Ombudsman publishes complaints stats for adult social care after 130% rise
The Local Government Ombudsman has published its complaints statistics for private social care providers and local authorities for the first time.
The LGO acts as England’s social care ombudsman, and receives complaints about issues ranging from the administration of blue badge schemes to safeguarding.
The service said it had seen a 130% increase in adult social care complaints since it took on responsibility for registered private care providers in 2009.
This made it the fastest growing area of its work, with the highest rate of complaints upheld of any service area.
In 2013 it received 2,456 complaints and enquiries about adult social care, with 40% of these relating to only 25, unnamed, council areas.
The Ombudsman, Dr Jane Martin, said: “Our complaints data suggests there is more to do to provide assurance about complaints handling.
“Over the last few years there have been a number of reviews that have looked at healthcare complaints. We must not wait for a crisis in adult care to examine more closely the way social care commissioners and providers deal with complaints.”
She also called for a set of common standards for complaint handling, with mandated data returns to the Care Quality Commission, clear signposting of obligations, and the right to advocacy support when complaining about care services.
Anna Bradley, chair of Healthwatch England, said: “It may seem counter intuitive but we should look on the increasing number of complaints as a good thing.
“It means that more people feel able to make their voices heard when the standard of care they receive from their carer or care home isn’t up to scratch.”
Bradley called for an independent properly funded health and social care complaints advocacy, and for “some rationalisation of the more than 75 public and private organisations involved in dealing with complaints in health and social care”.
The service’s Review of Adult Social Care Complaints 2013 is here.
The private provider data sheet is here, and that for public providers here.
Mark Smulian