Who can make a complaint

Anyone who is dissatisfied with the service they have received from Adult Social Care or with an Adult Social Care decision, action or omission may make a complaint.  This includes:

• adults with care and support needs
• their carers
• young people aged under 18, their carers and young carers aged under 18 who are transitioning to Adult Social Care

People making a complaint may be referred to in this policy as ‘complainants’.

Complaints may also be made by a representative of someone who has used our Adult Social Care Service (including someone who has died) provided that the council is satisfied that: 

• the person consents to the representative making a complaint on their behalf (unless the person has died or lacks capacity to agree to representation)
• the representative will act in the best interests of an adult who lacks capacity
• for complaints on behalf of young people aged under 18:
  • there are reasonable grounds for a complaint to be made by the representative rather than the young person and 
  • the representative will act in the young person’s best interests

We will give our written reasons if we decide not to act on a representative’s complaint.