Comments and Complaints - tell us what you think

The Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency's vision is to make a significant contribution to quality consumer focussed care through accreditation and education. Our priority is to ensure people in residential aged care receive care that is of the highest quality.

Your comments and complaints help us to monitor our performance as an accreditation and education body, and make continual improvements.

We are committed to handling your comments in a way that is customer-focused, fair, accessible, responsive, effective and accountable.

You can make a comment or complaint about:

• the Agency's procedures, processes or systems
• the conduct or behaviour of staff or people acting on the Agency's behalf

Comments may be suggestions or compliments. Complaints are an expression of dissatisfaction that requires further investigation.

Concerns about an aged care home should be directed to the Complaints Resolution Scheme on 1800 550 552.

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Depending on its nature, your comment or complaint will be managed by the State Manager, the relevant General Manager (Accreditation, Education, Corporate Services or Corporate Affairs) or the Chief Executive Officer. The Chief Executive Officer sees all complaints.

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You will receive an acknowledgement of your comment or complaint from the Agency within 7 days. Information will be used as part of our improvement system or as part of our complaints investigation process (if appropriate). You can choose to remain anonymous, in which case you will not receive any further information from the Agency about your comment or complaint.

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Depending on the nature of your compliment or suggestion, the Agency may want to contact you to discuss it further.

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How long will it take to investigate a complaint?

Depending on the complexity of your complaint and its investigation, it can take up to 28 days for a decision. We will inform you of our decision within seven days of making it.

If the investigation is likely to take longer, we will inform you of the progress.

What happens once a decision is made?

You will be informed of the decision and any action that the Agency may take. For example:

• We may change our policies or procedures
• We may apologise or acknowledge an error
• We may provide you more information or explain why something happened
• We may counsel staff or contractors or provide them with further education
• We may consider other options depending on the nature of your complaint

What if I’m not happy with the outcome?

You can write to the Chief Executive Officer and request a review.

What if I change my mind?

You can withdraw your complaint at any stage, by the same method you lodged it. You will be formally notified of its withdrawal. However, the relevant manager will decide whether to continue any investigation.

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