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Case ref:201100997
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Date:October 2012
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Body:The City of Edinburgh Council
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Sector:Local Government
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Outcome:Some upheld, recommendations
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Subject:complaints handling (incl social work complaints procedures)
Summary
Mr C, an advocacy worker, complained to the council on behalf of a client (Mrs A).
The complaint was about the council complaints review committee (CRC)'s handling of her complaint about her husband's care package. Mrs A said that the CRC was unreasonably delayed; that it did not take all of her evidence into consideration concerning the care provider and the council's offer of a meeting to discuss the complaint; nor did it include important information in its report to the council's Health, Social Care and Housing Review Committee (HSCHRC).
We upheld Mrs C's first complaint, as our investigation found that the council had not arranged the CRC hearing within the statutory timescale nor within a reasonable length of time. We did not uphold the complaints that the CRC was not given sufficient evidence to show that the council had attempted to arrange a meeting between Mrs A and the care provider to try and address Mrs A's concerns; that Mrs A had not been given the opportunity to provide her evidence in writing to the CRC and to discuss this at the hearing; and that the CRC had not provided the HSCHRC with their decision and recommendations in line with their policy and procedures. We reached this conclusion as we found no evidence to show that the council had acted wrongly in these matters.
Recommendations
We recommended that the council:
- apologise for the delay in convening the CRC.