People who use our services, experts by experience, families, carers and staff told us what they would want our approach to complaints to look like. They said:
- I want to see a positive culture around complaints handling.
- I want to feel listened to when I have given my feedback.
- I want staff to be honest with me.
- I want staff to capture my views.
- I want staff to learn from my experience.
We want to achieve this for everyone who comes into contact with our services. If you have something you want to raise with us please contact us, we want to hear from you.
Concerns and complaints, feedback and compliments, can also be sent to us online by using the Contact Us page.
You can download a copy of our complaints procedure here:
- Download our Complaints Procedure in England and Wales
- Download our Complaints Procedure in Scotland
- Download our Complaints Procedure for Cygnet Schools, i.e. Excel and Exceed School, Phoenix School and Summit School
You can also download the following information in Easy Read format:
- Download Giving a Compliment (Easy Read)
- Download Making a Complaint in England and Wales (Easy Read)
- Download Making a Complaint in Scotland (Easy Read)
- Download Making a Complaint for Cygnet Schools (Easy Read), i.e. Excel and Exceed School, Phoenix School and Summit School
We recognise and respond to complaints both informally and formally.
An informal complaint is a complaint made verbally or in writing that can be resolved quickly.
A formal complaint is a complaint made verbally or in writing that cannot be resolved quickly and will require a longer period of time to investigate. If you request your concern to be treated as formal, we will follow the formal complaints procedure.
If you want to make a formal complaint you can also contact the service directly and either email or speak with the service manager. For the contact details of each of our services please visit our Locations page.
There are times when we have completed our complaints process and may not have been able to resolve complaints to your satisfaction. In these instances, you can contact the Ombudsman to look at your complaint, and our response, independently from Cygnet. Before you do that, they will want to know that you have raised your complaint with Cygnet first.
You may also want to contact our Health and Social Care regulators.
Useful Contacts
Regulators and Governing Bodies
- England Care Quality Commission (CQC) Tel: 03000 616 161 www.cqc.org.uk
- Wales Health Care Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW) Tel: 0300 062 8163 www.hiw.org.uk
- Wales Social Care Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) Tel: 0300 7900 126 https://www.careinspectorate.wales
- Scotland Health Care Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) Tel: 0131 623 4342 www.healthcareimprovementscotland.org
- Scotland Social Care Care Inspectorate (CI) Tel: 0345 600 9527 www.careinspectorate.com
- Independent Schools Ofsted Piccadilly Gate, Store Street, Manchester, M1 2WD Tel: 0300 123 1231 www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted
Ombudsmen for England, Scotland and Wales
- England (NHS funded services) The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) Millbank Tower , Millbank London, SW1P 4QP Tel: 0345 015 4033 www.ombudsman.org.uk
- England (Local Government social care funded services) Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) PO Box 4771, Coventry, CV4 0EH Tel: 03000 610 614 www.lgo.org.uk
- Wales Public Services Ombudsman for Wales (PSOW) 1 Ffordd yr Hen Gae, Pencoed, CF35 5LJ Tel: 0300 790 0203 www.ombudsman-wales.org.uk
- Scotland Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) Tel: 0800 377 7330 www.spso.org.uk
- Independent Schools Department For Education (DfE) Piccadilly Gate, Store Street, Manchester, M1 2WD Tel: 0370 000 2288 www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-education