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Social care appeals and complaints

You have the right to appeal if you think your council (or Trust in Northern Ireland) made the wrong decision about your social care. And you can complain if you’re unhappy with a service you get.

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What's the way to appeal against a social care decision?

Every council or Trust must have an appeals procedure. That's a set of steps to take for people who want to appeal against a decision. Some put it on their website. If they don’t, they must have a complaints procedure, so use that.

You, your carer or advocate can appeal for any of these reasons:

  • your council or Trust decided you don’t qualify for support
  • the assessment by your council or Trust didn’t take all your needs into account
  • you’re getting services but feel it’s not enough or the right care for you
  • your personal budget isn’t big enough to cover the support you need
  • your care and support plan doesn’t meet all your needs 
  • you can’t afford what they want to charge you
  • they’re cutting a service you use

Find out how to make an appeal from your social worker or local library.

Disability Rights UK has a factsheet on appeals

There’s also the Disability Rights Advice Line on 0330 995 0404.  

And the MS Society has a legal officer at the Disability Law Service who’s funded to advise you if you’re in England and Wales

What's the way to complain about social care?

The law says all social care services must have a complaints procedure that properly handles each complaint. This procedure is a set of steps to take when you wish to complain. 

You can make a complaint if you're not happy with a social care service. The service could be one that you've seen other people receive, or that you've had yourself. You can complain to the organisation that gave you the service, or to who paid for you to have this service.

What follows covers social care services provided by your local council or Trust. It also covers privately run services, like residential care homes or agencies that provide carers in your home. 

If you, your carer or an advocate want to complain about a service, the first step is to talk this through informally with who runs it. Or talk to your social worker if you have one, or the social services team of your council or Trust.

If this doesn't sort things out, the next step is to make an official complaint by using the service’s complaints procedure. Everyone who delivers a social care service must have a complaints procedure that you can ask to see. It tells you how to make a complaint, how the service deals with it, and how long they should take to answer. If it’s not on their website, call and ask for it, or get it from your library or social worker.

If you're in England, get advice on how to make an official complaint from the Care Quality Commission.

If you're in Wales, get advice from the Care and Social Services Inspectorate 

If you're in Scotland get help with making a complaint from the Care Inspectorate in Scotland

If you're in Northern Ireland get advice from the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority

Help with speaking up

Don’t be afraid to speak up if you have issue with your social care. It's your right to expect high quality support and to complain if you don't get it. Your service won’t stop or be cut back if you complain.

Look for local support. An advocate could help. Contact your local MS Society group or Citizens Advice to find out about other sources of support locally. Others who might take up your complaint are local councillors or your member of a devolved assembly (Wales, London and Northern Ireland) or parliament (Scotland).

In Scotland you can also contact the Scottish Independent Advocacy Alliance.

If complaining to the service doesn't work

If you’ve complained directly to a service but still aren’t satisfied, your final option is to take the complaint to your local government and social care ombudsman. The one for England deals with public and private services, the others only deal with public services:

In England contact the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman

In Wales contact the Ombudsman for Wales

In Scotland contact the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman 

In Northern Ireland contact the Northern Ireland Public Services Ombudsman

Why it's important to complain about a social care service

It's important that you complain about a service if you're not happy with it. Only if people complain, can councils (or Trusts in Northern Ireland) make their services better for everyone. This goes for private services, too. Problems can be picked up at an early stage and lessons can be learned.