Adult social care
Complaints about adult social care
Since October 2010 the Local Government Ombudsman has been able consider complaints from people who arrange or fund their own adult social care. This is in addition to complaints about care arranged and funded by local authorities, which the LGO has dealt with for more than 35 years.
The LGO’s new role includes those who ‘self-fund’ from their own resources or have a personalised budget. It ensures that everyone has access to the same independent Ombudsman service regardless of how the care service is funded. In most cases we will only consider a complaint once the care provider has been given a reasonable opportunity to deal with the situation. It is a free service. Our job is to investigate complaints in a fair and independent way. We do not take sides and do not champion complaints.
Following the extension of our role, we commissioned research into the state of complaint handling in the adult social care sector. The aim was to understand what works well and what needs to be improved, from a range of different perspectives. See the Surveys section for further details.
We are independent of politicians, local authorities, government departments, advocacy and campaigning groups, the care industry, and the Care Quality Commission. We are not a regulator and do not inspect care providers.
The short film below provides an overview of the new adult social care service. It explains our new role and how the service benefits both service users and care providers. You can also download a free copy of the film by clicking the link to the right as well as a copy of the transcript.
Introducing Adult Social Care
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The LGO and the Care Quality Commission
We are fully independent of the Care Quality Commission (CQC). We deal with individual injustices that people have suffered and CQC will refer all such complaints to us.
CQC deals with complaints about registered services as a whole and does not consider individual matters. We can share information with CQC but only when we feel it is appropriate.
CQC will redirect individual complaints to us, and we will inform CQC about outcomes that point at regulatory failures.
Date Updated: 01/02/12