Anyone with a concern about the care they or a loved one access is being encouraged to flag them up to help services improve.

The message comes as the Care Inspectorate, Scotland’s social care scrutiny and improvement body, simplifies its complaints procedure to make it easier to access and use.

Karen Reid, chief executive of the Care Inspectorate said: “Most care in Scotland is good, but sometimes things do go wrong.

“The Care Inspectorate’s job is to ensure people receive safe, high-quality, compassionate care that meets their needs and promotes their rights and choices. Providing a clear and easily accessible procedure for people to raise any concerns is an essential part of our duties as a scrutiny body which supports improvement.

"If something isn't right about your care, or a loved one's care, we encourage you to speak to the care staff and manager in the first instance. They can often help put things right.

“But if that hasn't helped, or the issue is serious, anyone can contact us direct - anonymously if needed.

"We can investigate complaints and can often help things to improve for the people who raise concerns with us. This also help us build a picture of the quality of care, and shows what needs to improve, and where. Complaints can provide an early warning of problems in a care service and we can require that changes happen.

“By making our complaints procedure easier to access and use, it helps us to identify issues earlier and make improvements before they escalate. We will now have different ways to respond to complaints, helping us focus resources on the most serious and urgent concerns, whilst ensuring all issues raised with are looked at carefully by our specialist inspectors."

For more information on the Care Inspectorate’s complaints procedure log on to www.careinspectorate.com or call 0345 600 9527. 

For a guide to our complaints procedure, click here:

How we deal with concerns and complaints