Mental-health service complaints

Mental-health complaints may involve ordinary NHS service failures, urgent safeguarding, detention under the Mental Health Act, capacity and consent, community support or a professional-conduct concern. Those routes must be separated without losing the overall history.

If somebody faces immediate danger, use the appropriate crisis or emergency route before pursuing retrospective complaint handling.

Key points

Provider or ICB complaints cover ordinary NHS mental-health service issues.
CQC has a specific role in complaints about use of the Mental Health Act for detained or formally supervised patients.
Independent Mental Health Advocacy may be available in defined circumstances.
Consent and confidentiality can limit disclosure to a representative without preventing the service from receiving safety information.
PSO can consider eligible unresolved NHS complaints in England.

Choose the route

Service complaint, Mental Health Act concern or urgent safety issue?

Concern	Route
Assessment, waiting, communication, care planning or community service	Provider or ICB complaint
Detention, guardianship or community treatment order under the Mental Health Act	CQC complaint route may apply
Immediate risk of serious harm	Crisis, urgent or emergency route
Serious conduct by an individual professional	Relevant professional regulator where its threshold is met
Unresolved eligible NHS complaint	PSO

Build the complaint

Use the care pathway and risk record

Referral and assessment dates.
Risk assessments and crisis plans.
Care Programme Approach or other care-plan records where applicable.
Medication decisions, monitoring and review.
Contacts with family or carers and the consent basis.
Discharge, follow-up and safety-netting.
Any Mental Health Act documentation or advocacy involvement.

Representation

Consent, capacity and family concerns

A service may be unable to disclose confidential clinical details to a family member without authority, but it can still receive information about risk. State whether you are providing information, requesting action, representing the patient with consent or acting because the person cannot complain for themselves.

Do not let a dispute about disclosure become a reason to ignore a properly raised safety concern.

Reasonable adjustments

Make the complaints process accessible

Request the communication method, pacing, meeting support, advocate involvement or other adjustment needed to participate. Record the request and the practical disadvantage it addresses. Complaint handling should not become inaccessible because the subject itself involves mental health or disability.

Prepare the complaint

Turn what happened into issues that can be investigated

A useful mental-health service complaint is not simply a long account of a distressing experience. It gives the investigating body a controlled set of questions, the evidence needed to answer them and the outcome requested for each one. This helps prevent the response from dealing only with the easiest point.

Start with a short summary stating who received care, the service and location, the period involved, the main alleged failings and the effect on the patient. Follow it with a numbered issue list. Keep the chronology and evidence bundle separate so that the complaint remains readable.

Define the scope. Identify the provider, service, location, clinicians or teams and the dates covered. Say expressly if other treatment is outside the complaint.
State each issue. Use one numbered heading for each disputed act, omission or decision. Separate clinical care, communication, access, records and complaint handling.
Give the factual basis. Link each issue to a dated entry, letter, message, witness account or other record. Where something is an inference, label it as such.
Ask an answerable question. Ask what happened, what standard or process applied, why a decision was made and what evidence supports the conclusion.
Request a proportionate outcome. This may include an explanation, correction, apology, review, practical action, learning or a referral to another route.
Keep urgent care separate. A complaint does not arrange treatment or manage immediate risk. Use the clinical or emergency route needed now while preserving the complaint record.

Evidence

Build a compact health complaint bundle

Medical files can become large very quickly. Sending every record without an index can conceal the important evidence. Keep the original records intact, then create a smaller working bundle containing the material necessary to decide the numbered issues.

Bundle item	What to record	Why it matters
One-page case summary	Service, period, central issues, impact and requested outcomes	Lets the investigator understand the case before opening attachments
Chronology	Date, event, person or team, source and significance	Shows sequence, delay, escalation and handovers
Issue schedule	Issue, evidence, respondent position, unanswered point and remedy	Stops distinct allegations being merged or overlooked
Key clinical records	Relevant notes, results, referrals, prescriptions, discharge or care plans	Provides the contemporary record while keeping the bundle proportionate
Communications	Letters, portal messages, call notes and appointment information	Tests what each party was told and when
Impact evidence	Further care, expense, time, symptoms and practical consequences	Connects the failing to the injustice or remedy claimed

If a record appears inaccurate, quote the exact entry and explain whether you seek correction of inaccurate personal data, the addition of a patient statement, or an investigation into the underlying care. A difference of clinical opinion is not always a factual data error.

Writing

Ask precise questions and realistic outcomes

A complaint is easier to investigate when each allegation is followed by the question that would resolve it. Avoid asking the recipient to prove that the entire service was lawful or safe. Ask for the policy, clinical reasoning, record or decision relevant to the specific event.

Weak formulation	Stronger formulation
You ignored me and broke NHS rules.	Please explain why the concern recorded on 4 May was not assessed until 9 May, identify the process that applied and address the clinical effect of that delay.
The notes are lies.	The entry dated 12 June states that I declined the appointment. I attach the message accepting it. Please investigate the discrepancy and explain how the record will be corrected or annotated.
I want everyone disciplined.	Please investigate the identified conduct, explain the findings and state what proportionate action or learning follows. I understand confidential employment action may not be disclosed.
Pay compensation immediately.	Please address the evidenced financial loss and avoidable impact, state what local remedy is available and explain any separate legal route that must be used.

The outcome must fit the body's powers. A provider can explain and improve its service. PSO can investigate eligible unresolved complaints and make recommendations. A professional regulator protects the public. A court determines a legal claim and damages.

Response audit

Test whether the final response actually resolves the complaint

A long response is not necessarily a complete one. Audit it against the numbered complaint rather than reacting only to its conclusion. Make a table showing whether each issue was upheld, partly upheld, not upheld or not addressed, together with the evidence and reasons relied on.

Does the response identify the complaint scope and the evidence considered?
Does it answer every numbered issue and distinguish fact from clinical opinion?
Where accounts conflict, does it explain which evidence was preferred and why?
Does it address the impact on the patient, not only whether staff followed a process?
Are apologies, corrections, reviews and service-learning actions specific and measurable?
Does it give the correct next route and explain any applicable time limit?
If the investigation was delayed, were reasons and meaningful updates provided?

If a material issue is missing, identify it by its original number and ask for a focused supplementary response. Do not restart the entire narrative. If local resolution is complete or further correspondence would add nothing, prepare the external referral around the unresolved issues and injustice.

Escalation

Use parallel routes without confusing their jobs

One event may justify more than one route, but that does not turn the bodies into interchangeable appeal stages. Keep a route table showing the question asked of each body, the outcome it can provide, the submission date and the next deadline.

Route	Use it for	Do not expect it to
Provider or commissioner	Investigation, explanation, apology, correction, local remedy and learning	Decide a court claim or professional fitness to practise
PSO	Eligible unresolved NHS service failure or maladministration causing injustice	Act as an emergency clinical service or replace legal advice
CQC	Information relevant to safety and quality of regulated services	Take most individual complaints forward or award personal compensation
Professional regulator	Serious concerns about fitness to practise and public protection	Resolve routine dissatisfaction, waiting times or ordinary refunds
ICO or data route	Information rights and compliance with data-protection law	Determine whether clinical treatment was negligent
Legal claim	A pleaded cause of action and legally recoverable remedy	Pause merely because a complaint or regulator report is underway

Tell each body about material parallel proceedings and keep the factual chronology consistent. Do not allow a complaint, PSO referral or regulatory report to obscure a separate statutory, contractual or court deadline.

Practical questions

Common questions before and after sending

Can someone complain for the patient?

Often yes, with the patient’s authority or another lawful basis. The organisation may need consent or evidence of authority and must still protect confidential information. Different considerations can apply where the patient is a child, lacks capacity or has died.

Must the complaint be made on a special form?

Usually the substance matters more than the format. Use the provider’s published route where practical, keep proof of submission and make clear that the message is a formal complaint under the NHS complaints arrangements where that framework applies.

Can a late complaint still be considered?

The ordinary NHS local complaint limit is 12 months from the event or from later awareness. The responsible body has discretion to consider a later complaint where there was good reason for delay and it remains possible to investigate fairly.

Is there a fixed final-response deadline?

The Regulations require timely and efficient handling but do not impose one universal 25, 28 or 60 working-day deadline for every complaint. The organisation should discuss handling and timescales, keep the complainant informed and explain delay.

Should I name individual staff publicly?

Use names where necessary in the confidential complaint and evidence. Public identification can create privacy, fairness and legal risks, particularly while facts remain disputed. Send relevant information to the body able to investigate it.

What if the patient needs care from the same service?

Say that clearly and ask for communication arrangements, reasonable adjustments or a contact who is separate from the disputed events. A complaint should not be allowed to interrupt clinically necessary care, but an alternative provider cannot always be guaranteed.

Official sources

Check the current rules behind this guide

This guide focuses on England. Health complaint structures, regulators and ombudsmen differ elsewhere in the UK. Official contacts, procedures and service responsibilities can change, so check the live source before relying on a deadline or route.