Delta Wellbeing Complaints Policy

    Delta Wellbeing is committed to dealing effectively with any concerns or complaints you may have about our services. We aim to clarify any issues you may be unsure about. If possible, we’ll put right any mistakes we may have made. We will provide any service you’re entitled to which we have failed to deliver. If we did something wrong, we’ll apologise and, where possible, try to put things right for you. We aim to learn from our mistakes and use the information we gain from complaints to improve our services.

    When to use this policy

    When you express your concerns or complain to us, we will usually respond in the way we explain below. 

    However, sometimes you may have a statutory right of appeal for example, social services & wellbeing act.

    Sometimes, you might be concerned about matters that are not covered by this policy.  Examples include, but aren’t limited to:

    • Where there are ongoing legal proceedings or an investigation
    • Potential insurance claims
    • Complaints about Social Services
    • Employment issues, including concerns about DW employees outside of the workplace which don’t relate to the delivery of a service
    • Reports of anti-social behaviour
    • Allegations of serious officer misconduct and criminal activity

    We will then advise you about how to make your concerns known.

    How to express concern or complain formally 

    You can express your concern in any of the following ways: 

    • Ask for a copy of our form from the person with whom you are already in contact. Tell them that you want us to deal with your concern formally. 
    • Get in touch with us on 0300 333 2222 if you want to make your complaint over the phone, we will aim to resolve this in 24 hours. 
    • Email us at contactus@deltawellbeing.org.uk
    • Write to us at: 
      • Complaints Team
        Delta Wellbeing Ltd
        1st Floor,
        East Gate,
        Llanelli. 
        SA15 3YF.

    Alternatively, if you have a complaint and you are not satisfied with the delivery of the service provided to you then you can directly contact the Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW). Whilst the CIW do not investigate individual complaints, you can raise a concern and this information may be used to inform a future inspection. 

    Copies of this policy and the complaint form are available in Welsh, and as audio and large print upon request.

    Dealing with your concern

    • We will formally acknowledge your concern within 5 working days and let you know how we intend to deal with it.
    • We will ask you to tell us how you would like us to communicate with you and establish whether you have any particular requirements – for example, if you need documents in large type.
    • We will deal with your concern in an open and honest way.
    • We will make sure that your dealings with us in the future do not suffer just because you have expressed a concern or made a complaint.

    Normally, we will only be able to look at your concerns if you tell us about them within 6 months. This is because it’s better to look into your concerns while the issues are still fresh in everyone’s mind.

    We may exceptionally be able to look at concerns which are brought to our attention later than this. However, you will have to explain why you have not been able to bring it to our attention earlier and we will need to have sufficient information about the issue to allow us to consider it properly. In any event, we will not consider any concerns about matters that took place more than three years ago.

    If you’re expressing a concern on behalf of somebody else, we’ll need their agreement to you acting on their behalf.

    What if there is more than one body involved?

    If the complaint is about an organisation that we work with, for example a housing repair contractor, you may wish to raise the matter informally with them first. However, if you want to express your concern or complaint formally, we will look into this ourselves and respond to you.

    If the complaint is in relation to a statutory service, we will liaise with the service provider and you may contact them directly also to raise your concern/complaint. 

    Investigation

    We will tell you who we have asked to look into your concern or complaint. If your concern is straightforward, we’ll usually ask somebody from the relevant service area to look into it and respond to you. If it is more serious, we may escalate this to a senior manager.  

    We will set out our understanding of your concerns and ask you to confirm that we are right. We’ll also ask you to tell us what outcome you’re hoping for.

    If there is a simple solution to your problem, we may ask you if you’re happy to accept this. For example, where you asked for a service and we see straight away that you should have had it, we will offer to provide the service rather than investigate and produce a report.

    We will aim to resolve concerns as quickly as possible and expect to deal with the vast majority within 20 working days. If your complaint is more complex, we will:

    • Let you know within this time why we think it may take longer to investigate.
    • Tell you how long we expect it to take.
    • Let you know where we have reached with the investigation, and 
    • Give you regular updates, including telling you whether any developments might change our original estimate.

    The person who is investigating your concerns will firstly aim to establish the facts. 

    The extent of the investigation will depend upon how complex and how serious the issues you have raised are. In complex cases, we will draw up an investigation plan.

    In some instances, we may ask to meet with you to discuss your concerns. 

    We’ll look at relevant evidence. This could include information you have provided, notes of conversations, letters, emails, call recordings or whatever may be relevant to your particular concern. If necessary, we’ll talk to the staff or others involved and look at our policies, any legal entitlement and guidance.
    Outcome

    If we formally investigate your complaint, we will let you know what we find. If necessary, we will produce a report. We’ll explain how and why we came to our conclusions.

    If we find that we made a mistake, we’ll tell you what happened and why.

    If we find there is a fault in our systems or the way we do things, we’ll tell you what it is and how we plan to change things to stop it happening again.

    If we make a mistake, we will always apologise for it.

    Putting Things Right

    If we didn’t provide you with a service you should have had, we’ll aim to provide it now, if that’s possible. If we didn’t do something well, we’ll aim to put it right. If you have lost out as a result of a mistake on our part, we’ll try to put you back in the position you would have been in if we’d done things properly.

    If you had to pay for a service yourself, when we should have provided it for you, or if you were entitled to funding you did not receive we will try to refund the cost.

    The Ombudsman

    If we do not succeed in resolving your complaint, you may complain to the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales. The Ombudsman is independent of all government bodies and can look into your complaint if you believe that you personally, or the person on whose behalf you are complaining:

    • Have been treated unfairly or received a bad service through some failure on the part of the service provider.
    • Have been disadvantaged personally by a service failure or have been treated unfairly.

    The Ombudsman normally expects you to bring your concerns to our attention first and to give us a chance to put things right. You can contact the Ombudsman by:

    • Phone: 0300 790 0203
    • Email: ask@ombudsman.wales
    • The website:www.ombudsman.wales
    • Writing to: 
      • Public Services Ombudsman for Wales 
        1 Ffordd yr Hen Gae
        Pencoed 
        CF35 5LJ

    There are also other organisations that consider complaints. For example, the Welsh Language Commissioner’s Office deals with complaints about services in Welsh. We can advise you about such organisations.

    Learning lessons

    We take your concerns and complaints seriously and try to learn from any mistakes we’ve made. 

    Where there is a need for significant change, we will develop an action plan setting out what we will do, who will do it and when we plan to do it. We will let you know when changes we’ve promised have been made.

    What if you need help?

    Our staff will aim to help you make your concerns known to us. If you need extra assistance, we will try to put you in touch with someone who can help. You may wish to contact organisations such as the Citizens Advice Bureau, Age Cymru or Shelter who may be able to assist you.

    What we expect from you

    In times of trouble or distress, some people may act out of character. There may have been upsetting or distressing circumstances leading up to a concern or a complaint. We do not view behaviour as unacceptable just because someone is forceful or determined.

    We believe that all complainants have the right to be heard, understood and respected. However, we also consider that our staff have the same rights. We therefore expect you to be polite and courteous in your dealings with us. We will not tolerate aggressive or abusive behaviour, unreasonable demands or unreasonable persistence. We have a separate policy to manage situations when we find that someone’s actions are unacceptable.