Rise in complaints over adult social care in city

Complaints to Sunderland City Council about adult social care have more than doubled compared to the same period last year, a meeting has heard.

The council’s scrutiny coordinating committee met last week to hear a report on the latest quarterly complaints figures.

Between January and March this year, there were 42 complaints compared to 19 in the same period in 2016/17 – a 121% rise.

The total number of complaints recorded between 2016/17 and 2017/18 also saw a 59% rise from 86 to 137.

Adults Services complaints manager Marie Johnson, said she believed last year’s figures were “underreported”, with some complaints not passed through relevant channels.

She added that she has worked with team managers to make sure complaints are logged going forward.

High areas of complaints between January – March included 15 linked to older persons, 10 for occupational therapy, seven for mental health and four for the learning disabilities team.

The nature of complaints ranged from actions of workers (14), communication (8) delay (6) and assessment disagreement (6).

Out of the 42 complaints logged between JanuaryMarch, 10 were upheld in full, five were partly upheld and 13 remain ongoing.

An additional five were upheld in part, one was withdrawn, one was not eligible and seven were classed as ‘other’.

Between January and March there were also 11 ombudsman complaints completed with three upheld.

The council also received 163 compliments between January-March this year ranging from refuse, highways and the gritting team to Derwent Hill and the Occupational Therapy Service.