Make a complaint about a registered care service

When we receive a complaint, we are always committed to the safety and wellbeing of people experiencing care.  

An important way for us to make sure care services improve is by listening to concerns. These concerns must be about a registered care service - we cannot investigate services that are not registered with us.

We use a range of methods to ensure we hear the views of people experiencing care, staff and relatives. These include visits to services as well as video calls.

More detailed information on our statutory duty to investigate is set out in:

• how we deal with complaints about care

• we’ve agreed to investigate a complaint

All complaints are assessed for any aspects of adult and child protection. Any complaints which are assessed as adult or child protection are referred to the lead agency, the social work department and/or Police Scotland. We keep in touch with the social work department/police until a decision is made about any investigation they will undertake. If a decision is made that no investigation is required by them, the issues will be re-assessed through our resolution pathways and investigated by the Care Inspectorate if this is appropriate.  

If you are unhappy with the outcome of our investigation, you have the right to request a review. We include information about how to do this when we provide you with the written summary of our findings.  

The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) when submitting complaints

We are aware that some complainants choose to submit information with the assistance of generative AI. While individuals are entitled to decide how they prepare their submissions, we would note that the use of AI can sometimes result in key concerns being diluted or lost, or in the inclusion of information that is inaccurate, unsupported or unclear. The use of AI tools can also result in longer submissions increasing the time required to review and respond to complaints.

We therefore ask that you clearly set out the nature of your complaint to help avoid any potential misunderstanding or the inclusion of incorrect information.