Introduction
People who use the Adult Social Care services are encouraged to give feedback on the quality and appropriateness of the services they receive.
This feedback can be in the form of compliments, representations, comments, suggestions, queries or complaints. All of these different kinds of representations from service users and carers should be welcomed and encouraged.
The Adult Social Care Service is committed both to listening to its service users and to using the information received to develop and improve the services it provides or commissions.
It is important that all representations from service users and carers are recorded to ensure that the views expressed by service users can be used to inform the process of service planning and service development.
A specific element of this is the recording of compliments and complaints. The Adult Social Care Service is legally required to establish and maintain a complaints procedure, in relation to social care services, and it is important that complaints are recorded and dealt with effectively in order to meet the statutory requirements of the complaints procedure.
The statutory complaints procedure is structured around three main principles: listening, responding and improving. These principles help the authority to take a more active approach to asking for people’s views, to deal with complaints more effectively and use the information received to learn and improve.
This guidance is written to assist staff who receive representations from service users and to clarify both statutory and Adult Social Care Service requirements and expectations.
This procedure does not relate to Community Services (Adult Learning, Dorset History Centre, Libraries, Trading Standards, Registration Services and Emergency Planning). Complaints relating to these services should be considered under the Council’s own complaints procedure.