Make a complaint about adult social care
If you are unhappy about the care you or someone you know has received, you have the right to make a complaint to us.
Complaints procedure
The first step is to contact the member of staff you are dealing with, or their manager.
We try hard to get things right to make sure that the services we provide are of the highest possible standard. Since April 2009, a single approach to dealing with complaints about NHS and adult social care services helps us to deal with complaints more efficiently. It makes our services more effective, personal and safe. If your complaint involves more than one organisation, you will get one, co-ordinated response.
Our aims
We want to listen and respond to your comments and complaints and learn from your feedback about how to improve our services and prevent future problems.
The complaints procedure aims to:
- Be open, accountable and fair
- Focus on you, the client
- Put things right
- Find ways to continually improve
Submit a complaint
We will normally only consider complaints about things which happened in the past 12 months. However, in some cases we may be able to consider complains outside of this period.
You can submit a complaint by:
- Speaking to a member of staff who works in the service you wish to complain about. If you know the name of the member of staff but not their telephone number, please contact us on 020 8871 7648
- Completing our online form
- Emailing us at adultscomplaints@wandsworth.gov.uk
- Calling us on 020 8871 7648
- Writing to us at Freepost RTKU EGLA ZZGT, Room 162, Wandsworth High Street, Wandsworth, London, SW18 2PU
Find out the different ways that you can make a complaint about adult social care.
How we deal with complaints
We hope that most concerns can be settled by talking to the member of staff you originally contacted about your complaint. If you tell them what it is that is worrying you, they will try to find a solution by the end of the next working day if possible.
It is important to give them all the information you have as this will help them to assess your concerns correctly and resolve them quickly. We call this an early resolution.
If you are unhappy with our response
If an early resolution hasn't been possible, your concerns will be logged as a formal complaint and acknowledged within two working days. We will make every effort to resolve it quickly and effectively.
Mediation
If your complaint is difficult to resolve, or if there is a breakdown in communication, we may appoint an impartial mediator. This will be someone who has no connection with the Council or the NHS, to help us reach a conclusion that everybody is satisfied with.
Unreasonable behaviour
We will do our best to resolve the issue as quickly as we can. If you become angry or impatient with our staff whilst making a complaint, or are unreasonably persistent in your contact, we reserve the right to make use of policy on Unreasonable Complainant Behaviour.
Taking matters further
If you are still not satisfied at this stage, you can contact the Local Government Ombudsman.
Complaints report
View our Adult Social Care Complaints Report 2022 to 2023.
Statutory Complaints Policy
View our Adult Social Care Statutory Complaints Policy.
We are committed to ensuring this policy is accessible to everyone and are happy to make any reasonable adjustments. If you require any reasonable adjustments, please do not hesitate to contact us.