National Care Service - complaints: findings summary - easy read

Part 2

Research - what we learned

We looked into how complaints about social care, social work and community health are handled now.

We found that:

• Making a complaint can be very hard for some people

• There are many professional bodies that can handle complaints. It is complicated to understand the role of each body. This can create delays in handling complaints

• There are different ways to make complaints about social work, social care and health care (including community health care)

• It can be hard to understand the different ways to complain

• There is a separate way to make complaints about the behaviour or skills of a worker

• Private care providers do not always follow a standard way to handle complaints

• There are differences in how complaints about linked health and social care services are managed

People need more help to understand how to make a complaint.

Complaints bodies

There are public organisations who handle a complaint:

• the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman

• the Care Inspectorate

• the Scottish Social Services Council

• Healthcare Improvement Scotland

The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) is an independent organisation.

The SPSO is the last place to complain about public services that are given by:

• the Scottish Government
• local councils
• the NHS

They can look at complaints about social work services. This includes:

• care assessments
• self-directed support

The SPSO also looks at how to improve the ways complaints are handled in the public sector in Scotland.

The Care Inspectorate is the regulator for all registered public and private care services in Scotland.

Regulator is a person or group that supervises a particular sector or industry.

Care services can include:

• childminding
• adult day care
• care homes
• care at home
• housing support

The Care Inspectorate handles complaints about the quality of regulated social care services. They check if the service is doing well.

Regulated social care services are services that have to follow certain rules.

They keep a check on care providers to help make care services better.

The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) is the regulator for social workers and social care workers.

When social workers and social care workers become qualified, they register with the SSSC. This means they can practice in Scotland.

SSSC makes the rules for the education and training of social workers and social care workers.

They also check ‘fitness to practice’.

'Fitness to practice' is checked when a complaint is made about the behaviour or skills of a worker.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) is the regulator for independent health care providers.

This could be clinics, hospitals and hospices other than the NHS.

Hospices are places that care for people with an illness that cannot be cured.

HIS handles complaints about the quality of registered independent health care services.

HIS also keeps a check on all health care providers including NHS and independent providers. This is to check they are doing well.

There are other professional regulators who check ‘fitness to practice’ about health care workers like doctors and dentists.

There are also other professional bodies that can handle complaints about different topics and issues like how services keep the information of people safe.

Ways to make complaints

Complaints about social work

Complaints about social work services could include:

• assessments of care needs
• financial assessments
• support including self-directed support
• services provided to children in local authority care
• commissioning

Commissioning is making decisions about who will provide services and support.

This is not a complete list.

To complain about a social work service, you should:

• first complain to the service provider

• if you are not happy with the way your complaint was handled, you can complain to the SPSO

To complain about the ‘fitness to practice’ of a social worker, you can directly complain to the SSSC.

Complaints about social care

Complaints about social care services can include:

• care at home
• housing support
• children’s day care
• childminding
• places for students at school to live
• nurse agencies
• adoption
• fostering
• places for children to live who might be at risk
• services providing places to live for people who have broken the law

This not a complete list.

To complain about a regulated social care service, you should:

• first complain to the service provider

• if you are not happy with the way your complaint was handled, you can complain to the Care Inspectorate

You can also directly complain to the Care Inspectorate.

You can complain about social care services provided by local councils to both the SPSO and the Care Inspectorate.

To complain about the social care services provided by local councils, you should:

• first complain to the local council
• if you are not happy with the way your complaint was handled, you can complain to the Care Inspectorate or the SPSO

To complain to the Care Inspectorate you do not need to speak to the council first.

The Care Inspectorate handles the complaints about quality of social care services.

If you are not happy with the way your complaint was handled by the Care Inspectorate, you complain to the SPSO.

To complain about the ‘fitness to practice’ of a social care worker, you can directly complain to the SSSC.

Complaints about health care including community health

Complaints about health care services include:

• hospitals
• dentist services
• general practice (doctor surgeries)
• pharmacies
• eye care services
• the Scottish Ambulance Service
• NHS 24

This not a complete list.

To complain about NHS health care services, you should:

• first complain to the service provider or the related health board

A health board is a group of people who make decisions about local health services and provide health care.

If you are not happy with the way your complaint was handled, you can complain to the SPSO.

To get support with making a complaint or giving feedback about the NHS, you can use the Patient Advice and Support Service (PASS).

Click this link to visit the PASS website.

PASS is a free service.

It is paid for by the Scottish Government.

It is delivered by Citizens Advice Scotland and the Scottish Mediation Network.

Everyone has the right to get independent advice and support from PASS to make a complaint or give feedback about NHS services.

To complain about an independent health care service, you should:

• first complain directly to the service provider

• if you are not happy with the way your complaint was handled, you can complain to the relevant health board and Healthcare Improvement Scotland

• You can also directly complain to Healthcare Improvement Scotland

• For some services you can also complain to the Independent Sector Complaints Adjudication Service

This is a service that some independent health care services use to help them handle complaints.

There are different ways to complain about independent dental services or eye care services.

To complain about the ‘fitness to practice’ of a health care worker, you can directly complain to the suitable professional regulator.