💬 How to raise a concern or complaint
At Care ADHD, we are committed to providing high-quality, safe, and compassionate care. If you are unhappy with any aspect of your experience, we want to hear from you.
This page explains how to resolve concerns or make a formal complaint, what qualifies as a complaint, and how our team will respond.
❗ What is a concern and what is a complaint?
At Care ADHD, we’re committed to making your experience with us as smooth, supportive, and positive as possible. But if something isn’t quite right, we want to know—so we can put it right and keep improving.
The quickest way to resolve most issues is to raise a concern. A concern is an informal expression of dissatisfaction or worry—usually about a specific issue such as delays, miscommunication, or technical problems. These are often resolved quickly by the team involved, such as your clinician, a team lead, or our client success team. Raising a concern doesn’t start a formal investigation—it’s simply a way to let us know something’s not working for you, so we can help.
Examples of concerns might include:
⏰ Waiting times
📞 Difficulty getting a response or updates
🖥️ Trouble accessing a form or technical issues
🧾 Payment or billing queries
🙂 General service experience or tone
If your concern isn’t resolved, or if you’d prefer to take a more formal route, you can make a complaint.
A complaint is a formal expression of dissatisfaction about any aspect of the care, treatment, or service you’ve received. Complaints are handled through a structured process and may involve a formal investigation and written response. We take all complaints seriously and use them to learn and improve.
Common examples of complaints might include:
💊 Concerns about treatment or medication
👩⚕️ Rudeness or unprofessional behaviour
⏰ Significant delays in receiving reports or care
🧾 Issues with billing or refunds
📞 Lack of communication
🛑 Safety or safeguarding concerns
Whether you raise a concern or make a complaint, we’re here to listen and help. Your feedback matters. 💬
🧠 A note on diagnosis-related complaints
While we welcome all feedback, we are usually unable to reconsider a diagnostic decision once an assessment has been completed.
👉 Diagnoses are made by clinicians with specialist training in ADHD and are based on the information provided at the time of assessment, in line with NICE guidelines.
We understand that some patients may remember new details after the assessment or wish to edit informant questionnaires afterwards. However, once the diagnostic process is complete, these retrospective changes cannot be used to alter the clinical outcome.
If significant new information has come to light, a new assessment may be required.
To ensure that your concern is properly investigated, all formal complaints must be submitted through our online complaint form.
📌 Only complaints submitted through the official form will be processed via our formal complaints procedure.
If you need assistance filling out the form, our team is happy to help.
📬 How to submit a formal complaint
We aim to investigate and respond quickly, depending on the complexity and seriousness of the complaint:
⏳ Response times
| 📊 Complaint Level | 🕒 Target Response Time |
|---|---|
| 🔹 Low (minor issue) | 30 working days |
| 🔸 Moderate (service issue) | 20 working days |
| 🚨 High (care/safety risk) | 5 working days |
| 🔥 Critical (serious harm or breach) | Immediate |
We want to ensure everyone can access our complaints process. If you need any support or adjustments to submit your complaint — such as:
📞 Completing the form by phone
🌍 Access to interpreters
📝 Easy Read or large print formats
Please let us know, and we’ll be happy to help.
♿ Accessibility and support
👥 Complaints on someone else’s behalf
If you're submitting a complaint on behalf of a patient, we may need their written consent to proceed. This includes complaints from parents, carers, partners, or friends. We follow data protection and confidentiality laws to protect our patients' privacy.
Complaints should be submitted within 6 months of the issue or of you becoming aware of the issue. If there’s a good reason for a delay, we may still be able to investigate.
⏳ Time limits
We may not proceed with a complaint if:
It is abusive, discriminatory, or threatening
A full response has already been provided and no new evidence is raised
It relates to dissatisfaction with a diagnosis where no new clinical information has been provided (see above)
We also reserve the right to restrict communication in line with our policy on vexatious complaints.
🚫 What we may not investigate
If you remain unhappy after we’ve responded, you have the right to escalate your complaint externally.
For NHS patients:
🧑⚖️ Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
For private patients:
🕵️♂️ Independent Sector Complaints Adjudication Service (ISCAS)
Care ADHD is a registered subscriber to the Independent Sector Complaints Adjudication Service (ISCAS), which provides an impartial, independent review process for unresolved complaints in the private healthcare sector.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) recommends that private patients escalate complaints to ISCAS if they remain dissatisfied after completing a provider's internal complaints process.
ISCAS offers a three-stage complaints process, with the final stage providing independent adjudication.
You can also share concerns with the:
🏛️ Care Quality Commission (CQC)
(Note: The CQC does not investigate individual complaints but monitors service standards.)
📮 If you're still not satisfied
We appreciate all feedback — even when it's difficult to hear. Your voice helps us learn, grow, and deliver the best care possible.
If you would like to make suggestions on how we can improve our service, we are keen to hear!
📧 Email: yourvoice@careadhd.co.uk
If you have questions about the complaints process before submitting, feel free to get in touch.
📧 Email: resolutionsteam@careadhd.co.uk
📞 Contact our Client Success Team number on our website home page.