Send adult services a complaint, comment or compliment.
While we welcome any kind of comment, we take complaints seriously. We try to provide the best service we can, but sometimes things go wrong. When that happens, we want to be told, so we can make sure things work better in future and we can learn lessons that will benefit other people. Often the best thing to do when something small goes wrong is to mention it to the staff concerned, who may be able to sort things out on the spot. But if there is a more serious problem, or if you do not feel staff are listening to you, you have a legal right to make a complaint and to have it properly investigated.
If you have a complaint about your assessment or care plan, then the best person to talk to will usually be your care manager. If you have a complaint about one of the services your care manager has arranged, it is usually best to start by contacting the provider of the service (for instance the organisation which employs your home carers, or the manager of a care home). However, you can contact your care manager if you find that easier. If you don’t want to speak to your care manager about the problem, or if you feel your care manager is not listening to you, you can contact our complaints team.
To deal with your complaint appropriately, we will need to know:
If you phone us, we will talk you through the information that we need.
Members of the team will:
The response we will send to you will include (where appropriate):
If you are not satisfied with the response to your complaint, we will also advise you about how you can take the matter further.
Our complaints team is here to listen to what you want to tell us about our services. This includes compliments and other comments, as well as complaints. If you do have a complaint, the complaints team will make sure it is investigated as thoroughly as necessary and that you get a full response to all the issues you raise, including advice on other options open to you if you are not satisfied with what we say. If you have a comment or compliment, this will be passed on to the appropriate service area. We can investigate complaints about social care services provided or arranged by the council, and about NHS Continuing Healthcare ("CHC") services which the council arranges on behalf of the NHS. You can contact us by phone on 01670 628888 or by writing to us at the address below: Adult Social Care Comments, Compliments and Complaints FREEPOST RLTX-LBXU-SHBS County Hall Morpeth Northumberland NE61 2EF We are happy to accept your complaints, comments and compliments by email to socialcarecomplaints@northumberland.gov.uk, or CHCcomplaints@northumberland.gov.uk. (If you're not sure which to use, it doesn't matter which you pick - the same team deals with both social care and CHC complaints.)
The compliments we receive are mainly about how helpful, kind and professional staff have been, or about the quality of one of our services.
If you would like to submit a compliment you can send it on email to: clientrelations@northumberland.gov.uk
You can contact us by phone on 01670 628888 or by writing to us at the address below: Adult Social Care Comments, Compliments and Complaints FREEPOST RLTX-LBXU-SHBS County Hall Morpeth Northumberland NE61 2EF
Here you can find the annual reports for adult complaints.
2020-21 Joint Annual Report
Click here to let us know if you found the content of the page helpful