Care Home Complaints Procedure: CQC Rules

This guide provides general information on complaints handling in care homes. It does not constitute legal advice. For specific situations involving safeguarding, litigation, or regulatory proceedings, seek independent legal or professional guidance. References are current as of the last reviewed date above; verify against legislation.gov.uk and CQC's guidance on complaints for the latest position.

A complaint from a resident or their family is not a failure. It is information — often the most direct signal you will get about what needs fixing. Yet many care home managers treat complaints as threats rather than data. CQC takes the opposite view. Under the assessment framework, how you receive, record, and respond to complaints is a direct measure of whether your service is responsive and well-led.

The Legal Basis: Regulation 16

Regulation 16 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 has three paragraphs. It requires registered persons to:

Investigate each complaint received and take necessary and proportionate action in response to any failure identified (Regulation 16(1)).
Establish and operate an accessible complaints system for identifying, receiving, recording, handling, and responding to complaints (Regulation 16(2)).
Provide CQC, on request, with a summary of complaints, responses, and related correspondence — by no later than 28 days beginning the day after the request is received (Regulation 16(3)).

CQC's guidance on Regulation 16 goes further, though these points are not themselves stated in the regulation:

No particular form is required — verbal complaints count the same as written ones.
Complainants must not be victimised for raising a concern.

Treat these as good practice you should follow, not as a separate statutory requirement — the regulation itself does not use either form of words. There is also no basis, in the regulation or in CQC's guidance, for a requirement to provide a written response stating whether a complaint was upheld — that is a sound practice worth adopting, but it should not be presented to staff or in a policy as something Regulation 16 demands.

There is no statutory timescale for acknowledging or responding to a complaint about adult social care, and CQC does not publish one. Regulation 16 sets none, and CQC's guidance on Regulation 16 sets none either — it says only that "[u]nless they are anonymous, all complaints should be acknowledged whether they are written or verbal." The single day-figure in that guidance runs the other way: under Regulation 16(3) you must give CQC a summary of complaints and responses "by no later than 28 days beginning on the day after receipt of the request".

Be sceptical of the "3 working days to acknowledge, 25 working days to respond" pairing that circulates in care-sector templates. The 3-working-day figure is real, but it belongs to a different regime: regulation 13 of the Local Authority Social Services and NHS Complaints (England) Regulations 2009 requires a responsible body to "acknowledge the complaint not later than 3 working days after the day on which it receives the complaint." Those Regulations bind "responsible bodies" — local authorities, NHS bodies, primary care providers such as GP practices, and independent providers who provide "health care in England under arrangements made with an NHS body." A care home's own complaints procedure under Regulation 16 is not governed by them. And even there, no short response deadline exists: regulation 13(7) requires the body only to "offer to discuss" with the complainant "the period ('the response period') within which— (i) the investigation of the complaint is likely to be completed; and (ii) the response required by regulation 14(2) is likely to be sent", and the only fixed period in the Regulations is the 6-month backstop in regulation 14(3)–(4), after which the body must explain the delay in writing. The 25-working-day figure has no basis in either regime.

Because Regulation 16 is silent, the timescale you are actually held to is the one you publish in your own policy. Set a target you can meet, state it plainly, and evidence that you met it. Failing your own published target is a finding; missing a deadline nobody set is not.

What CQC Inspectors Look For

Complaints handling falls primarily under the Responsive key question, but also feeds into Well-Led (governance and learning) and Safe (acting on risk). Inspectors will typically:

Ask residents and families whether they know how to complain and feel safe doing so
Review your complaints log — volume, themes, response times, and outcomes
Check that verbal complaints are captured, not just formal written ones
Look for evidence of learning — did a complaint lead to a change in practice?
Examine whether complainants received a written response with clear findings

A care home that has recorded zero complaints over 12 months is not impressive — it is suspicious. CQC has stated explicitly that an absence of complaints may indicate people do not feel able to raise concerns.

Building Your Complaints Policy

Your policy needs to be clear, specific, and genuinely used. At minimum, include:

Scope and definition — What counts as a complaint versus a day-to-day request. Make clear complaints can be verbal, written, by email, or via a representative.
How to complain — Name the contact person (typically the registered manager), with telephone, email, and postal address. Include the right to complain directly to CQC or the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman. Handling complaints properly is one of the core registered manager duties.
Timescales — Your own acknowledgement and investigation targets, stated as targets rather than as legal deadlines, with a commitment to explain in writing if a case will take longer. Regulation 16 sets none, so these are yours to choose and yours to be held to.
Investigation process — Who investigates (not the person complained about), how the complainant is kept informed, and how findings are communicated.
Escalation — What happens if the complainant is not satisfied, including the Ombudsman route.
Anti-victimisation statement — No one will be treated differently for raising a concern.

Display an accessible summary in communal areas and include it in the welcome pack. Make it available in formats appropriate to your residents — large print, easy read, or translated.

For more on how CQC structures its assessment, see our complete guide to CQC compliance for small care homes.

Recording Complaints Properly

A complaints log is not optional. Each entry should capture:

Date received and date acknowledged
Who complained (name and relationship to resident)
How received (verbal, written, email, third party)
Summary in the complainant's own words where possible
Named investigator and investigation start date
Findings and whether upheld, partially upheld, or not upheld
Actions taken with responsible person and completion date
Date of written response
Whether the complainant was satisfied
Any escalation to the Ombudsman or CQC

Use a single, central log — not multiple systems — to prevent things falling through gaps.

Responding: Getting the Tone Right

The written response is often the document CQC will read. A good response:

Acknowledges the concern without being defensive
Sets out what you investigated — who you spoke to, what records you reviewed
States findings clearly — no hedging or vague language
Explains actions taken or to be taken, with dates
Apologises where appropriate — an apology is not an admission of liability (Compensation Act 2006, section 2)
Reminds the complainant of their right to escalate

Avoid template responses. The complainant should see that their specific concern was investigated.

Using Complaints as Evidence of Improvement

CQC does not penalise you for receiving complaints — it penalises you for not learning from them. Quarterly analysis of your complaints log can reveal:

Recurring themes — Multiple complaints about food quality, call bell response times, or communication with families?
Patterns — Complaints concentrated around specific shifts or staff groups?
Trends — Volume increasing or decreasing? Response times improving?

Present this analysis at governance meetings. Record the discussion and resulting actions. If you changed a practice because of a complaint — say, adjusted medication rounds after a family raised concerns about timing — document the complaint, investigation, decision, and outcome. That chain of evidence is gold for CQC.

For more on how quality statements feed into assessments, see our guide to CQC quality statements explained.

Common Mistakes

Only recording formal written complaints — verbal complaints count too, per CQC's guidance on Regulation 16(2). Train staff to recognise and escalate verbal concerns.
No written response — confirming the outcome in writing, even where a complaint was resolved by conversation, is good practice, not a Regulation 16 requirement — but it is still worth doing.
Defensive language — "We followed our policy" without further explanation reads as dismissive to both complainants and CQC.
Investigator is the subject — If a complaint relates to a specific staff member, someone else must investigate.

Escalating to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman

If a complainant is not satisfied after your internal investigation, they have the right to escalate to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO). This is the independent body that investigates complaints about adult social care providers in England, including care homes.

When the Ombudsman gets involved:

The complainant has completed (or been offered) the provider's complaints process
The complaint is about the care provided, not purely a regulatory matter (CQC handles those)
The Ombudsman can investigate even if CQC has not

What the Ombudsman can do:

Investigate the complaint independently, requesting records and interviewing staff
Issue findings of fault or maladministration
Recommend remedies including apologies, changes to practice, and financial compensation
Publish investigation reports (anonymised) that become public record

What you should do as a provider:

Ensure your complaints policy clearly states the Ombudsman as the external escalation route, with contact details: www.lgo.org.uk / 0300 061 0614
Cooperate fully with any Ombudsman investigation — obstruction is itself a finding
Treat Ombudsman recommendations as equivalent to must-do actions: implement them, evidence the change, and report back within the specified timeframe
Log Ombudsman complaints separately and discuss at governance meetings

CQC assessors may check whether you have had Ombudsman complaints and what you did in response. A home that receives an Ombudsman finding, implements the recommendations promptly, and can evidence the resulting improvement demonstrates exactly the kind of responsive governance that supports a Good rating.

Quick Audit Checklist

Written complaints policy in place and reviewed within the last 12 months
Policy displayed in communal areas and included in welcome packs
Central complaints log capturing all fields listed above
Verbal complaints recorded, not just written ones
Acknowledgement and response targets published in the policy, and met in practice
Written response provided in every case, with findings and actions (good practice — not itself a Regulation 16 requirement)
Escalation route to the Ombudsman clearly stated
Quarterly analysis of complaints themes at governance meetings
Evidence of practice changes resulting from complaints

Complaints handling is one of the clearest windows CQC has into your culture. A care home that welcomes complaints, investigates them honestly, and changes as a result is genuinely responsive — and that is exactly what the rating reflects.