Quality Concerns

Information about what a Quality Concern is and how to raise or report them is available in a dedicated  Quality concerns page in the Safeguarding section of the Practice Guide. 

Compliments

A compliment is ‘an expression of satisfaction or praise about the standard of service we provide’.

Examples of a compliment include occasions where:

• people are happy with support that was provided
• assistance given by a staff member was above and beyond the standard expected
• a service provided exceeded expectations.

Compliments can look like a thank you in an email when you have helped to resolve a query, or a verbal recognition of what your input has helped someone to do or feel when your involvement has ended.

Sometimes compliments go unrecognised because we don’t feel they are significant enough to share formally. But receiving this kind of feedback from people helps us to keep a record of what we’re doing well, and to share encouragement within Adult Social Care that often it’s the little things we do that make a difference to what matters to people.

If you receive a compliment about your work, or someone’s experience of support from Camden, please share it at:

[email protected]

Compliments will be passed on to the relevant staff member/service where applicable.

 

Complaints

Camden Council’s definition of a complaint is ‘when someone lets us know that they are unhappy with our service, and they want us to take action to resolve it’.

Examples of a complaint:

• Failure to follow process
• Failure to follow the council’s own policy
• Significant or repeated failure to provide a service
• Failure to do what we said we would do
• Failure to respond.

If you have a quality concern about a provider, these are handled separately to complaints by our Commissioning team. For more information about what a quality concern is and how to report, see our guidance on Quality Concerns.

What to do when you receive a complaint

Complaints can take a variety of formats including, e-form, phone, letter, email and in person. The first step to take when you become aware of a person’s complaint is to listen and try to understand the complaint. This enables us to have a clearer picture of what the person’s issue is. It may be that you are able to resolve the complaint with them. Consider:

• Would a phone call help you to understand the issue better?
• What does the complainant think will resolve the issue? What outcome are they seeking?

If you or your team are not able to resolve the complaint with the person, or they are still unhappy, then they can raise a formal complaint (stage 1). The complaint needs to be submitted within 12 months after the date of the incident.

To submit a formal complaint you can direct people to our online Complaints form. Alternatively, as a Council officer you can report on someone’s behalf.  

 

If a resolution is not reached, the person has the right to escalate matters to an independent review (stage 2). A request for a stage 2 review needs to be submitted within 28 calendar days of the stage 1 response.

We will not accept a complaint outside of the timescales for stage 1 or 2 except where exceptional reasons for the delay can be demonstrated.

For more detailed information about how complaints are handled, including timescales for each stage, you can read the full Complaints Policy and Procedure Guide.

See also our Remedies Policy & Procedure with guidance on the offering of remedies which are proportionate, appropriate, and reasonable and that take into consideration the facts and issues raised in complaints about service failures.