Care England responds: complaints must drive improvement across the whole care system

Care England has responded to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman’s Annual Review of Adult Social Care Complaints 2025-26, published today, which shows that 3,938 complaints were received during the year, up 22% on the previous year. Of the complaints investigated, 77% were upheld, while organisations complied with 99.8% of the Ombudsman’s recommendations.

Care England said the figures underline the importance of using complaints not simply to identify fault, but to understand where care, commissioning and wider systems are breaking down.

Working with the LGSCO, Care England has reviewed almost 450 published adult social care complaint decisions from June to August 2026. Its new article, “What complaints can teach us about better care and better commissioning”, looks at recurring themes including communication, care planning, record keeping, complaint handling, commissioning responsibility, funding sufficiency and the gap that can emerge between assessed need and what available funding can actually purchase.

Professor Martin Green OBE, Chief Executive of Care England, said:

“Complaints matter because behind every one is a person or family trying to get something put right. The Ombudsman’s report shows why providers and commissioners must respond quickly, learn properly and make sure the same failures are not repeated.

 

“But the wider lesson is that complaint data can also tell us where the system itself is under pressure. When funding no longer purchases the level of support that has been assessed as necessary, or responsibility is passed between organisations, that is no longer simply an administrative issue. It directly affects the person receiving care.

 

“We want to work with the Ombudsman to make sure this intelligence is used constructively, helping providers improve, helping commissioners identify where arrangements are failing, and helping government understand when recurring local problems point to wider structural pressures.”

Care England’s article also highlights that good complaint handling should be seen as a sign of a learning organisation, not an admission of wholesale failure. The Ombudsman’s own review reports that organisations increasingly put matters right at an early stage, with 33% of upheld complaints about privately arranged care already having received a suitable remedy before the Ombudsman became involved, up 13 percentage points on the previous year.