Adult social care complaints procedure

How to make a complaint

You can make a complaint by:

• using the online form
• emailing adultcarecomplaints@lewisham.gov.uk
• calling 020 8314 6131 (if you leave a message we will get back to you)
• writing to FREEPOST, Adult social care complaints, Lewisham Council, Town Hall, Catford SE6 4RU.

Who can make a complaint

Anyone who receives, or is affected by, a social care service can make a complaint.

If you prefer, you can ask someone to complain on your behalf. This could be a relative, friend, carer, doctor or someone independent who can speak for you.

How we will deal with your complaint

Our complaints procedure is based on government guidelines. The procedure aims to resolve complaints more effectively and gives us the chance to learn and improve.   

The complaints procedure

• We will tell you within three working days that we have received your complaint. If you have given us your telephone number, we will call you to discuss how you would like us to proceed.
• We will investigate your complaint within the next 25 working days. If your complaint is more complicated, we may ask you for more time. We may also ask to visit and talk with you about your concerns.
• We will give you a detailed answer in writing that explains how we looked into your complaint, what we found out and what we think should happen next.
• We will inform you about any learning or improvements we think can be made as a result of your complaint and how will implement it.
• We will talk to you about how you can take your complaint further if you do not think we have answered all your concerns.

We want to address something that may have gone wrong as quickly and fairly as possible and we will always try to do that first, without making you go through the complaints procedure.

Refer your complaint to LGSCO

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) investigates the administration of local authorities. We work with the LGSCO to try and get the best from complaints.

You can refer your complaint to the LGSCO at any time, or read their advice and guidance about making a complaint.

Contact:
PO Box 4771, Coventry, CV4 0EH
Email: advice@lgo.org.uk 
Telephone: 0300 061 0614

If you need help with your complaint

If you want to contact us but would like some help and advice on how to tell us your concerns, you can use an advocacy service to support you. 

You may also want to refer to the Governments policy paper ‘Adult social care: quality matters’ to help you make a complaint.

We also have an appeals procedure.

If we’ve made a decision about your care and support needs that you disagree with, you can appeal the decision. The decision might be about the services we are offering you, or your eligibility for support.

If you think you need to make a complaint and appeal a decision, we will help you to do both.

If you would like to appeal against a decision we have made, follow the appeals procedure.