Incometent complaint procedure
Because I am a carer and my son (the service user) remains undiagnosed after 9 years I tried to complain. I gave up in 2015 because of the necessity for a consent form to be signed in the presence of a third party but after three more years of incompetence which has caused intolerable suffering for our family I at last persuaded my son to sign the form so we could make a complaint. This was done in Spring 2018 when he was feeling better after a poor winter with SAD which characterises his condition. The NSFT sent numerous delaying letters until a reply arrived in autumn just as my son was descending into his SAD. This has meant that he is unable to help unravel the pages of excuses we were given. I have tried to follow up a few so-clled facts but have not been able to do so without his cooperation e.g. PALS need him to contact them to release his medical records, I his carer cannot do this despite his sign the form in the presence of a third party in order to make the complaint on his behalf. So you must understand for every complaint that has reached the same point as ours, there must be dozens who have given up. I mave many more hoops to jump through and may have to wait for my son to recover in the spring. The irony is that his Care team from Central IDT discharged him in the autumn again DESPITE three times having him referred back by other agencies because of his winter anxieties. It is VERY likely - and I have done a good deal of research and case studies - that my son is undiagnosed high level autism. The NSFT has robbed my family of so much and care so little.