Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that (a) families and (b) carers can effectively (i) raise and (ii) resolve complaints about adult social care provision in Surrey Heath constituency.

The Government recognises the vital roles that unpaid carers and families play. The Government is committed to supporting them, including by ensuring that they can effectively raise and resolve complaints about adult social care, including in Surrey Heath.

By law, all health and social care services must have a procedure for dealing efficiently with complaints. Anyone receiving adult social care or their family, carer, or representative has the right to complain about decisions, service delivery, or related issues.

If an individual is not satisfied with the way a provider or local authority has dealt with a complaint, they may escalate it to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) who can investigate individual concerns. The LGSCO is the independent complaints lead for adult social care and investigates complaints from those receiving social care.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator for health and social care in England. Whilst the CQC is unable to investigate individual complaints, the CQC encourages the public to “share their experience” through an online feedback mechanism which allows them to raise concerns about the services they receive from providers. Any such cases shared with the CQC will be investigated as part of its ongoing monitoring of providers.