We welcome feedback: praise helps us celebrate good care, and constructive complaints help us put things right. This procedure covers concerns about regulated services, local branch operations, and general dealings with My Homecare — it does not replace emergency or safeguarding routes (use 999 or your local authority safeguarding team where there is immediate risk; see our Safeguarding page).
What you can expect
A clear path: hear you out locally first, escalate in writing when needed, keep you informed of timescales, and signpost impartial bodies where the law allows.
- Local first. Most issues resolve quickly when you speak with the branch or care team named on your paperwork or in the site footer.
- Formal route. If you prefer, or informal conversations have stalled, move to email or letter so we have a dated record we can investigate.
- Committed timescales. Acknowledgement as soon as we can — ordinarily within two working days — and aim for a substantive response within 20 working days for care-related complaints, subject to complexity.
- Fair escalation. If our final response does not meet your expectations, head office escalation and regulators (where jurisdiction applies) are outlined below — we will not discourage you from using them.
- 1Talk locally
- 2Write it down
- 3We investigate
- 4Review / escalate
Before you start — put it on record
Useful details reduce avoidable delays. Where you can, include: your name and contact preference, the branch or service, dates and approximate times, who was involved (roles or first names where you know them), and what outcome you are hoping for — even if only “understand what happened and receive an apology”.
You may ask a trusted relative, advocate or solicitor to pursue a complaint with your consent.
Step 1 — speak to your local branch or care team
In almost every case the quickest way to restore confidence begins with whoever knows your care plan or locality: branch manager, co-ordinator, or registered manager named on signage and official letters. Telephone and mail links appear in each page footer; keep a note of the call reference if an adviser gives one.
Prefer not to telephone? Brief email outlining the gist is acceptable at this informal stage — screenshots or forwarded correspondence help if the matter involves digital channels.
Step 2 — formal written complaint
Submit your complaint clearly in writing (email or postal letter addressed to complaints lead at the branch or nominated head-office mailbox we confirm on request):
- •Chronological summary of events and witnesses if known.
- •Copies rather than originals of documents you deem critical.
- •Preferred format for response (large print, translator, interpreter) where applicable.
Formal-stage promises
- Acknowledgement target: two working days of receipt.
- Investigation ordinarily conducted by somebody not tangling day-to-day with the complaint fact-pattern where practicable.
- We may seek proportionate supplementary information — you will usually be consulted first.
Responses, updates and interim safety
Complaints involving safeguarding concerns, clinical harm or multi-agency partnership reviews may lengthen timescales; we pledge transparent updates rather than prolonged silence wherever regulation permits disclosure.
We endeavour to conclude care-related investigations with written findings ordinarily within twenty working days where facts are obtainable without third-party secrecy constraints. Extensions will cite reasons plainly.
If immediate safety measures arise we may pause non-urgent timetable steps but will always explain interim actions designed to mitigate risk whilst analysis continues.
Independent review & external bodies
After our substantive response please ask whichever My Homecare team wrote to you for identified head-office escalation. We revise published senior contacts routinely; omitting insecure personal emails from this webpage protects staff from spam — but we supply them correspondence-specifically.
Regulators like the CQC may scrutinise regulated activities in England. Their online contact gateway is maintained at cqc.org.uk . Funding sources (clinical commissioning arrangements, privately purchased packages, councils) attach different complaint bodies — your branch can signpost commissioners or suitable ombudsman services.
Neither listing above waives statutory duties; timelines or admissibility rules sit with those bodies — confirm current guidance directly on official sites before relying on timelines here.
Conduct, staff dignity & threatening behaviour
Our employees deserve freedom from hostility; racial, sexual or violent threats while discussing a complaint undermine resolution. Repeated intimidation channels may revert to supervised written-only contact consistent with safeguarding and employment law balancing exercise.
Allegations raising abuse or neglect may trigger parallel safeguarding processes — cooperating with multi-agency partners can temporarily narrow what we disclose preliminarily, but overarching duties to you remain paramount read alongside regulator instructions.