Commission needs more investigators

The National Care Standards Commission’s complaints procedure is
suffering from a lack of foresight and of suitable people to carry
out stage three investigations.

Four weeks after Bristol care home owner Lorna Arnold tried to
progress to the third stage of the complaints procedures after the
first two stages failed to satisfy, she was told that “as a new
organisation” the NCSC had “not yet established a panel of suitable
independent people to investigate complaints at stage three
level”.

In her letter Carol Horner, regional director for the South West
NCSC, stated that she had been seeking a “suitable independent
person” to carry out a review of the complaint.

Arnold then faxed a copy of the letter to NCSC chairperson Anne
Parker and chief executive Ron Kerr, and two days later was told
that a suitable independent person had been found.