Complaints against care providers
Dear Care Quality Commission,
I am writing to you to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Please tell me the number of complaints you have received against the following organisations since January 1 2012 (or the date that they were founded, if it was after 2012).
Bournemouth Churches Housing Association Limited
Midland Heart Limited
For each case please include the year the complaint was received, a short, anonymised summary that outlines the nature of the complaint, and the action that was taken by the CQC in response, including if there was no further action.
Please provide the information in Excel format.
Many thanks,
Shanti
Dear Ms Das
I acknowledge receipt of your correspondence dated 25 September 2019, in
which you made a request for information.
Your request is as follows:
“Please tell me the number of complaints you have received against the
following organisations since January 1 2012 (or the date that they were
founded, if it was after 2012).
Bournemouth Churches Housing Association Limited
Midland Heart Limited
For each case please include the year the complaint was received, a short,
anonymised summary that outlines the nature of the complaint, and the
action that was taken by the CQC in response, including if there was no
further action.
Please provide the information in Excel format.”
CQC will consider your request in accordance with the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 (FOIA).
Our statutory deadline for response is 23 October 2019, but we will in any
event endeavour to respond as soon as possible.
We will write to you if we are unable to meet this deadline.
The information you have requested may be subject to an exemption from the
right to know. Should this occur, we will explain the reasons why when we
respond.
Regards
On behalf of:
Information Access Team
Regulatory Customer & Corporate Operations
Care Quality Commission
Citygate
Gallowgate
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 4PA
The Care Quality Commission is the independent regulator of health and
adult social care services in England. [1]www.cqc.org.uk. For general
enquiries, call the National Customer Service Centre (NCSC) on 03000
616161 or email [2][email address]
Personal data is processed in accordance with the General Data Protection
Regulation (GDPR) and relevant data protection law. Information on the
processing of personal data by CQC can be found at
[3]www.cqc.org.uk/about-us/our-policies/privacy-statement
Statutory requests for information made under access to information
legislation such as the Data Protection Act 2018, GDPR and the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 should be sent to: [4][CQC request email]
References
Visible links
1. http://www.cqc.org.uk/
2. mailto:[email address]
3. http://www.cqc.org.uk/about-us/our-polic...
4. mailto:[CQC request email]
Dear Ms Das
Our Ref: CQC IAT 1920 0564
I write in response to your correspondence of 25 September 2019 in which
you asked for the following information:
“Please tell me the number of complaints you have received against the
following organisations since January 1 2012 (or the date that they were
founded, if it was after 2012).
Bournemouth Churches Housing Association Limited
Midland Heart Limited
For each case please include the year the complaint was received, a short,
anonymised summary that outlines the nature of the complaint, and the
action that was taken by the CQC in response, including if there was no
further action.
Please provide the information in Excel format.”
The Information Access team has now coordinated a response to your
request.
CQC has considered your request in accordance with the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 (FOIA). Our first obligation under the legislation is
to confirm whether we do or do not hold the requested information. In
accordance with section 1(1) of FOIA we are able to confirm that CQC does
hold recorded information in relation to this matter.
However, first it may be of use to explain CQC’s role and remit regarding
complaints.
CQCs remit in relation to complaints
CQC does not have the power to investigate complaints on behalf of
individuals. We encourage people to share information about their good
and bad experiences of care and we use this information to help us monitor
and inspect services. We have therefore been able to provide you with
information we have received which has been logged as ‘complaint about
provider’.
Providers must have a complaints procedure available to people. Many
complaints may be satisfactorily resolved at local level, which means that
CQC may not be made aware of them.
You can find out more about CQC and raising concerns and complaints about
providers on our website here:
[1]https://www.cqc.org.uk/contact-us/how-co...
We also receive other information of concern which can be recorded against
a provider as whistle blowing or safeguarding. This information has not
been included in response to this request as it does not fall within its
scope.
Inspection Reports
While we do not have the legal remit to investigate complaints for
individuals our inspection reports will contain information of concern
that was raised during the inspection and may contain information about
how the provider has dealt with any recent complaints.
You can find inspection reports on Bournemouth Churches Housing
Association Limited and Midland Heart Limited and their locations, on our
website www.cqc.org.uk simply enter the provider name into the search box.
Information requested
We conducted searches of our database against both providers and their
locations to identify records logged as ‘HSCA complaints’.
Please tell me the number of complaints you have received against the
following organisations since January 1 2012 (or the date that they were
founded, if it was after 2012).
We have identified 91 complaint enquiries recorded on our database for
Midland Heart Limited, the earliest dates to 2013. We have complaint
enquiry 1 recorded against Bournemouth Churches Housing Association
Limited dating to 2018.
For each case please include the year the complaint was received, a short,
anonymised summary that outlines the nature of the complaint, and the
action that was taken by the CQC in response, including if there was no
further action.
Please refer to the attached spreadsheet for a breakdown of this
information and anonymised summary of each complaint and our actions.
The Freedom of Information Act 2000
The purpose of FOIA is to ensure transparency and accountability in the
public sector. It seeks to achieve this by providing anyone, anywhere in
the world, with the right to access recorded information held by, or on
behalf of, a public authority.
A disclosure under FOIA is described as “applicant blind” meaning that it
is a disclosure into the public domain, not to any one individual.
FOIA also recognises that there may be valid reasons for withholding
information by setting out several exemptions from the right to know, some
of which are subject to a public interest test.
Exemptions exist to protect information that should not be disclosed into
the public domain, for example because disclosing the information would be
harmful to another person or it would be against the public interest.
A public authority must not disclose information in breach of any other
law.
When a public authority, such as CQC, refuses to provide information, it
must, in accordance with section 17 of FOIA, issue a refusal notice
explaining why it is unable to provide the information.
CQC Complaints and Internal Review procedure
If you are not satisfied with our handling of your request, then you may
request an internal review.
Please clearly indicate that you wish for a review to be conducted and
state the reason(s) for requesting the review.
Please note that it is usual practice to accept a request for an internal
review within 40 working days from the date of this response. The FOIA
code of practice advises that public authorities are not obliged to accept
internal reviews after this date.
Please be aware that the review process will focus upon our handling of
your request and whether CQC have complied with the requirements of the
Freedom of Information Act 2000. The internal review process should not be
used to raise concerns about the provision of care or the internal
processes of other CQC functions.
If you are unhappy with other aspects of the CQC's actions, or of the
actions of registered providers, please see our website for information on
how to raise a concern or complaint:
[2]www.cqc.org.uk/contact-us
To request a review please contact:
Information Access
Care Quality Commission
Citygate
Gallowgate
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 4PA
E-mail: [3][CQC request email]
Further rights of appeal exist to the Information Commissioner’s Office
under section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 once the internal
appeals process has been exhausted.
The contact details are:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
SK9 5AF
Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Website: [4]www.ico.org.uk
Feedback
CQC will always endeavour to provide high quality responses to requests
for information and seek to be as helpful as possible. We would therefore
appreciate if you can take some time to complete our online feedback form
by visiting the following link:
[5]https://webdataforms.cqc.org.uk/Checkbox...
Any information you provide will be held securely and only used for the
purposes of improving the Information Rights service that CQC provides.
Kind regards
Information Access Team
Governance and Legal Services
Customer & Corporate Services Directorate
Care Quality Commission
Citygate
Gallowgate
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 4PA
Email: [CQC request email]
**************************************************************
The Care Quality Commission is the independent regulator of all health and
adult social care in England. www.cqc.org.uk. For general enquiries, call
the National Customer Service Centre (NCSC) on 03000 616161 or email
[email address].
Personal data is processed in accordance with the General Data Protection
Regulation (GDPR) and relevant data protection law. Information on the
processing of personal data by CQC can be found at
http://www.cqc.org.uk/about-us/our-polic...
Statutory requests for information made under access to information
legislation such as the GDPR and the Freedom of Information Act 2000
should be sent to: [CQC request email].
References
Visible links
1. https://www.cqc.org.uk/contact-us/how-co...
2. http://www.cqc.org.uk/contact-us
3. mailto:[CQC request email]
4. http://www.ico.org.uk/
5. https://webdataforms.cqc.org.uk/Checkbox...
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