Learning From Complaints-Care England Welcomes Annual Review Of Social Care Complaints
Care England, the largest representative body for independent providers of adult social care, has welcomed the Annual Review of Social Care Complaints from the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman this morning.
Professor Martin Green OBE, Chief Executive of Care England, says:
“Once again, this document is a very helpful resource for care providers and councils. The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman is an effective one stop shop for redress and is not afraid to use its teeth. It is telling that a large proportion of the complaints focused on charges and fees; there has never been a greater need for a long term financial solution for adult social care and Care England urges the Government to address it immediately regardless of Brexit”.
The Ombudsman can investigate complaints about all adult social care in England, and has had the responsibility of investigating complaints about privately funded care, since 2010 whilst this year it published a new set of remedy and compliance data. This year, the Ombudsman received 3,070 complaints and enquiries about adult social care with 435 of those from people who fund their own care, and carried out 1,220 investigations. The Ombudsman made 1,279 recommendations to remedy people’s personal injustices. These recommendations ranged from a simple apology to having charges reduced or removed, reassessments or case reviews. The Full report can be found https://www.lgo.org.uk/adult-social-care
Care England will be cross matching the areas with the most complaints against its data on fees paid by Local Authorities in order to triangulate it.
Martin Green continues:
“There are many useful resources provided by the Ombudsman for providers including a range of adult social care training courses that help improve complaint handling. We will continue to flag these up to our members and strive for better lines of communication between providers and commissioners in order to negate the need for complaints”.
