Complaints as an indicator of
performance
81. It would be easy to suggest that departments
should set targets to aim to drive the number of complaints down.
Once the number of complaints was known, organisations could aim
to decrease the number of complaints year on year as an indicator
of improved service. Professor Dunleavy urged us to encourage:
…the government to commit to achieving and maintaining
a 'zero complaints' regime over large policy areas, a goal already
feasible in many agencies, and to phasing down complaints and
appeals in the remaining other areas over a realistic timescale.[75]
82. We do not agree. Such targets would be easy to
manipulate, and the temptation to do so difficult to resist, especially
if the targets were related to Public Service Agreements and financial
rewards. Small numbers of complaints might indicate that a government
organisation was performing so well that no-one was complaining.
However, it might also indicate that the organisation provided
little or no information on how to complain, and that its complaints
system was particularly impenetrable. Given the difficulties in
defining a complaint, it would be easy to decide not to record
large numbers of expressions of dissatisfaction.
83. Organisations should include targets for effective
resolution of complaints at a local level as part of their customer
service targets. As already stated above,[76]
resolving complaints locally is cheaper and easier for both complainer
and complainant. However, these targets are also potentially open
to manipulation.
84. Statistics on complaints dealt with by independent
bodies such as the Ombudsman's office are likely to be more useful
and less open to bias (although they need to interpreted with
due care, given that some types of service will inevitably see
greater numbers of complaints than others—perhaps because
of the extent of people affected, or because of the nature of
the service). HMRC and DWP and its agencies have the highest number
of complaints reviewed by the Ombudsman. Of the 1,363 cases which
the Ombudsman investigated and reported on in 2006-07, 499 related
to HMRC (393 of these to do with tax credits).[77]
This, however, needs to be seen in the context of the 99,139 complaints
that HMRC received in total in the same year;[78]
and, further, in the light of the overall number of people with
whom HMRC has contact—there are 36.9 million taxpayers on
Pay As You Earn, 9.2 million that use self-assessment, and six
million families receiving tax credits.
85. The most reliable indicator of an organisation's
ability to handle complaints effectively is likely to be the proportion
of complaints upheld by the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman upheld 74
per cent of complaints about tax credits in 2006-07, for instance,
in contrast to an uphold rate for other HMRC complaints of 33
per cent.[79] This points
to failures both in the administration of tax credits and in HMRC's
internal processes for dealing with complaints about tax credits.
In evidence to us, HMRC's then Chairman told us that he was aiming
for an uphold rate of 20-30 per cent across the board.[80]
We recommend that government
organisations should use as a performance indicator the proportion
of complaints upheld by independent bodies such as the Ombudsman's
office.
Other feedback systems
86. Complaints are of course just one part of the
feedback machinery through which customer dissatisfaction can
be identified and recorded. As well as standard surveys, innovative
approaches can also help organisations to gain insight into service
users' views. Our predecessor Committee heard from Sir Ian Kennedy,
Chairman of the Healthcare Commission, that NHS organisations
should seek to learn from comments and compliments as well as
complaints—for example, through patient comment cards. In
Sir Ian's view:
…in concentrating on complaints, we forget that
there are perhaps other interactions. I often talk about, if I
may say so, the three Cs: compliments, comments and complaints—this
is terribly rudimentary—and they are all part of one big
C, which is communication.[81]
87. We received the following examples in our evidence
of innovative ways to capture the views of service users:
- Many public service organisations
conduct regular surveys of service users. The Henley Centre for
Customer Management described one company it worked with that
carries out "customer dissatisfaction surveys", which
ask questions such as "Did you have any problems?",
"What type of problems?", "Which were the most
serious?" and "Did you complain?".[82]
- One local health organisation worked with a group
of service users to discuss the elements of the service that they
liked least: "participants were asked to work with staff
to think about how each of these elements might be improved; in
the following months, some of the ideas generated are tested and
monitored, before the group reconvenes for feedback and reflection".[83]
- The patientopinion.org.uk website invites those
that have been to hospital recently (as patient, relative or carer)
to share their views of the service they received. It allows users
to compare hospitals in their area, and full access to the information
on the site is sold on to Primary Care Trusts. This website was
set up by Paul Hodgkin, a practising GP, in 2005. Sophia Parker
of Demos described it to us as "a powerful example of how
service innovators are creating new channels at the interface
that bring together feedback, service measurement and user information
simultaneously".[84]
- Some organisations have developed ways of capturing
the perspectives that customer service staff gain through their
day-to-day contact with the public. Sophia Parker explained how
"for organisations like John Lewis Partnership, insights
about people's experiences and frustrations are a valuable by-product
of the interactions between staff and customers. JLP see their
staff as the 'eyes and ears' of their organisation".[85]
88. Complaints
are only one source of information on dissatisfaction among public
service users. Organisations should seek to gather as comprehensive
and accurate an overview as possible, and be innovative about
how they do this in whatever ways are most relevant to the services
they provide.
58 Q 358 [Mr Philip Cullum] Back
59
Q 67 Back
60
Ev 329 Back
61
Q 13 Back
62
Ev 324 Back
63
National Audit Office, Citizen redress, p 11 Back
64
Ev 219 Back
65
Q 232 [Mr Terry Moran] Back
66
Ev 315 Back
67
For more details see National Audit Office, Citizen redress,
pp 94-95 Back
68
Cabinet Office, How to deal with complaints, p 51 Back
69
National Audit Office, Citizen redress, p 56 Back
70
Q 4 Back
71
Ev 148 Back
72
Ev 142 Back
73
Q 53 Back
74
Sir David Varney, Service transformation, p 83 Back
75
Ev 221 Back
76
See para 44 Back
77
Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, Annual report 2006-07,
pp 7-8 Back
78
HM Revenue & Customs, Departmental Report 2007, Cm
7107, May 2007, p 76 Back
79
Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, Annual report 2006-07,
p 8 Back
80
Q 44 Back
81
Oral evidence taken before the Public Administration Select Committee
on 29 January 2004, Session 2003-04, HC 41-iii, Q 249 Back
82
Ev 324 Back
83
Ev 190 Back
84
Ev 191 Back
85
Ev 190 Back
