We have heavily criticised Kent care provider, Foxley Lodge Care Ltd, after it suddenly raised its fees – and then threatened to evict a vulnerable resident if her family did not pay.

The woman had been living at the home in Deal, since 2015. Her monthly fees had not increased, despite the care contract saying the home could increase fees by 5% a year if necessary.

In March 2018, the woman’s family were suddenly sent a bill for more than £3,000 and were told to pay within 14 days. Apparently, this was for backdated increases for the preceding two years. The home said it would charge 2% interest daily if the amount remained outstanding after the initial fortnight.

It also said it would increase the woman’s fees by around 10% that month, and planned to increase them again the following month to 25% above what the family had first been paying.

The family complained and said they would pay the 5% increase as per the contract, but not the 25% increase the home demanded.

We agreed with the family’s concerns and recommended the provider stop asking the family for the backdated increase and withdraw its threat to evict the woman for non-payment.

The company has failed to respond to our investigation. We have shared our findings with CQC.

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Many people who complain to us simply want an apology. A good apology is short and straightforward. You should show empathy, accept responsibility, acknowledge the impact on the person and explain how you will put it right.

We recommend the Scottish Ombudsman’s guidance on apologising; which includes the 4Rs of an apology:

• Regret (I am sorry)
• Responsibility (we didn’t)
• Reason (e.g. process your application on time)
• Remedy (e.g. I have now fast tracked your application)

We cover how to say sorry in our specially tailored complaints handling courses aimed at the independent sector. More information is available on our website.

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We're calling on providers to check their complaints processes to ensure clients and their families are being made aware of their right to complain to us.

Our Annual Review of Adult Social Care Complaints revealed the volume of complaints we received from people who pay for their care in 2018-19 is still lower than we would expect. We think many people remain unaware they can complain to us because not all care providers are correctly explaining this in their complaints processes.

We have a whole host of resources available on our website which offer help on everything from template letters and complaints procedures to signposting guides.

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When we end our investigation and issue a decision, that decision is final.

We give care providers several opportunities to contribute to the decision during the life of an investigation. This is through their response to enquiries and at the draft decision stage. We also look for agreement from the care provider if we are recommending a remedy, prior to us closing a case.

Once that agreement is given we expect the care provider to adhere it.

It is totally unacceptable for a provider to try to engage the complainant in any form of non-disclosure agreement as the basis for completing the remedy, or to ask the complainant to keep the outcome of the complaint confidential.

We investigate in private which means that during the life of the complaint we do not expect information to be shared. However, three months after a decision is issued we publish the majority of cases on our website. These decisions are anonymised. We do this in this in an open and transparent way to help others learn from the complaints we investigate.