Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had recent discussions with the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman on the proportion of cases referred to the Ombudsman from the independent care sector.

The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulations 2014) requires that anyone who has seen or experienced poor-quality care must have a route available to complain to the organisation that provided or paid for the care.

To meet this requirement, adult social care providers must have an effective and accessible system in place for identifying, receiving, handling and responding to complaints from people using the service, or people acting on their behalf. All complaints must be investigated thoroughly and any necessary action taken where failures have been identified.

This means that although adult social care providers are not required to signpost to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO), there are clear avenues for individuals to raise concerns or complaints about their care and support. 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 LGSCO who can investigate individual concerns.

The LGSCO has recently published its annual report of social care complaints, which provides information on the numbers of complaints received. Departmental officials meet regularly with the LGSCO.