Complaints Policy

Your experience matters to us. If something has not felt right, we want to hear about it, so we can put it right and keep improving the care we provide.

Every complaint is taken seriously and investigated fairly, openly and without judgement. We will keep you informed at every stage, so you always know where things stand.

Not every worry needs to become a formal complaint. If you raise a concern with any member of our team, we will try to resolve it there and then. If you feel it has not been resolved to your satisfaction, you are always welcome to make a formal complaint.

Our complaints process follows Regulation 16 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.

• You, as a current or former client of Harbor.
• Someone acting on your behalf, such as a family member, friend or advocate.
• For a young person under 18: the young person themselves, either parent, a legal guardian, or another adult legally responsible for their care.

If you prefer to raise a complaint anonymously, we will still investigate it as fully as we reasonably can.

You can speak to, or write to, any member of the Harbor team. They will pass your complaint straight to our Operations Manager, who oversees its investigation with our clinical governance team.

You can also contact us directly:

• Email: [email protected]
• Telephone: +44 7593 064621
• Post: 2nd floor, 40 Grosvenor Gardens, London, SW1W 0EB

It helps us to know what happened, when it happened, who was involved, and what you would like to see as an outcome. Please don’t worry if you don’t have every detail; we will work through it with you.

We acknowledge your complaint within two working days. We will write to you with the name and contact details of the person looking into it. If we can give you a full reply within five working days, we will send that instead.

We offer to meet with you. Our Operations Manager will invite you to talk through your complaint and agree together how it will be handled.

We will ask:

• how you would like to be addressed, and how you would like us to keep in touch
• whether you consent to us viewing your healthcare records, where relevant
• whether you have any needs or disabilities we should take into account
• what outcome you are hoping for, such as an apology, an explanation, a new appointment or reimbursement

We investigate. We aim to send you a full written response within 20 working days of receiving your complaint. If you would rather not meet, we will write to let you know when to expect our response.

We keep you updated. If we need more time, we will write to explain why. Once we reach a conclusion, we will send you our full written response within five days.

You are welcome to have a representative or advocate support you at any point in the process.

If you remain unhappy once we have investigated and responded, our Clinical Director will explain how you can take your complaint further.

You can ask the Independent Sector Complaints Adjudication Service (ISCAS) to review it. ISCAS provides independent adjudication of complaints about independent healthcare providers that subscribe to it. You can find out more at iscas.cedr.com.

We will co-operate fully with any independent review of your complaint.

Your care will not be affected. Raising a complaint will never change the care or treatment you receive.

You will not be treated differently. No one will be discriminated against for making a complaint, or for making one on someone else’s behalf.

Your complaint is confidential. Complaint records are kept securely and separately from your healthcare records.

We understand that complaints can be upsetting, and we will always respond with patience and care. In the rare event that contact becomes abusive or unreasonable, we may agree on a single point of contact or a preferred way of communicating. We will always explain why.

We review every complaint to see what we can improve. Each year we look at the number of complaints received, any patterns or risks, which were upheld, and the changes we made as a result.

On request, we share an anonymised summary of complaints with the Care Quality Commission. It never includes your personal information.