Complaints and concerns

1. Concerns about a person’s safety#

1.1 Report a concern that a person is being neglected, harmed or unsafely cared for to both of the following:

• the Care Quality Commission, using their give feedback on care service; and
• the adult social care team at the council for the area where the person lives, which has a statutory safeguarding duty.

1.2 Both organisations accept reports from anyone, including relatives, friends, neighbours and staff. You do not need the person’s consent to raise a safeguarding concern, and you can ask to remain anonymous.

1.3 Do not report a safeguarding concern to Find-Care alone. We have no power to enter a service, require information from a provider, or take protective action, and this address is not monitored outside working hours.

1.4 You may also tell us, after reporting it under 1.1. We use safeguarding information when deciding whether to continue listing a provider.

2. Complaints about a provider’s care#

2.1 Complain to the provider first. Every provider registered with the Care Quality Commission is required to operate a complaints procedure and to give you a copy on request.

2.2 If the provider does not resolve the complaint, refer it to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman. The Ombudsman investigates adult social care complaints in England, whether the care is arranged by a council or paid for privately. The service is free.

2.3 The Ombudsman normally expects the provider to have had up to 12 weeks to respond before it will consider a complaint.

2.4 You can also report your experience to the Care Quality Commission. The Commission does not investigate individual complaints. It uses what it is told to decide when and how to inspect a service.

2.5 Find-Care does not investigate complaints about care and cannot make a finding about what happened.

3. Errors on this site#

3.1 Report an incorrect rating, contact detail, fee, service description or coverage area to support@find-care.co.uk. Include the provider’s name and the detail that is wrong.

3.2 Where the report concerns a CQC rating, we check the Care Quality Commission’s register and correct our record.

3.3 Where it concerns information supplied by the provider, we raise it with the provider.

3.4 You do not need an account, or any connection to the provider, to report an error.

4. Complaints about Find-Care#

4.1 Complaints about our own service go to support@find-care.co.uk. This includes an enquiry that was not passed on, a provider that did not make contact, a listing we failed to correct, and how we handled your information.

4.2 Providers with a complaint about an invoice or a charge should use billing@find-care.co.uk, or raise a dispute against the specific charge from their provider account.

4.3 Complaints about how we have handled personal information can be made to us, and to the Information Commissioner’s Office. You do not have to complain to us first. Our privacy policy sets out your rights over your information.

5. What to include#

5.1 When contacting us, include:

• what happened, and the date;
• the provider’s name, if the complaint involves one;
• the name and email address used for the enquiry, if the complaint concerns an enquiry, so we can locate the record;
• what you would like us to do.

5.2 We will acknowledge your complaint within 3 business days of receiving it. We aim to give you a full response within 10 business days. If we cannot, we will tell you why, and when to expect it.

6. Your other rights#

6.1 Nothing on this page affects your legal rights, and nothing here requires you to complain to Find-Care before contacting the Care Quality Commission, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, or the Information Commissioner’s Office.

6.2 If your complaint concerns a contract you hold with a provider, your rights under that contract and under consumer law are unaffected by anything on this site.

Common questions#