Which? response to the LGO’s complaints statistics on social care providers

Responding to the LGO’s complaints statistics on social care providers, Which? executive director, Richard Lloyd, said:

​”While a rise in complaints to the ombudsman suggests people increasingly feel it’s worth speaking up in social care, a high uphold rate in favour of the consumer means that councils and care providers have a lot of work to do to improve their complaints handling.

“We want to see a shake-up of the way complaints are handled across all public services so they trigger action and could stop the same problem happening again. Requiring social care providers to report their complaints data to the regulator should help give people the confidence that their complaints count.”​

​Background:

1. The ‘Make complaints count’ campaign is calling on the Government to pledge to be the champion of patients, parents and all users of public services by committing to:

  • Giving people a role in triggering inspections by regulators through their complaints
  • Giving people a unified public services ombudsman which can swiftly deal with their unresolved complaints
  • Giving people a voice by allowing representative groups to make super-complaints in our public services, as they do in private markets

People can support the campaign at www.which.co.uk/publicservices

2. Previous Which? research has found:

  • 34% of people who have experienced a problem with public services in the past year didn’t complain
  • 39% didn’t complain because they didn’t think it would be worth the effort
  • 32% didn’t complain because they didn’t think anything would be done
  • 75% would be more likely to complain if they knew it would result in direct action
  • 79% would be more likely to complain if they knew it would make a difference to other people’s experience 

Methodology: Populus, on behalf of Which?, conducted an online survey of 4,132 UK adults between 19thand 23rd February 2014. Data were weighted to be representative of all UK adults. Populus is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by their rules.

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