How to complain about health or social care
If you've had a bad experience with healthcare or social care, you can complain. There are a few different ways to do this.
In some cases, somebody else could complain on your behalf. Or complain for themselves, if a problem with your care has affected them.
Flowchart: How do I make a complaint?
The diagram below shows how you can make a complaint. And what to do if your complaint doesn't give you the outcome you want. There's more information about each stage below.
Speak to someone informally
Usually, the first step to deal with a problem in health or social care is to speak to the provider informally. This can be a quicker, easier and less stressful way to solve your problem.
Here are some tips:
- Have a conversation with the person most involved in your care. You could set up a meeting with them to do this.
- Make some notes about what you want to say. This could help you if you're worried you might forget something important.
- Get someone you know to come with you. This could be a family member or friend, who can support you.
In Wales, a local authority must always offer to discuss a complaint about social care. This usually happens within 10 working days of an informal complaint.
Make a formal complaint
If speaking to someone informally doesn't work, you can make a formal complaint.
You can do this by telling someone from the organisation that you want to complain, and what about.
Or you could write a letter or send an email with your complaint. You could get someone to help you do this, to make sure everything is included.
The organisation is allowed to write down your complaint. They must give you a copy of their written record.
Who do I complain to?
Who you complain to depends on where the event happened (England or Wales). And whether you're complaining about healthcare or social care.
Usually, you can complain to either:
- The care provider, such as a hospital or care home
- The body responsible for the care provider
For healthcare, this body may be NHS England or an integrated care board in England. Or the Local Health Board in Wales. For social care, this will be your local authority.
If your complaint is about a certain professional, you might also want to complain to the organisation that regulates that profession.
When can I complain?
You should try to complain as soon as possible after the event or events.
The time limit for complaining is normally 12 months from when the event happened. Or from when you first became aware of it.
If you've missed this, you may still be able to complain if you have a good reason. And if it's still possible to investigate the compliant fairly and effectively.
How long will they take to respond?
If you're in England, they should acknowledge your complaint within 3 working days of receiving it. When they do this, they should tell you when to expect a full response to the complaint.
If you're in Wales, the time in which they should respond depends on whether it's health or social care:
- Healthcare – they should give a full response within 30 days of when they received your complaint.
- Social care – they should give a full response within 20 working days.
Private health and social care
If you want to complain about private health or social care, you should follow the complaints process of your provider.
For private healthcare, you can't use the NHS complaints system or the healthcare ombudsman. This is unless the NHS commissioned the private service on your behalf and is paying for it.
For private social care, you can appeal to the social care ombudsman if you aren't happy with the outcome of your complaint.
Complain to an ombudsman
If a formal complaint doesn't resolve your problem, you could contact an ombudsman.
Ombudsmen are officials that investigate complaints against a company or organisation, especially a public authority. They're independent of the NHS, local authorities and the government.
They don't have any power to enforce their recommendations. But their recommendations are almost always followed.
An ombudsman doesn't have to take on a case. Generally, they won't investigate your complaint if:
- You haven't been through the formal complaints procedure first with the care provider, NHS or local authority
- You make your complaint outside of 12 months from the date of the event, unless there's a special reason for the delay
- Your complaint is already the subject of legal proceedings, or it could become the subject of legal proceedings
- Your complaint is not considered a 'serious case', if you complain about NHS healthcare in England
Which ombudsman to complain to
The ombudsman you complain to depends on where you are and what you're complaining about:
- NHS healthcare in England – the Health Service Ombudsman, which is part of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
- Social care in England – the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman
- Healthcare and social care in Wales – the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales
What an ombudsman might recommend
The ombudsman can make recommendations in response to your complaint. This may include asking the health or social care provider to:
- Make an apology
- Acknowledge its mistakes
- Make a payment
- Provide a service that you should've had
- Show how it will prevent a similar problem from happening again
Complain to a regulator
If you're making a formal complaint or complaining to the ombudsman, you can also tell a regulator.
Regulators oversee how health and social care is provided. And regulate the professionals who work in those areas.
They can't investigate or resolve individual complaints. But they may be able to increase the priority of your complaint. And they can investigate more serious problems.
Who regulates health and social care?
The health and social care regulators in England and Wales are:
- Care Quality Commission (CQC) – regulates health and social care in England
- Health Inspectorate Wales (HIW) – regulates healthcare in Wales
- Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) – regulates social care in Wales
All health and social care providers in England or Wales must be registered with these regulators. These regulators monitor and inspect all health and social care providers.
If you're sectioned under the Mental Health Act, regulators have a special responsibility to make sure your rights are protected while you're detained. This includes dealing with any complaints you have about your healthcare while you're sectioned.
Complain about a professional
You can complain about a certain professional to the organisation which regulates their profession. You can do this as well as making a formal complaint to the NHS or local authority.
You might complain if the professional didn't follow proper standards of service, conduct or ethics. Regulators can usually discipline the professional, if necessary. In the most serious cases, they can stop them from practising.
The regulator that you complain to depends on what the professional does:
- For complaints about a doctor (GPs and doctors in hospitals), you can complain to the General Medical Council (GMC)
- For complaints about a nurse, you can complain to the Nursing and Midwifery Council
- For complaints about health and care professionals, including clinical psychologists, occupational therapists and speech therapists, you can complain to the Health and Care Professions Council
Take legal action
If a formal complaint or complaining to the ombudsman haven't worked, you could make a legal challenge. You should speak to a solicitor before doing this.
One type of legal challenge is to challenge a public authority's decision by judicial review.
You could also claim compensation if you experience clinical negligence. See our page on clinical negligence for more information about this.
What is a judicial review?
A judicial review is a legal challenge to how a public authority has made a decision. Or how it has done or not done something lawfully.
You will usually need to make a complaint first, although not always.
You can only bring judicial review proceedings in the High Court. You'll need to get advice and help from specialist lawyers to do this.
If the judge decides that the public authority has not acted lawfully, they can:
- Cancel the public authority's decision
- Order the public authority to do something, or not to do something
Before bringing a claim for judicial review, you have to get permission from the High Court. And you must make an application within 3 months (minus 1 day) of the most recent decision you want to challenge. You must do this through your solicitors.
Find a solicitor
You can contact a solicitor by using the Law Society's find a solicitor tool. You can search for a solicitor based on what area of law they specialise in, and where they're located.
You can also use the Law Centre Network's list and map of law centres to find specialist legal aid law centres.
If you decide to make a legal challenge, try to contact a solicitor in the relevant area of law. For example, mental health law, public law or community care law.
If you're not sure what is the right area of law, a solicitor will be able to tell you whether they can help. If they aren't the right person, they may suggest a different solicitor.
Help paying for legal fees
Here are some ways you might be able to get help paying for your legal fees:
- Legal aid – this is available for judicial review claims, but usually not for clinical negligence.
- Conditional fee arrangement – this means you won't have to pay your solicitor's fees if you don't win your case. A solicitor is unlikely to take this on they think you'll lose your case.
- Insurance – insurance policies like home contents or car insurance may cover general legal expenses.
- Trade union – some workplace unions have solicitors who could offer general legal advice.
Where to get support to make a complaint
If you want support to complain about health or social care, there are lots of organisations that can help. Some also offer advocacy to help make your voice heard.
In England, you can find your nearest Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) on the NHS website.
Action Against Medical Accidents (AvMA)
0345 123 2352
avma.org.uk
Advice and support for people affected by avoidable harm in healthcare.
HealthWatch England
healthwatch.co.uk
Helps represent people who use health and social care services in England.
Llais
llaiswales.org
Advocacy and support to make a complaint about health and social care in Wales. You can search for the Llais team that covers where you live in Wales.
Patients Association
0800 345 7115
patients-association.org.uk
Charity that promotes the voice of patients in health services.
Public Services Ombudsman for Wales
0300 790 0203
ombudsman-wales.org.uk
Looks into complaints about public services and independent care providers in Wales.
This information was published in June 2025. We will revise it in 2028.
References are available on request. If you would like to reproduce any of this information, see our page on permissions and licensing.
Integrated care boards (ICBs)
ICBs are part of the NHS and look after the health needs of people in their area. They plan and provide services and manage the NHS budget. Membership of each board varies but usually includes healthcare professionals and local authority representatives. ICBs were introduced in 2022 to replace clinical commissioning groups (CCGs).
Visit our full listing of Legal TermsPublic authorities
These are organisations whose role is of a public nature. This includes:
- police
- NHS hospitals and employees
- local authorities and their employees
- some nursing and personal care accommodation providers
- prison staff
- courts and tribunals, including Mental Health Tribunals
- government departments and their employees
- statutory bodies and their employees (for example the Information Commissioner’s Office).
Section
Being 'sectioned' means that you are kept in hospital under the Mental Health Act. There are different types of sections, each with different rules to keep you in hospital. The length of time that you can be kept in hospital depends on which section you are detained under.
See our pages on sectioning for more information.
Visit our full listing of Legal Terms