Customer feedback procedure

Care UK recognises the importance of the compliments, comments, views and complaints received by our customers, service users and staff. We believe that the feedback we receive is vital in shaping the high standard of homecare we aim to deliver.

The Care UK policy is to ensure all our service users and customers are aware of their right to comment and we will ensure all feedback is dealt with quickly and effectively without discrimination or risk of retribution.

All feedback received is logged in a secure folder and backed up on our IT system.

Compliments

We want to hear when something goes wrong, but also when something goes right too. Receiving positive feedback about our staff and service tells us what we are doing right so we can do more of the same. When we are told about the good things our care workers have done, it gives us the opportunity to give them the recognition they deserve.

If you would like to send a compliment about a member of staff or about a particular aspect of our service, you can either contact your local branch or email us by clicking here.

Complaints

We want your experience with Care UK to be a good one.

To support this and to help improve our service, we welcome any comments you may wish to make. We will listen, treat every issue seriously and act upon it in a timely manner, as outlined below.

You may contact us in person, by phone, or by writing a letter or an e-mail. If you would prefer a friend, relative or advocate to contact us on your behalf, that is not a problem - we welcome comment wherever it comes from.

1. We will record the details of the issues raised and will acknowledge this within a maximum of three working days. At that time we will also advise you of the name of the person who will be dealing with your complaint.
2. At this stage we want to understand how your complaint came about. To do this, we thoroughly consider all issues raised, contacting all persons involved and deciding what should be done to ensure, as far as we are able, that it does not happen again.
3. We would aim to complete our investigations within 20 working days, thus ensuring that any complaint is resolved within a maximum of 28 working days. We will write to you with our findings and advise you of any actions that we have taken to ensure, as far as we are able, that we resolve your complaint and that the circumstances will not be repeated.
4. If you are not satisfied with the handling of your complaint locally, you should contact the customer experience manager using the main contact number on this site.
5. If your care is provided through the local authority social care department, you may contact them directly. 
6. If your complaint is still not dealt with to your satisfaction, or you would prefer to refer directly to the regulatory body, you should contact the CQC (England) or the CSSIW (Wales). You can find their number in the phone book.

In the year ending 31st March 2010 Care UK made approximately 37m care visits to our service users and we received 1,286 complaints, 1,034 of which were upheld.

Corrective action

The branch manager will ensure that each complaint is thoroughly investigated and resolved to the satisfaction of the complainant.

Corrective follow-up action will be clearly documented and agreed by all parties involved (normally the service user or advocate, the Care UK branch manager and the contract manager).

Our customer experience manager monitors the numbers and types of complaints and identifies trends and patterns by auditing on regional and national levels.

You can see an example of our complaints process in action by clicking here

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