How to complain about a care home in Scotland

If you find yourself in a situation where you have concerns about the care you or a loved one receive. Such as how your parent is being treated by staff at a care home, you should not be afraid to speak up. You have the right to make a complaint about a care home and have it looked into.

First steps

If there’s something you’re not happy about, in most cases it will be best to first speak to management at the care home informally.

They may not be aware of your concerns, and communicating directly with them allows the staff at the care home to better understand how you are feeling and what exactly you’re worried or unhappy about.

The role of care home staff is to take care of their residents and do their best to ensure residents’ needs are met. In most cases, they’ll want to work with you to solve the issue and ensure that you, and your loved one, are reassured and happy.

Most of the time, speaking to the manager resolves the problem and you won’t have to take your complaint any further, but if this doesn’t ease your concerns, you may wish to make a formal complaint.

Making a complaint to the care home

Making a complaint can feel difficult but it allows the care home to investigate the issue and improve the service they are providing. And most importantly, by raising your concerns you ensure that you receive the care you or your loved one needs.

It’s usually better to put a complaint in writing. This way you have physical evidence of the information you’ve relayed to the care home and specific details of what you’re unhappy with.

Writing a complaint

Make sure you include as much detail as possible when making a written complaint.

Outline the problem, who is involved and what you would like the outcome to be as specifically as possible. And importantly, make it clear that you are making a complaint.

A very important thing to keep in mind is to keep accurate records of what has happened. This will be a great help to you as you can refer back to your notes and use them as evidence if you need to take further action. Make notes of any phone calls and meetings and put as much information as you can into writing.

Outlining a timeline of events is advisable.

Your complaint should include:

• What the issue is and how it impacts you or your loved one.
• Who is involved, with names and position of staff if you know them.
• When and where the incident took place or if it is ongoing.
• What action you have already taken to try to resolve the problem.
• What results you want from your complaint.
• Any relevant documents that reinforce your argument.

Making a complaint through the Care Inspectorate

If you’re unhappy with the response after you make a complaint, or the situation means that you’re not comfortable making a formal complaint directly through the care home, you can complain through the Care Inspectorate.

Complaints procedures

The Scottish care services regulator, the Care Inspectorate requires each service to have a clear complaints procedure that is easily accessible. The specific care home’s procedure will outline how they deal with complaints and who you can talk to.

The Care Inspectorate will investigate complaints relating to:

• Inadequate standards of care.
• Failure to uphold the rights of a person using a service, or their relatives or carers.
• A care service’s failure to follow appropriate safe care practices.
• The practice of staff, including treatment by, or conduct of, a member of staff, fitness of staff, inadequate staff training and staff numbers or deployment.

The Care Inspectorate confirms receipt within three working days and aims to have their investigation completed within 40 days if your complaint meets their criteria.

Anonymous and confidential complaints

You can make a complaint through the Care Inspectorate anonymously if you would prefer to, but this could limit the investigation. Alternatively, you can make a complaint confidentially, meaning that the Care Inspectorate will have your details and will be able to communicate with you, but they won’t share your details with the care home.

How to complain

You can make a complaint through the Care Inspectorate online, by phone or by email.

• Call on 0345 600 9527 between 09:00 – 16:00, Monday to Friday
• Send an email to concerns@careinspectorate.gov.scot

If you are unhappy with the response

You have the right to ask for a post-investigation review within 10 working days if you think the Care Inspectorate has made a mistake, if you have new information or if you disagree with their decision. This applies to the service receiving the complaint as well.

If you are still not satisfied with the Care Inspectorate’s decision, you can contact the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) to investigate the decision, which is the final stage for handing complaints about public services in Scotland.

The SPSO does not investigate the Care Inspectorate’s decision itself, only how they handled the complaint. For example, if the Care Inspectorate failed to follow their own procedures, were biased in the way they considered your complaint, or took an unreasonable amount of time to process your complaint.

The SPSO cannot force the Care Inspectorate to change their decision or enforce action against an employee or individual. They can however recommend the Care Inspectorate to address any failures and make sure they are followed. The complaints procedure is outlined on the SPSO’s website here.