“If something is bothering you, our guide is here to help you through our process for handling complaints. Just take a look at our complaints procedure for more details.”

Complaints Procedure

Policy statement

• You have the right to speak up if you’re unhappy with our services, and we respect that. We know complaints can help us improve, so we take them seriously.

• Our goal is to handle complaints well, listening carefully to what you say and taking it seriously. We want to hear from you, your family, your caregivers, and anyone else who can help us do better.

• We want to make it clear: we’re not here to blame anyone or pay you off. This policy isn’t about that. Sometimes, what happens here might not be related to any punishment we might have to give.

• We believe it’s best to solve problems before they get worse. It’s not just about making you happy; it’s also about avoiding trouble. We prefer to sort things out locally, between you and your Registered Manager. We’re committed to fixing things quickly and honestly.

Purpose of the Complaints Process.

At Community Living LTD, we work hard to make sure that when you have a problem, we handle it quickly and fairly. We want you to feel confident that we’re listening to your concerns and taking action to fix them.

It’s made to make sure that

• People who use our services, their family members, and those who speak for them know how to complain and understand that Community Living LTD makes it easy to do so.

• One person will be in charge of dealing with complaints.

• We aim to reply to all written complaints within two working days.

• Usually, we investigate complaints within 28 days of getting them.

• You’ll get a written reply to your complaint within 28 days.

• We deal with complaints quickly, fairly, and with care, understanding they can upset both our staff and the people who use our services.

Responsibilities

Community Living LTD:-

 The named complaints manager with responsibility for following through complaints for Community Living LTD is:

 Address: 

 Telephone: 

 Email: 

Complaints Procedure

 Verbal complaints

• At Community Living LTD, we take all verbal complaints seriously, no matter how small they may seem.
• Our branches are responsible for handling and resolving verbal complaints from our community.
• Our staff are expected to treat complainants with politeness, empathy, and professionalism, avoiding defensive or aggressive behavior.
• We encourage our staff to respond calmly and respectfully to complaints, without blaming others or making excuses.
• Staff should avoid assigning blame, making excuses, or blaming other colleagues.
• When complaints are made by advocates on behalf of service users, we ensure proper authorization and consent before discussing confidential information.
• After discussing the issue, our Care Coordinators or senior team members will suggest solutions and ensure clear communication with the complainant.
• If a proposed solution isn’t satisfactory, we request written complaints to be submitted to the Registered Manager, providing the complainant with our complaints procedure if needed.
• All complaints, whether verbal or written, are carefully documented in our Complaints Book and the Service User’s file.

Serious or written complaints

Preliminary steps:

• When someone complains to Community Living LTD in writing, the Operations Manager handles it. They write down the complaint and try to send a letter acknowledging it within two days.
• The manager gives a brochure to explain how Community Living LTD deals with complaints. They take care of the complaint from start to finish.
• If needed, more details are collected from the person who complained. If someone else complained for them, they need permission in writing from the person affected.

• For serious complaints, it might be smart to talk to a lawyer. If legal action starts, the company stops investigating the complaint.
• If the person complaining doesn’t want the company to investigate, they can talk to their local council (if they pay for the service) or the Local Government Ombudsman (if they pay themselves). Organizations like Age UK or Counsel and Care can also help. The CQC might be told, but it won’t look into the complaint directly.

Investigation of the complaint by Community Living LTD:

When Community Living LTD receives a complaint, their complaints manager starts looking into it right away. They try to give a full answer to the person who complained within 28 days. They might write a letter or set up a meeting with the right people.

If the investigation takes longer because the issues are tricky, the person who complained will be told about the delay.

Meeting:

When we set up a meeting, we’ll make sure you know you can bring someone with you, like a friend or family member, or someone who can speak for you, if you want.

In the meeting, we’ll explain everything about what we found in our investigation, and if we need to, we’ll say sorry (but saying sorry doesn’t mean we’re admitting fault).

This meeting helps us show you that we’ve taken your concern very seriously and looked into it thoroughly.

Follow-up action:

1. If you don’t want to meet, we’ll write down what we found and tell you how to reach out to the Care Quality Commission if you’re still unhappy.
2. We write down what happened and fix any problems we find in how we do things.
3. We write down what happened and send it to Head Office to decide what to do next.

4. Every six months, the big bosses at Community Living LTD look at all the complaints to see what we can do better.