Care service complaints rise by 17%

THE number of complaints made against care services increased by 17 per cent in the past year, according to a report.

Complaints about the quality of care in Scotland has increased by 17 per cent. Picture: Esme Allen

Scotland’s social care regulator the Care Inspectorate received 3,788 complaints between April 2013 and March this year, up from 3,237 the previous year.

The majority of these related to services but 64 complaints were made against the Care Inspectorate itself.

Of the 1,813 complaints that were fully dealt with in the year, the largest number (856) related to care home services, according to the body’s annual report.

Concern was raised about the daycare of children on 353 occasions and there were 255 complaints relating to support services.

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The general health and welfare of people being cared for was the most common cause for concern, with the inspectorate contacted about this on 441 occasions.

There were 359 complaints about staff and the same number about healthcare.

During the year a total of 1,129 complains were upheld compared with 1,186 the previous year.

Overall, the number of services that received good, very good or excellent grades for quality of care and support remained at more than 92 per cent.

The Care Inspectorate said it had focused its work on the services that presented the most risk and increased the intensity of inspections to 7,825 during the year.

Chief executive Annette Bruton said: “Where standards are not up to scratch, we will continue to seek improvement where possible and use our legal powers to protect vulnerable people from harm wherever necessary.

“Whilst the majority of care services are good, we must continue to ensure that we help improve those that are below standards, both across children’s and older people’s services.”

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