Complaints about Adult Social Care

What is Adult Social Care?

Adult Social Care is a council service.  Our role is to make sure adults (aged 18 or over) and their carers (including young carers) who need care or support in their daily lives can get the help and advice they need to live as independently as possible.

If you are not satisfied with Adult Social Care services, you can make a complaint to the Council.

To  make a complaint to the Council:

• use our online form
• email us at corporatecomplaintsteam@gloucestershire.gov.uk.
• write to:

The Complaints Manager (Adult Social Care)
Complaints  Team
Gloucestershire County Council
Shire Hall
Westgate Street
Gloucester
GL1 2TG

• phone us on 01452 427 082  or 01452 426 539, or
• make an appointment to see a member of our Complaints team.

What happens next:

We will acknowledge your complaint within 2 working days of receipt.

We will talk to you about how you'd like your complaint to be investigated and agree how long this will take.  Most investigations are completed within 20 working days.   

When the investigation is finished, a manager will provide a response to your complaint.

If you are concerned about how your complaint is progressing, talk to our Complaints Manager.

When we won’t accept a complaint:

Sometimes we won’t accept a complaint. This is usually because the complaint:

• has already been dealt with
• is being investigated through another complaints procedure
• should be investigated through one of the Council’s other complaints procedures
• should be managed through other processes, like employment, disciplinary or grievance procedures, or through criminal investigation and court proceedings.

We will give you our written reasons if we don’t accept a complaint and where possible suggest what you may be able to do instead.

If you are unhappy with the care you have received from a care home, nursing home, home-care agency or other social care service (including organisations that provide services on the Council’s behalf), you should contact the organisation directly to make a complaint. This gives them the chance to try and put things right for you.

How to make a complaint

Ask the organisation for a copy of their complaints procedure or check the organisation’s website to see if it is online.  The complaints procedure will tell you how you can make a complaint, how they will deal with your complaint and when to expect their response.

Then, make a complaint to the organisation. Go through all stages of their complaints procedure.

If the problem isn’t put right and the Council arranged your care and support for you.

You can then make a complaint to the Council if we arranged your care and support for you. We will look at the complaint and assess whether we should investigate. We will explain our reasons if we decide not to investigate.

If we investigate:

• we may ask you and the organisation for more information
• we will tell you the outcome of our investigation.

You can also ask the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman to review your complaint.

If you are unhappy with social care that you arranged and paid for yourself in a care home or nursing home, or with a home-care agency or other social care service, you should contact the organisation directly to make a complaint. This gives them the chance to try and put things right for you.

How to make a complaint

Ask the organisation for a copy of their complaints procedure or check the organisation’s website to see if it is online.  The complaints procedure will tell you how you can make a complaint, how they will deal with your complaint and when to expect their response.

Then, make a complaint to the organisation. Go through all stages of their complaints procedure.

If the problem isn’t put right

You can ask the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman to review your complaint.