A statement from Dr Jane Martin, Local Government Ombudsman and Acting Chair of the Commission for Local Administration.

With the growing public awareness and concern about the standard of adult social care in England, we understand that people are unsure of who can help if they are concerned with the care they, or a family member, is receiving.

The role of the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) is to investigate individual complaints from adults who are not satisfied with the standard of social care they are receiving. This includes adults who arrange and pay for their own social care, or have a personalised budget, as well as those funded by their local authority.

Where social care is arranged or paid for privately the LGO may investigate any matter that relates to actions taken in connection with the provision of that social care. The fact that a provider also provides healthcare will not always bar the LGO from initiating an investigation into a complaint.

When something goes wrong, our main objective is to get redress for the individuals affected and to promote service improvements from the lessons learned. Whether it’s about standards of care or mistreatment of individuals our primary aim is to get providers to put things right.

In most cases the LGO will only consider a complaint once the care provider has been given a reasonable opportunity to deal with the situation.

For more information vist our adult social care pages.

Article date: 07 June 2011