Decision Report 201302066

Summary

Mr C complained to the Care Inspectorate about a care provider used by his mother. He was not satisfied that they investigated his complaint effectively, as he said they had not responded to all his concerns. He also had ongoing correspondence with them after they completed their initial investigation and complained that they did not handle this reasonably.

Our investigation found that the Care Inspectorate had thoroughly investigated the issues Mr C raised in his complaints, and responded to each of them. They did not respond to every individual query that he brought to them, but we considered that they took a reasonable approach to their handling of his complaints.

We did, however, consider that after their initial investigation they were not clear enough in their correspondence with Mr C. The should have provided him with consistent information about his complaint and what to do when he was still not satisfied with the outcome.

Recommendations

We recommended that the Care Inspectorate:

• remind staff to explain to complainants at the outset the remit of an investigation, and clarify the ability to respond to any questions or concerns raised; and
• apologise to Mr C for the lack of clarity in their decisions and in correspondence with him in relation to the information he requested.