Feedback on Adult Social Services

New arrangements for complaints about adult social care from 1 April 2009

There are now new procedures in place for how we deal with complaints about adult social care services. These new procedures were introduced on the 1 April 2009.

The Government has introduced a new complaints procedure for adult social care and the NHS, called the Local Authority Social Services and National Health Service Complaints (England) Regulations 2009.

What is different?

the new procedure now covers health services (the NHS) and adult social care services
the old three stage complaints procedure no longer applies
the children’s complaints procedure has not changed

The new procedure will include:

getting it right
being customer focussed
being open and accountable
acting fairly and proportionately
putting things right
seeking continuous improvement to our services.

The focus will be on resolving complaints. We will acknowledge your complaint within three working days and contact you to listen to what you have to say and understand what your problem or concerns are.

We will agree with you the best way to deal with the things that you have told us about and also agree the time scale for doing this. If you need support we will arrange this for you.

We will respond to you in the way which we agreed with you and we will provide you with all the necessary information in relation to the issues that you have raised with us.

How we will handle complaints?

When we receive a complaint we will try and sort it out straight away. If we cant then we will:

contact you to discuss how you wish your complaint to be dealt with
find out what happened and what we should have done
agree with you when you can expect a reply
ask a manager to investigate and reply to your complaint
write to you within three working days to let you know the name and phone number of the person who will reply to you
put things right for you if we can
learn from our mistakes to make the service better

For further information on making a complaint please contact our adult social care customer service and complaints unit.

Customer Services Manager
Fourth floor
338-346 Goswell rd
LONDON EC1V 7LQ

Email: socialservices.complaints@islington.gov.uk

If we have not been able to resolve your issues for you and you remain dissatisfied at the end of our complaints process, then you may appeal directly to The Local Government Ombudsman. Details are given below.

Local Government Ombudsman
PO Box 4771
Coventry
CV4 OEH

Tel: 0845 602 1983 04 024 7682 1960
Email: enquiries@lgo.org.uk
For the website, please see the link on the right.

Compliments and Suggestions

We would also like to hear from you if you have a compliment or a suggestion about the services you receive.

We welcome all feedback received and promise to let you know how we will make use of your suggestions or tell you why we can't use it. When we receive compliments we always make sure the staff concerned know about these and are thanked by a senior manager for their good work.