Who can make a complaint

4.1    Anyone who is unhappy with the service they’ve received from Adult Social Care, or with a decision, action, or lack of action, can make a complaint.

This includes:

• adults who need care and support
• carers of those adults
• young people under 18, their carers, and young carers under 18 who are moving into Adult Social Care services

Everyone has the right to raise concerns, and we are committed to listening, learning, and improving based on the feedback we receive.

4.2    A person may be experiencing dissatisfaction without saying the word “complaint”. The council will work with individuals, or their representatives, to understand if any concerns should follow the complaints process.  

4.3    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 mental capacity to agree to representation)
• the representative will act in the best interests of an adult who lacks mental 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

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