Hartlepool's adult social care services receive twice as many compliments as complaints

Hartlepool Borough Council’s annual report on adult social care services showed 35 complaints were lodged, an increase of four from the previous year.

Seven of the 35 complaints received were not considered further, leaving 28 complaints for investigation, an increase of six from the previous year.

On the other hand, 77 compliments were reported, praising services and staff support, which increased by 18 compared to the previous year.

The report focuses on the period 2019-20 and was delayed coming forward due to pandemic pressures.

Cllr Stephen Thomas, speaking at the last adult and community based services committee, said: “I think it does show the way in which our services that we provide are generally a very high quality and are very highly valued by the people who receive them.

“If you think about the number of individual contacts that we have with people, it is a very very small number of complaints.

Jill Harrison, director of adult and community based services, said: “We have to be realistic about the fact that our services are not always going to be perfect and actually it’s positive that we do have that culture where people do feel able to raise concerns.

“The key from that is that we do learn from those complaints and we do make improvements.”

Complaints included service users being unhappy about the standard and quality of care being delivered by carers and in contracted care homes.

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