Complaint against charity

[retreatingheadlights]

I made a complaint to the manager of a charity that provides a service to a disabled family member because they are not providing the service they are supposed to. It's a paid for service. In response they have closed ranks and accused my family member of being abusive towards them on the phone. I was there and there was no abuse. No raised voice, no swearing, no aggression, but there was frustration at the ongoing issue of not providing the service. The manager is launching an investigation into my family member who is going to be distraught. They are elderly and well known as a lovely, polite, pleasant person.

Does anyone have any advice on how to handle this? They are part of a wider council group so perhaps the council might be able to help.

You can try the Charity Commission.

It sounds as though they have a contract with the council to provide this service. You should contact the adult social care department to raise your concern.

Thank you both.

When I was a family carer, if I ever complained or disagreed with anything that happened, however politely, I was accused of being abusive and or crazy. It's how these places typically operate when they've fucked up.

Once I was accused of attacking a carer who had gone off for a crafty ciggie during her shift . Luckily it was all caught on the door camera so I was exonerated when the recording showed me simply walking through the door to deal with the emergency and not interacting with her in any way at all. We ended up recording all conversations and putting CCTV in our home to protect ourselves.

@Deljay that's horrendous!

Write and ask them for their complaints procedure. Ideally they have one but if they don’t put the complaint in writing. I would copy in the commissioners - possibly local council.

I wrote the complaint via email. I am trying to find out who oversees them at the council.

The reply from the manager is exactly the kind of tone I've complained about in that they make out they are doing a massive favour in providing the service and that it's an inconvenience to them to do so.

If this was over the phone, ask them for a copy of the recording of that particular phone call for your records as you're entitled to defend yourselves against their accusations.

If they don't have the recording, it very much becomes a he said she said situation unfortunately.

It's just how these places operate. You can see how they get there - some patients are abusive and hostile, and the professional consequences if they have safeguarding responsibilities are large when they admit to messing up. So it's tempting to blob together all complaints or problems as "hostility" and circle the wagons, every time. There are large incentives to behave like this in health and social care settings.

But yeah, my advice is to always interact with health and social services as if you have been wrongly accused of a serious crime, because you soon will be: record all your conversations, get witnesses, and know the law where relevant. You don't need to be adversarial, but you do need to protect yourself.

As a thought I would make a data subject access request (DSAR). Specifically I would ask for any call recording that has been done and your relatives file as a whole (they may have to make the DSAR themselves. This would highlight that there is no history of abuse and if they call record you can here exactly what as said.

The manager had ignored my questions but said how the member of staff was very upset and needed to be comforted because she'd never received such abuse before. I've never heard such a load of nonsense in my life. There's no announcement to say calls are recorded so I doubt they are.

@Cyclebabble how do I go about making that request please?

Go on to the website and.see if you can search subject access request. If you cannot see anything write to them requesting the informatuon you require which shoild be all of the data they hold and spe ifically any telephone records. A subject access request is free

@Cyclebabble thank you. I'll do that tomorrow.
I am going to email them and ask that they do not contact my relative directly and that all communication is in writing via email from now on.
I can't believe how bizarre this is or how unprofessional the manager has been in her emails to me.

My complaint was sent yesterday and I have a feeling the person on the phone today has heard about the complaint and got flustered and quickly handed the call to a colleague because she didn't know how to resolve the issue. Even if my relative had been angry and agitated, not that this was the case, then surely they are trained in how to deescalate things rather than panicking and passing the phone then putting in a complaint?! My relative is upset and wondering what on earth they have done that's been classed as abusive. Wouldn't say boo to a goose so this is so weird.

So you might write something like:

Heading: Data Subject Access Request

I would like to make a data subject access request in respect of XXXX.

In particular I would like to obtain copies of:

-any recorded calls;
-any data held on xxx on any of your systems;
-any emails which mention xxxx
-any WhatsApp messages or similar groups which mention xxxx

Please supply this for [period the service has been used].

please ensure that this note is forwarded to your Data Protection Officer (DPO).

I sent an email off this morning requesting these DSAR. I've not had any response to my query yesterday about the recording of phone calls.
It will be interesting to see the complaint the volunteer has made against my relative. I'm still completely baffled how the conversation can be classed as abusive.

Keep persevering op, calmly and firmly, because this is classic reaction when they know they are in the wrong.

I've not had any response yet to my email requesting the DSAR, or that everything is now directed via me.

Is it council funded? If so I'd involve the LA too

I hope you get the right outcome here. It's awful when it is a health related charity for the vulnerable because you feel awful complaining anyway. When my mother was dying I had Marie Curie nurses stay overnight a few nights a week who were wonderful. One night we were sent a nurse who had never been before and she asked what the usual night time routine was. Because my mother was barely conscious by then, whenever a new nurse arrived as her main carer I just briefly went through our nighttime routine so that they knew when my mother usually had her medications etc. I barely opened my mouth to speak and she looked straight at me and said "I was speaking to her not you!". I literally stood there with my mouth wide open. I felt like a naughy little girl who had not asked for permission to speak. I called them the next morning and said i've never been spoken to like that in my own home in my life, please don't send her again. It was awful because I felt terrible saying anything anyway and they usually only used nurses with a certain kindly manner because it was a such a sensitive time during end of life care. The whole situation really shook me. I just couldn't believe the way I was being spoken to in my own property. I'm all for healthcare staff having assertiveness and being confident but there's no need for rudeness.

Totally this !

Schools, Camhs, medical settings all do this kind of thing.

I've not got anywhere with the council or the support hub that the charity is part of. The council said to complain to the support hub and the support hub said to complain to the charity.

I received the data access request yesterday and strangely there is nothing documented of the phone call where my family member was allegedly abusive.