Appendix
The Government welcomes the Committee's report.
The Government's vision is for all services to be
world class: responsive to people's needs and aspirations and
providing consistently high standards. Over the last ten years,
most services have improved enormously, but there is still too
much variation in services and insufficient tailoring of services
to people's specific needs.
Encouraging and responding to complaints and other
forms of feedback is central to achieving this vision. People
have a right to expect a high standard of services and effective
complaints procedures are essential in providing redress and raising
standards if these standards are not being met. As importantly,
achieving world class services requires leaders and planners of
services and front-line professionals to be better informed about
the experiences of those who use these services. In the best of
the public sector and private sector, complaints are viewed as
a vital source of insight. The Government wishes that to be the
norm across public services.
Complaint procedures need to be tailored to the particular
service and context in which they are operating—there is
no one-size-fits-all complaints mechanism. However, there is a
role for the Cabinet Office in supporting the promotion of best
practice in complaint handling, including by encouraging the dissemination
and establishment of best practice across public sector organisations.
That is why the Cabinet Office worked closely with the Parliamentary
Ombudsman on the development of her Principles of Good
Administration and Principles of Remedy. The Ombudsman is currently
consulting on the next stage of this work—Principles
of Good Complaint Handling. The Government welcomes this development
and the Cabinet Office will continue to keep under review
how it can most effectively promote best practice in complaint
handling.
In addition, as the full response
below highlights, government organisations are rightly taking
steps to improve their complaint handling processes. For example,
the DWP's Pension, Disability and Carers Service has carried out
a National Customer Survey which includes a section on complaints
covering the whole customer journey from making the complaint
to receiving a resolution. It also has a management assessment
in operation that selects a percentage of complaints and asks
the customer about their experience of making a complaint.
The measures the Government and individual services
are implementing to better encourage and respond to complaints
forms just one way to improve redress and gain better insight.
The Government is consulting on ways to increase the use of petitions
by local authorities. Services are developing new ways to seek
feedback, such as the ability of patients to comment on their
experiences of hospitals on the new NHS Choices website. The Cabinet
Office and others are pioneering new approaches to understanding
the ways in which people use services and how their experience
can be simplified and improved.
All these measures are underpinned by giving greater
attention to the satisfaction of those who use services, in the
Public Service Agreements that commenced this April and other
performance measures. An example of this is the 'Better Care for
All' target which will use the self-reported experience of patients
and users to help drive success in health and adult social care
services. Other performance management systems, such as the Police
Performance Assessment Framework, also demonstrate the prominence
being given to the satisfaction of customers in the delivery of
public services.
Together, this suite of measures should form the
basis for more responsive, higher quality services in the future.
The Government's response to the Committee's recommendations
is set out below.
1. There are clear economic
arguments for resolving complaints as quickly as possible. The
earlier complaints are resolved, the cheaper it is for everyone.
(Paragraph 10)
The Government agrees that it is
important to try and resolve complaints at the earliest possible
stage for the benefit of customers, as well as for economic reasons.
The Government will continue to encourage organisations to constantly
review their complaints procedures to look to make them as efficient
as possible. For example, in 2007 the Department for Work and
Pensions reviewed its complaints procedures and as a result it
has provided greater focus on resolving complaints wherever possible
on the front line. It has also sharpened up its arrangements for
the escalation of complaints where appropriate, including making
the services of the department's Independent Case Examiner available
to all users of its customer facing businesses.
2. Complaints systems are
always likely to be more accessible to the persistent and articulate.
This makes it all the more important that complaints systems are
clear and easy to navigate, so that they do not act as a barrier
to the less articulate or less persistent (particularly disadvantaged
groups). (Paragraph 14)
The Government agrees that it is
important to have complaint systems that are user friendly and
accessible to all. Government organisations have taken steps to
improve systems to guide customers through the complaints process.
In 2007 both HMRC and DWP reviewed their complaints procedures
for their internet sites and information leaflets to provide more
comprehensive step by step guidance on how to complain and what
customers can expect from public services when they complain.
3. We recommend that all
government organisations use the widest possible definition of
complaint—that of "any expression of dissatisfaction
that needs a response, however communicated"— and treat
all such expressions of dissatisfaction as complaints. (Paragraph
17)
The Government agrees that in most
cases a widely drawn definition of complaint is desirable and
most organisations do adhere to the Cabinet Office definition
of complaint, produced in its 1998 guide 'How to deal with Complaints'
(as quoted above). However given the huge variety of organisations
across the public sector, we need to allow some flexibility.
4. Insisting on complaints
in writing can potentially deter valid complaints and prevent
problems from being identified. People should not be disadvantaged
if they have difficulty in making a formal written complaint.
We trust that the practice of not processing complaints made by
telephone or e-mail has already been reviewed by the government
organisations concerned in the light of the requirements of the
Disability Discrimination Act. (Paragraph 18)
The Government agrees that all
citizens should have full and easy access to complaint procedures.
Since the introduction of the Disability Discrimination Act significant
improvements have been made to departmental complaint procedures
to make them compliant with the Act; for example by improving
telephone access, including the availability of text-phones and
minicom/typetalk facilities. The Government has also developed
online facilities to handle customer feedback and process complaints.
5. The distinction between
an appeal and a complaint is real, but apparently little understood
by the public. The requirement must be for government organisations
to define their processes clearly and to treat any expression
of dissatisfaction in the appropriate way. In some cases, the
best course of action may be to combine complaint handling with
appeal handling; where that is not possible, the distinction must
be made as clear as possible to the user, and those complaining
or appealing should be guided through the system. (Paragraph 22)
In line with the requirement to
clearly define their procedures, government organisations also
aim to make the difference between a complaint and an appeal clear.
For example, the Department for Work and Pensions has recently
taken part in seminars aimed at customer representatives to clarify
these differences. Government organisations also inform customers
of their right to appeal wherever applicable.
6. As the internet becomes
an increasingly important means for communicating with government
departments and agencies, it is all the more important that Directgov,
the Government's online portal, should set out complaints processes
in a clear, accessible and comprehensive manner. (Paragraph 32)
Directgov currently refers citizens to individual
departments responsible for the published content or service and
it works closely with those organisations to ensure easy access
to their online services. However, the Government recognises that
the increase in content and services that will arise from website
convergence will require more robust systems to be in place. By
the autumn, Directgov will assess its complaint processes as part
of an overall review of its customer service strategy. This will
consider best practice in complaints resolution.
7. We agree with Sir David
Varney and the National Audit Office that the Government should
explore the scope for a common access point nationwide for all
non-emergency public services. This would provide a single point
of contact for impartial information on where to make a complaint
or seek redress. We restate our predecessor Committee's recommendation
in favour of just such a service—'Public Services Direct'—which
would offer an easy access, one-stop-shop approach to a complex
web of public services. Public Services Direct should be both
a gateway to government organisations and services, and a source
of basic advice to public service users. It would act as the starting
point for people unsure of how or where to lodge their initial
complaint, and would provide them with appropriate information
and guidance. (Paragraph 42)
The Government recognises the potential
benefits of customers having a single point of contact for a range
of services. It is currently piloting 'Tell Us Once', a scheme
examining the feasibility of customers only having to inform the
Government once about a change of circumstances, rather than having
to contact individual organisations. Initially looking at registering
a birth or reporting a death, it will expand to include change
of address. Channels for accessing the service are likely to include
telephone, face-to-face and online facilities. A complaints procedure
will naturally form part of this service and is currently being
tested, along with other aspects of a potential service, via a
number of pilots with local authorities. Complaint resolution
is currently handled directly by individual organisations but
the Government is continually reviewing its procedures to see
how it can make services more accessible to the user.
8. We do not wish to be
prescriptive about the way government organisations handle complaints.
Different organisations often establish different procedures for
valid reasons. However, we are disturbed that a poor standard
of complaint handling is raised by so many complaint reviewers.
This suggests a systemic problem with first-tier complaint handling
by government organisations. (Paragraph 48)
The Government recognises the need
to continuously review and develop systems for handling complaints
at the first tier. Wherever possible the Government continues
to encourage organisations to resolve complaints as early as possible.
The Department for Work and Pensions
for example is examining how well complaints are managed at service
delivery levels in order to develop their systems for resolving
complaints at the earliest possible stage rather than just looking
at the mechanics of managing a complaint through the system. Both
the Department of Health and Defra also offer National Vocational
Qualifications (NVQs) in Customer Care to their Contact Centre
staff at first-tier levels, in order to focus upon the importance
of operational as well as policy skills needed to ensure successful
complaint handling.
9. Government organisations
must keep citizens informed on progress in dealing with their
complaints, especially if delays are likely. (Paragraph 51)
10. Public service providers
should be required to provide information on the next steps in
the complaints process automatically whenever acknowledging a
complaint, in line with the processes followed by financial service
providers. (Paragraph 52)
The Government agrees that customers
should be kept informed of the handling of their complaints and
receive acknowledgement of their complaint at the earliest possible
opportunity. Most government organisations have developed systems
to ensure that customers receive an automatic receipt of complaint
outlining the next steps of the process. All service delivery
departments publish timescales for complaint handling and response
targets. If a full response is not achievable within the timeframe,
customers are issued with an interim response informing them of
progress.
11. We recommend that, where
practical, government organisations adopt a caseworker approach
to complaint handling so that complainants have an identifiable
person to deal with. (Paragraph 54)
The Government is pleased at the
recognition given in the report to HMRC's caseworker approach,
which has worked particularly well in the handling of Tax Credit
cases. The Government agrees that this approach provides a quality
standard of service in managing the end to end process and the
approach has been implemented elsewhere. For example the Child
Support Agency, as part of their Operational Improvement Plan,
has recently implemented a caseworker approach to complaint handling.
However, one size does not fit all and this approach is not always
the solution for the handling of complaints. The Government believes
that it is important to consider a variety of options in order
to achieve the right balance between value for money and best
customer service. For example, in the Department for Children,
Schools and Families complaints about direct services will be
handled by a senior manager who will have the best understanding
of the work area. If a complaint is received about a third party
(e.g. a school) a caseworker may be appointed to manage the complaint
investigation. This is a good example of refined planning that
can best be developed by front line services focused clearly on
customer need.
12. Public services should seek
to discover what complainants hope to achieve from making their
views known. Some may look for financial compensation; others
may want no more than a sincere apology, and an explanation of
the steps being taken to ensure that mistakes are not repeated.
(Paragraph 57)
The Government agrees that it is
vital to engage with citizens to better understand their expectations
with regard to the complaint. Complaints are also more difficult
to resolve when it is unclear what outcome the complainant is
seeking. Work is underway across government organisations to better
understand complainants and to identify what leads them to complain.
For example, HMRC carries out a rolling survey of complainants
which seeks to identify their experience and what they expect
from the service they receive. In DWP, wherever possible, the
Independent Case Examiner's Office contacts the complainant, usually
by telephone, to establish the facts surrounding their complaint.
There is also a discussion around how the customer would like
to see the complaint progressed and what they expect from the
business to put matters right which helps to identify areas for
improvement.
13. For the public to have
confidence in systems for complaint resolution, there must be
robust and independent processes for dealing with complaints.
We believe that for areas where large numbers of complaints are
made and upheld, the existence of independent intermediate complaint
handlers is crucial to ensuring the credibility of complaint resolution
systems in government. (Paragraph 64)
The Government agrees that whilst
all complaint systems should be credible and robust, they also
need to be tailored to each organisation's business to be proportionate
and cost effective. Second tier complaint handling systems would
not be appropriate in all organisations, but as the Committee
recognises they do have a key role to play in those departments
that deal with large volumes of complaints. DWP has appointed
an Independent Case Examiner who reviews cases where citizens
do not feel their complaints have been properly dealt with by
the department. Similarly, in HMRC cases can be reviewed by an
independent Adjudicator. The Parliamentary Ombudsman has recognised
the service provided by the Adjudicator in providing resolution
for the department's customers and allowing her office to focus
on more complex and contentious cases. Similar systems are also
in place in the Department for Children, Schools and Families.
14. Although necessary
in some circumstances, the existence of multi-tiered complaint
processes does increase the complexity of the system—potentially
adding to the confusion of prospective complainants. This reinforces
our earlier point that clear information and guidance need to
be made available from a central point to assist people through
the complaints process. (Paragraph 68)
The Government agrees with the
point made by the Parliamentary Ombudsman that "the last
thing we need is to set up another huge organisation to deal with
complaints" —it would be very difficult for one central
point to manage all the multi-faceted aspects of complaint handling
services that the Government delivers. The Government believes
therefore that the most efficient process is for citizens to have
direct and easy access to service providers who are best equipped
to deal with their specific circumstances and needs, and focusing
on making existing systems work better.
15. Regulators can require private
sector organisations to monitor complaints. Government organisations
should also be obliged to ensure that they systematically monitor
the complaints they receive in order to inform service delivery.
(Paragraph 75)
16. Different organisations
may wish to take different approaches to considering the views
of service users in general, and complaints in particular. However,
all government organisations should have an active strategy for
monitoring and learning from complaints, and central departments
should use such information to monitor the performance of their
agencies. We recommend that the management boards of all departments
and agencies with a customer-facing role should consider trends
in complaints annually as an absolute minimum. (Paragraph 80)
The Government agrees that government
organisations should have an active strategy for monitoring and
learning from complaints using procedures that are robust and
stand up to public scrutiny. Government organisations do monitor
and assess complaints as part of their performance assessments
in order to improve and develop services that better meet customer
needs. For example, increasing numbers of public services are
committed to Customer Service Excellence, the Government Standard
for customer service. This requires organisations to demonstrate
that they use vigorous systems for monitoring and learning from
complaints.
The Government also agrees that
management boards in departments and agencies should consider
complaint trends as part of their performance indicators. Procedures
for analysing complaints and identifying emerging trends are being
developed at a central level in departments, including the use
of customer insight to inform the overall design and delivery
of services. For example, the Department for Work and Pensions
is putting mechanisms in place to monitor trends centrally. Systematic
recommendations from both the Independent Case Examiner and the
Parliamentary Ombudsman will also be monitored centrally and shared
across the department in a bid to inform business improvements.
17. 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. (Paragraph 85)
The Government recognises the important
role that the Parliamentary Ombudsman and her office undertake.
It also recognises that monitoring the proportion of complaints
upheld by independent bodies is one key indicator of performance.
Other indicators and evidence on organisations' ability to handle
complaints effectively will also need to be taken into consideration
when monitoring an organisation's performance in order to establish
a broader perspective of how well an organisation is operating
and what areas need to be focused upon. The Government also recognises
the important role of independent bodies in contacting government
organisations if a particular issue or systematic problem has
been identified, which they can seek to rectify.
18. Complaints are only
one source of information on dissatisfaction among public service
users. Organisation 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. (Paragraph 88)
The Government agrees that it is
always important to value wide ranging information and feedback
for improving services. Much good work is already being taken
forward. For example the Pension, Disability and Carers Service
is piloting end-to-end work tracking customer views throughout
their customer journeys. Jobcentre Plus also uses a mystery shopper
technique to monitor its customer services. The Department for
Children, Schools and Families run an annual Customer Satisfaction
Survey on its correspondence and national telephone line service.
The feedback is acted upon and improved and best practice methods
are introduced. The Department's agencies also carry out regular
forums and consultations with its key customers.
19. There is clearly a need
for a centrally co-ordinated official effort to champion good
practice in complaints handling across government and the public
services. We recommend that the Cabinet Office should take the
lead within central government to produce effective guidance on
how to deal with complaints. It should take account of key principles
for handling complaints which reflect the recommendations in this
report, as well as relevant existing guidance, and be drawn up
in close consultation with the Parliamentary Ombudsman. (Paragraph
95)
In an effort to champion good practice
across government organisations, the Cross-Government Complaints
Handlers Network was set up in 2006. It is a self-organised network
comprising complaint managers from organisations within the remit
of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, including Health,
DWP, Transport, Home Office, HMRC, the NHS and the Charity Commission.
The network aims to promote the effective management of, and learning
from, complaints and customer feedback by encouraging the exchange
of good practice, ideas, experience and relevant training. The
Cabinet Office will examine whether there may be scope therefore
for the Government to build upon the existing network to establish
more formalised cross-government collaboration to develop key
principles for complaint handling and to better identify innovative
good practice. The Cabinet Office acts as the key point of contact
in Government for the Parliamentary Ombudsman. Within this capacity
the department worked closely with the Ombudsman in the development
of her Principles of Good Administration which were published
in March 2007. She has also since published Principles of Remedy
and her Principles of Good Complaint Handling are due to be published
shortly.
20. We recommend that all government
organisations be required to publish in their annual reports information
on the number of complaints they receive, how many are reviewed
by the Ombudsman, and the number that are upheld. (Paragraph 96)
The Government agrees that it is
helpful for government organisations to publish information on
their complaint handling. Most government organisations do publish
information on complaints in their annual reports. However, in
response to this recommendation, from next year, all government
departments will include information on complaints and complaint
handling in their departmental report, including information on
the number of complaints reviewed by the Ombudsman and the number
of those that are upheld.
21. Significant sums are
spent on complaint handling. Handling individual complaints well
is key to confidence in public services. But complaints, if systematically
monitored, can also be a source of valuable information which
can be used to improve these services. Ensuring consistency and
best practice in these areas requires a lead from the centre which
is currently lacking. We recommend that the Cabinet Office actively
monitor how government organisations use information from complaints
to improve administration and service delivery, and that it encourage
the spread of good practice in this area. (Paragraph 98)
It is already clear that many organisations
do work on establishing better practices based on feedback from
complaint monitoring. As set out in the response to recommendation
19, significant steps are also being taken to disseminate good
practice across organisations. The Government also recognises
the need to continue to monitor processes in order to improve
services and the Cabinet Office has a role to play in this process.
It will continue to encourage organisations to review and improve
their customer services by using performance indicators such as
customer feedback, as well as learning from successful practices
already underway in other government organisations.
22. When citizens complain,
they want their concerns to be taken seriously and, where necessary,
matters put right. We have looked in this Report at how the Government
could improve how it deals with the complaints it receives about
its operations. Complaints systems need to be accessible, understandable
and easy for people to navigate. People should get the help they
need to access complaints systems, and to take their complaints
further if they are unhappy with how their case has been handled.
Complainants also need to have confidence that their complaints
will be dealt with in a fair and competent manner. (Paragraph
99)
23. The onus is therefore
on the Government to ensure that it responds to complaints effectively
and appropriately. A key part of this is making sure that complaints
processes meet the requirement outlined above. Equally, however,
it is about learning from complaints received in order to improve
how government and public services operate. There needs to be
a culture that invites and values complaints for the insights
they can provide on how to make government work better. This is
a culture that all government organisations should be doing their
utmost to foster—so that they not only put things right
for the citizen, but also get things right for the future. (Paragraph
100)
The Government agrees that building
a culture that values complaints and acts on feedback is crucially
important. It has described in this response some of the steps
it is taking to set the strategy and build the capacity for delivering
this.
The Government strongly believes
in the benefits of listening to citizens and of adopting best
practice, taking into account issues around efficiency, accessibility
and accountability. It also believes that business managers are
best placed to look at service delivery issues overall and to
determine how services can be continually improved.
The Cabinet Office will consider
(through the Customer Insight Forum) how it can best focus upon
and encourage the identification and dissemination of best practice.
It will also continue the work already underway to establish cultures
that welcome customer feedback as a major contributor to excellence
and fairness in public services.
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