Mental Health Casework Section External Complaints Process
We take complaints seriously. We will respond to complaints effectively and deal with them sensitively, fairly and thoroughly.
Applies to England and Wales
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Complaints
We take complaints seriously. We will respond to complaints effectively and deal with them sensitively, fairly and thoroughly. We will not treat any complainant less favourably on the basis of their gender, sexual orientation, race or ethnicity, disability or religion or belief or as a consequence of having made a complaint. All complaints will be treated in the strictest confidence.
What Can I Complain About?
Some examples of the type of things we can investigate are shown below:
- The use of racist, sexist or offensive language
- Bullying or rudeness
- A decision made by our casework team
- Published Policies
- Timeliness of our Decision making
- Our administrative processes e.g. forms
There are some things we cannot deal with under our complaints procedure:
- Decisions made by a Tribunal Panel
- Decisions made by a Court
- Complaints about Responsible Clinicians and Hospitals
- Concerns about Commissioning Decisions made by the NHS
- Complaints about Prisons
- Complaints about Victim Liaison Officers
When Should I Make My Complaint?
A complaint should be made as soon as possible when the issues are still fresh in everyone’s minds; the later the complaint is made, the more difficult it will be to investigate. Formal complaints must be made within 6 months of the event.
How to make a Complaint
If you wish to make a formal complaint, please complete an MHCS Complaints Form and email to mhcscpst@justice.gov.uk to complete a thorough investigation.
When should I expect to receive a response?
You will receive an acknowledgement email within 7 working days of us receiving your complaint. You will then receive a response to the complaint within 20 working days of receipt of your complaint. We aim to resolve complaints as quickly as possible so depending on the type of complaint you may receive a response in a much quicker timeframe.
In some cases we may require more information which may take a little longer to complete, if we expect there to be a delay in you receiving your response we will contact you to explain why there is a delay and to also give you a timeframe for how much longer we require to respond in full.
When you receive your response you should expect to receive a document containing:
- A summary of your complaint
- Address the points that you have raised
- Stating what the outcome is
- If Appropriate, explain what measures are being taken in response to your complaint.
If you are not happy with the response that you have received you can send an email to mhcscpst@justice.gov.uk and ask for us to complete a review, stating what you were not happy about ,which the complaint will then be passed onto a senior manager to review.
If you have asked us to review a Complaint as above you will receive an acknowledgement email within 7 working days and then a response will be sent within 20 working days of receipt.
MHCS are always trying to improve the way we do things so when you receive your Response you will also receive a Feedback form which we would be very grateful for you to complete and return.