This policy explains how clients and their representatives can make a complaint to Private Therapy Clinic Ltd (“PTC”, “we”, “us”) and what to expect. It applies to all our services, whether privately funded or funded by the NHS (for example through Right to Choose or an NHS contract). Our staff follow a separate internal procedure (P05 Internal Complaints Policy).

1. Our Approach

If you are unhappy with our service, we want to hear about it. We will look into your complaint fairly and in proportion to how serious it is, explain what we found, and put things right where we can. We will treat everyone involved with respect and dignity.

Making a complaint will not affect your access to care or your relationship with your practitioner.

2. Who Can Complain

• Current or former clients.
• A parent or person with parental responsibility for a child client.
• Someone acting on a client’s behalf, such as a family member or carer. We will need the client’s consent to share information about their care, unless the representative has legal authority to act for them.
• If a young person is able to make their own decisions, we may need their consent.

3. Time Limit

Please make your complaint within 12 months of the event you are unhappy about, or within 12 months of when you first became aware of it.

We will not normally investigate complaints made after this time, because records, recollections and staff availability make a fair investigation difficult. We may, at our discretion, consider a later complaint if there was a good reason for the delay and a fair investigation is still possible.

This time limit applies only to our own complaints procedure. It does not affect your legal rights, your right to raise concerns with a practitioner’s professional body or regulator, or your rights under data protection law.

4. How to Make a Complaint

Please email info@privatetherapyclinic.com with “Complaint” in the subject line. Email is our main complaints route, so that you have one clear point of contact and a written record.

If you are unable to email, for example because of a disability, please call us on +44 (0)20 3887 2866. We will write down your complaint and send you an email copy to check.

To help us investigate, please include:

• your full name, email address, and a contact phone number;
• your date of birth;
• a clear description of what you are complaining about and when it happened;
• what you would like us to do to put things right;
• any relevant correspondence.

If you raise a concern another way, for example through a practitioner, our website or a messaging service, we will ask you to send it to info@privatetherapyclinic.com so it can be logged.

5. Quick Resolution

Some concerns, such as a booking error or a missed callback, can be put right straight away. If your concern is resolved to your satisfaction by the end of the next working day, we will record it and no formal response will be needed.

6. Acknowledgement

We will acknowledge your complaint within 3 working days of receiving it. Your complaint will be given a reference number and assigned to a member of our team, who will investigate it and be your point of contact. Our acknowledgement will explain how your complaint will be handled, confirm that we will correspond with you by email, and tell you when to expect our response.

7. Investigation

The member of our team assigned to your complaint will review the relevant records and, where possible, gather information from the staff or practitioners involved. The investigation will be proportionate to the complaint.

Where staff or practitioners have since left, or records are no longer held under our retention policy, we will tell you and base our findings on the information available.

8. Our Response

We aim to send you our findings within 30 working days of acknowledging your complaint. Our response will explain what we looked at, what we found, our conclusions, and any changes we will make as a result.

Some complaints are complex, involve historical events, or need information from people outside the clinic. If we need more time, we will write to you before the deadline to explain why and give a revised date.

9. Keeping You Informed

We will contact you at the key stages: when we acknowledge your complaint, if the timescale needs to change, and when we send our findings. If we need more information from you, we will get in touch.

You are welcome to contact us while your complaint is open. Please allow up to 5 working days for a reply.

All correspondence about your complaint, including our response and the outcome of any review, will be sent by email from info@privatetherapyclinic.com. We do not send responses by post unless you need this as a reasonable adjustment. Where we think it would help, we may offer a phone or video call.

If you need any adjustments to take part in the complaints process, please let us know.

10. If You Are Unhappy With Our Response

You can ask for an internal review by emailing info@privatetherapyclinic.com within 28 days of our response, explaining which parts you remain unhappy with and why.

• The review is an internal We decide who carries it out. It will be a member of our team who was not involved in the original investigation, or an external reviewer we appoint.
• You cannot choose who reviews your complaint, and asking for a review does not give you a right to speak to, or meet, a particular manager, director or practitioner.
• The review looks at whether your complaint was handled fairly and whether the outcome was reasonable. It is not normally a fresh investigation.
• We will send you the outcome by email. This is our final response, and it will set out any further options available to you.

If your complaint was already reviewed internally before we sent our response, that response is our final response, and we will tell you this when we send it.

We will not reopen a complaint after our final response unless you provide genuinely new information. In some cases, after our final response, we may consider whether independent mediation could help. Mediation is not available for every complaint, and whether to offer it is at our discretion.

11. What We Can and Cannot Do

We can explain what happened, apologise where we got something wrong, correct our records or documents, and make changes to stop the same thing happening again.

Please note:

• Clinical opinions and diagnoses are the professional judgement of the practitioner. We will ask the practitioner to explain their reasoning, but we cannot change a clinical opinion through the complaints process. Where appropriate we may offer a second opinion, which may be chargeable.
• Refunds or goodwill payments are at our discretion and take account of the service provided and our Terms and Conditions. Your statutory rights are not affected.
• Staff matters: we will tell you what action we have taken to put things right, but we cannot share details of any internal or disciplinary process involving a member of staff or practitioner.
• An apology is not an admission of legal liability.

12. Matters Dealt With Separately

• Copies of your records: requests for the personal data we hold about you are handled as subject access requests under data protection law, separately from the complaint and within the legal timescales. You can make one at the same time as a complaint.
• Complaints about how we have handled your personal data: we will acknowledge these and give you the outcome without undue delay. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO): https://ico.org.uk/
• Legal claims: if you start legal proceedings or a solicitor writes to us with a claim, we may pause the complaint while we take advice. We will tell you if we do this.
• Safeguarding concerns and serious incidents are dealt with under our safeguarding and duty of candour procedures.

13. If Your Care Was Funded by the NHS

The same process and timescales apply, with these additions:

• We would appreciate the opportunity to directly look into your complaint first, as this is usually the quickest way to put things right. However, you can choose instead to complain to the NHS organisation that commissioned (paid for) your care, such as your integrated care board or the NHS trust that referred you. Your complaint will be investigated by one organisation, not both, although the commissioner may contact us for information.
• When we acknowledge your complaint, we will offer to discuss how it will be handled and when you can expect our response.
• We will correspond by email only if you agree to this.
• If you remain unhappy after our response, including after any internal review, our response will explain how to contact the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. The Ombudsman makes final decisions on complaints about NHS-funded care in England: https://www.ombudsman.org.uk/
• If we have not responded within 6 months, we will write to explain why.
• Free, independent support with NHS complaints is available from NHS complaints advocacy services. Your local council can tell you which service covers your area.

14. Professional Bodies and Regulators

You can raise concerns about a practitioner’s professional conduct or clinical practice with their professional body or regulator at any stage, for example concerns about serious misconduct, unethical behaviour, breaches of confidentiality, inappropriate treatment or failure to follow professional standards. If a complaint is made to a professional body, we may be required to cooperate with its investigation.

Contact details may change, so please check each organisation’s website for the latest information.

Care Quality Commission (CQC): the CQC regulates health and social care services in England. It does not investigate individual complaints, but you can share your experience with it at https://www.cqc.org.uk/.

There is no independent adjudication stage for privately funded care. You can seek independent advice from Citizens Advice or a solicitor.

15. Unreasonable or Persistent Behaviour

We understand that making a complaint can be stressful, and we will treat you with courtesy. We ask the same of you. If behaviour towards our staff becomes abusive, threatening, persistent or obstructive, we may:

• issue a warning;
• limit communication to one channel, such as email only;
• close the complaint once it has been properly considered, keeping a record of all steps taken.

16. Confidentiality

Information about your complaint is treated confidentially and shared only with the staff who need it to investigate and respond. Complaint records are kept separately from your clinical records.

If you raise a concern in an online review or on social media, we may reply briefly and invite you to contact us directly.

17. Learning and Improvement

We use complaints to identify where our services can improve, and feedback from complainants helps shape changes to how we work.

18. Contact Details

Email: info@privatetherapyclinic.com (please write “Complaint” in the subject line)

Telephone (if you are unable to email, for example because of a disability): +44 (0)20 3887 2866

Related Policies

P05 Internal Complaints Policy · P04 Information Governance, Records Management & Caldicott · P18 Safeguarding · P19 Serious Incident and Significant Events Reporting Policy · P30 Duty of Candour · Terms and Conditions.

Policy Review

This policy will be reviewed every two years, or sooner if the law, CQC guidance, NHS contract requirements or our services change. Any change to this policy must also be reflected in P05 Internal Complaints Policy, and vice versa.