Dealing with complaints in Social Care

All care services receive complaints from time to time. These are often perceived as negative: a potential sign or failure or poor performance. Managers tend to view complaints as an indication that something is wrong. But take a moment to flip this thinking around: when considered in a world of constant change and striving for improvement, complaints could (and should) be viewed as your ticket to success.

Rather than avoiding complaints, in this alternate way of thinking, managers should actually welcome complaints – even seek them out. And not just written formal complaints, but informal verbal complaints, as well as those that have not even been made. Or as we refer to them: missed opportunity complaints. The ones that might have been made but – for whatever reason – never were.

As for the complainants themselves: seek feedback not only from those who use your services, their families and friends, but welcome it from your staff and wider stakeholders too.

Your feedback is valuable to us

This new approach to complaints may need some adjustments. For example: it must be clear to people not only that their complaints are welcome, but how they should make a complaint if they have one. You should ensure that your complaints policy is clearly displayed and that the complaints procedure is provided in an easy-to-understand and accessible way. Staff should also be trained to support people to complain when they are not happy with the service provided.

You may also want to actively engage with groups to invite their feedback, either directly or indirectly. There are several ways this can be done. For example: inviting comments at the end of a newsletter or customer survey, either posted or emailed, depending on the preferred method of communication, or random customer engagement calls.  When the person promoting this open-door culture is not a manager, regular face-to-face communication between them and the manager is also essential to ensure any complaints are acted upon.

What to do with complaints in Social Care?

After this valuable feedback has been obtained, the manager should use it to the advantage of the service. Complaints should be investigated and a root-cause analysis undertaken to uncover any areas for concern. When these are identified, they can be targeted for improvement and resolution. Remember: complaints offer a first-hand insight into user experience and what can be done to improve it. This is far more valuable information and will lead to more concrete advances than second- or third-hand impressions of what is required.

Feedback should also be provided, openly and as regularly as possible. Through this process, relationships will be strengthened. Trust and confidence in your service will also improve, which will ultimately contribute to better care outcomes.

Finally, complaints provide you the opportunity to learn lessons across your organisation and staff team. Repeating the process over time will ultimately strengthen your service, earn the respect of service users, staff, and other stakeholders, and provide a vehicle to drive continuous improvement. So welcome complaints! Be honest and transparent when things go wrong. It will enable the delivery of safer and higher-quality care.

Have you received a complaint and aren’t sure the next step? W&P can help. Our audits and mock inspections can be designed to cover any issues identified through your complaints procedure and include a written report with plan of action. Our team are all experienced adult social care professions from a range of backgrounds. For more information on how we can help, contact us today for more information on 01305 767104.

For more information on Dealing with complaints in Social Care talk to W&P Assessment and Training Centre