Clearmind

Complaints Procedure

1. Our commitment to quality care

At Clearmind, we are committed to providing the highest standard of clinical care and patient experience. As a CQC-registered provider staffed by GMC-registered consultant psychiatrists, we hold ourselves to rigorous professional and regulatory standards. We value your feedback and treat every complaint as an opportunity to learn and improve our service.

If something has gone wrong or you are unhappy with any aspect of your experience, we want to hear from you. We promise to treat your complaint seriously, investigate it thoroughly, and respond fairly.

2. What you can complain about

You can raise a complaint about any aspect of our service, including but not limited to:

  • Clinical care — the quality of your ADHD assessment, diagnosis, or any clinical advice you received
  • Administrative issues — appointment scheduling, delays, communication problems, or issues with reports and documentation
  • Staff conduct — the behaviour or professionalism of any member of our team
  • Billing and fees — charges, invoicing errors, refund disputes, or lack of transparency around costs
  • Data handling — how we have collected, stored, used, or shared your personal or medical information
  • Accessibility — barriers you have encountered in accessing our services, whether physical, digital, or relating to reasonable adjustments

3. Raising a concern informally

Many concerns can be resolved quickly and informally. If you are unhappy with any aspect of your care or experience, we encourage you to contact our Patient Services team in the first instance. They will do their best to address your concern promptly and directly.

You can reach our Patient Services team by:

If your concern cannot be resolved informally, or if you would prefer to make a formal complaint from the outset, you are welcome to do so using the process outlined below.

4. Formal complaints procedure

Step 1: Submit your complaint

Formal complaints should be made in writing so that we have a clear record of your concerns. You can submit your complaint by:

  • Email: hello@clearmind-adhd.co.uk (subject line: “Formal Complaint”)
  • Post: Complaints Manager, Clearmind, 124 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX

To help us investigate your complaint effectively, please include the following information:

  • Your full name and contact details
  • The date(s) of the service or incident you are complaining about
  • The name of the clinician involved, if known
  • A detailed description of your complaint, including what happened and how it affected you
  • The outcome you are seeking (for example, an apology, explanation, refund, or change in practice)

Step 2: Acknowledgement

We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint within 3 working days. Our acknowledgement will confirm who is handling your complaint and the expected timeframe for our response.

Step 3: Investigation

Your complaint will be assigned to our Complaints Manager, who will carry out a thorough and impartial investigation. As part of this process, we may:

  • Contact you to clarify details or gather additional information
  • Consult the clinician(s) involved in your care
  • Review relevant clinical records and documentation
  • Seek input from other members of staff as appropriate

Step 4: Response

We aim to provide you with a full written response within 20 working days of receiving your complaint. If the investigation requires more time, we will write to you to explain the reasons for the delay and provide a revised timeframe.

Step 5: Resolution

Our response will set out the findings of our investigation and the actions we have taken or propose to take. This may include:

  • A clear explanation of what happened and why
  • An apology where appropriate
  • Details of any corrective action taken
  • Changes to our policies, procedures, or training to prevent recurrence

5. If you are not satisfied with our response

If you remain dissatisfied after receiving our response, you have several options for further action:

Internal review

You can request a review of your complaint by a senior member of the organisation. Please write to us at hello@clearmind-adhd.co.uk explaining why you are dissatisfied with the original response. A senior clinician or director who was not involved in the original investigation will review your case.

Care Quality Commission (CQC)

The CQC is the independent regulator of health and social care in England. While the CQC does not investigate individual complaints, they use information from complaints to inform their inspections and regulatory activities. You can contact them to share your concerns:

  • Address: Care Quality Commission, Citygate, Gallowgate, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4PA
  • Phone: 03000 616161
  • Website: www.cqc.org.uk

General Medical Council (GMC)

If your complaint relates to the clinical conduct or competence of a specific doctor, you can raise your concerns with the GMC. All our consultant psychiatrists are GMC-registered and subject to GMC oversight.

Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO)

If your assessment was funded by the NHS (for example, through the Right to Choose pathway), you may be able to escalate your complaint to the PHSO. The PHSO investigates complaints about NHS services that have not been resolved locally.

Independent Sector Complaints Adjudication Service (ISCAS)

If you received a privately funded service, you may be able to refer your complaint to ISCAS, which provides independent adjudication for complaints about private healthcare providers.

Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)

If your complaint relates to how we have handled your personal data, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the ICO, the UK's independent authority for data protection.

6. Time limits

We ask that complaints are made within 12 months of the date of the event you are complaining about, or within 12 months of the date you first became aware of the issue. This is to ensure that we can investigate your complaint effectively while records and recollections are still available.

In exceptional circumstances, we may consider complaints made outside this timeframe at our discretion, particularly where there are good reasons for the delay.

7. Support with making a complaint

We want to make our complaints process as accessible as possible. The following support is available:

  • Advocacy — you are welcome to have a friend, family member, carer, or independent advocate assist you in making your complaint or attend meetings on your behalf
  • Verbal complaints — if you are unable to submit your complaint in writing, you can make a verbal complaint by calling 0800 123 4567 and we will record the details for you
  • Accessibility accommodations — we can provide information in alternative formats (such as large print) and make reasonable adjustments to ensure you can fully participate in the complaints process. Please let us know what you need
  • Language support — if English is not your first language, we can arrange interpretation or translation services to assist you

8. What we do with complaints data

We are committed to learning from every complaint we receive. All complaints data is:

  • Anonymised and used for organisational learning, staff training, and continuous service improvement
  • Reviewed regularly by our clinical governance team to identify trends and areas for improvement
  • Reported to the CQC as required by our regulatory obligations
  • Stored securely in accordance with UK GDPR and our data retention policies

Your complaint will be handled in the strictest confidence. Information will only be shared with those directly involved in the investigation and resolution of your complaint.

9. Contact details for complaints

To make a complaint or raise a concern, please contact us using any of the following methods:

Our Patient Services team is available Monday to Friday, 9:00am to 5:00pm (excluding bank holidays).

This complaints procedure was last reviewed in September 2026.

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