Inspection and reviews
The following audits and inspections have taken place during the 2025/26 reporting year:
| Service area | By | When |
|---|---|---|
| National Review Children’s Services | Audit Wales | November 2025 |
| Bwthyn y Ddôl | Care Inspectorate Wales | November 2025 |
| Assurance Check: Care and support for adults with learning disabilities | Care inspectorate Wales | February 2026 |
| Eryri | Care Inspectorate Wales | February to March 2026 |
| Domiciliary Care | Care Inspectorate Wales | March 2026 |
At the time of writing, we have received a report for the Bwthyn y Ddôl audit in November only. Care Inspectorate Wales assesses services under four main headings: Well-being, Care and Support, Environment, and Leadership and Management, and each is given a rating from the following scale:
- Excellent
- Good
- Requires improvement
- Requires significant improvement
Bwthyn y Ddôl received a ‘Good’ rating across all the four themes. The audit was very positive and complimentary towards the service provided, making no recommendations for improvement.
Complaints and representations
Everyone who makes a complaint about social services in Wales has a right to be listened to. Their views, wishes and feelings must be heard and their concerns resolved quickly and effectively. Complaints can highlight where services need changing, so it is important that we learn from them and identify areas for improvement.
Effective handling of complaints enables us to acknowledge quickly when mistakes have been made, put them right effectively and apologise where appropriate.
The most common reasons reported for making a complaint include:
- Wanting to be heard
- Ensuring that concerns are recognised, acknowledged and taken seriously
- Ensuring that appropriate action is taken to remedy problems and avoid similar incidents in the future
- To receive an apology.
During the 2024/25 reporting year we received 24 formal complaints about social services in Conwy. This represented 0.5% of the adults receiving care and support and 0.77% of children and young people.
| 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adults | 5 | 12 | 13 | 9 | 17 |
| Children | 11 | 5 | 9 | 6 | 7 |
| Total | 16 | 17 | 22 | 15 | 24 |
Although the trend over the last five years generally represents a decrease in the total number of formal complaints received year-on-year, there was an increase of nine this year, taking us over the five-year average.
Of the 24 complaints received, 22 were resolved at Stage 1 (local resolution) meaning that only two required escalations to Stage 2 (independent investigations). The Stage 2 investigation costs totalled £4,267.90, a large drop from £8,708.55 from the previous year.
We aim to acknowledge complaints and reach a resolution within set timescales. We acknowledged 95.5% of Stage 1 complaints within two working days and completed 59.1% of those complaints within the 15 working day timescale. For those which did not meet the timescales there were valid or unavoidable reasons. Some were particularly complex and required legal advice to provide an informed response. Others involved representation from Independent Advocates, and their capacity to meet, to resolve the complaints, impacted on the timescales.
Any delays were communicated to and agreed by the complainants or their advocates, who were happier to receive a thorough response and an agreed resolution to their complaint, as opposed to having a rushed response which adhered to the prescribed timescales.
Lessons learned and service improvements
The most significant lessons resulting from complaints in the last year are:
- The need to understand the pressure on staff members when dealing with persistent and vexatious complainants who use derogatory language and excessive levels of emotive communication; we are consulting on a draft policy for ‘managing customer contact in social care’ to protect staff in the future.
- The need to undertake learning or reflection events following on from complex Stage 2 Independent Investigations to provide staff with an opportunity to debrief and apply any learning to improve practice for the future.
- Ensuring that full details of Conwy’s charging policy are shared with individuals in a timely manner and explained in clear language to ensure that invoices are not unexpected and subsequently challenged.
- Ensuring the clear separation of safeguarding concerns, when they are received as part of a larger complaint, to avoid confusion and duplication.
- The need to create separate appeals processes where the Social Services Complaints Procedure (Wales) Regulations 2014 are not applicable.
- The importance of meeting face-to-face when trying to resolve complaints.
- The need to manage expectations about what the complaints procedure can and cannot achieve.
Compliments
Compliments are also regarded as important information that can be used to identify areas of good practice. During 2024/25 we received 146 compliments about adult services and 10 about children’s services, which exceeded the number of complaints. Here is a flavour of the compliments received.
A Social Worker from our Family Support and Intervention Service was complimented on her professionalism:
“You have been super supportive, going above and beyond for this family (as you do for all your families). It is always a pleasure to work alongside you. All services are very stretched at present, and have been for a while, but your focus remains on meeting the needs of your families and maintaining standards, within the challenge of keeping within legislative timeframes. Plus, you are genuinely a really lovely person.”
An Occupational Therapist was complimented on the support she provided to an individual with disabilities:
“I felt that I needed to e-mail in to say what a magnificent person ‘A’ is and how she has helped us both find our way through the previously unknown world of social services. ‘A’ has always had ‘C’s best interest at the heart of everything she has done for us. I cannot praise her highly enough as she has been a beacon of light in the dark for us. If you have any kind of award scheme, she needs to be recognised with it and whatever you are paying her is not enough. Please ensure this message is seen by her head of department as they need to know what an amazing person in ‘A’ they have on the team.”
An individual who received a period of reablement support from our Older People Service wanted to share their appreciation:
“You were all lovely and kind. I’m getting on better so well and a lot is due to your cheerful smiles and caring ways.”