suit their needs.

“For example, we want to know if people think we should introduce a process of frontline resolution to complaints which would mean we could seek quick and early resolution of less serious issues without entering into a full-scale investigation.

“We’d also like people to tell us their views on whether we should offer mediation over a complaint. Should we consider changes to the way we review complaint outcomes? These are really important issues that we would like to hear from people on.”

To take part in the survey, please log on to http://cinsp.in/complaints-consultation or call 0345 600 9527.