Abstract
Most of the time care provided to people in the National Health
Service (NHS) and by other care providers such as those in
the independent and voluntary sectors is of a high standard
with positive outcomes. However, things do go wrong from time to time
and complaints are made. This article provides an understanding of how
concerns and complaints should be managed in health and social care
settings, with the aim to make the organisation that employs Health
Care Assistants (HCA) and Assistant Practitioners (AP) an organisation
that listens, responds and learns from peoples’ experiences, these can
be in the form of compliments, complaints or concerns. The article
focuses primarily upon the NHS and England. Health and social care
providers in other countries of the United Kingdom may have their own
complaints procedures as do the independent and voluntary sectors,
nevertheless the principles discussed here can apply across the board.