Putting things right and learning from complaints

We have published our guidance on remedies on our website. This is guidance for our staff, but it may be used by organisations in helping to decide on an appropriate remedy for individuals who have been directly affected by fault by the organisation or those acting on its behalf. 

Complaint handlers should consider the complainant’s desired outcomes when deciding on an appropriate remedy. Complaint handlers should discuss the complainant’s desired outcomes with them when they first receive the complaint to manage their expectations. It can be helpful to revisit this discussion once the complaint handler has made their findings. Discussing possible remedies before the decision is issued may help prevent complaints from being escalated if the complainant is involved in discussions about potential remedies.

Organisations and those acting on their behalf should also apologise for any fault. Our guidance on remedies sets out how to make an effective apology. An effective apology plays an important role in repairing the relationship between the organisation and the individual. In some circumstances, it might be appropriate to consider a face-to-face apology, especially where the person complaining is not able to understand a written apology.  

Organisations should also seek to put people back in the position they would have been if it had acted without fault. This may include providing services a person was entitled to but didn’t receive, refunding quantifiable losses or carrying out an assessment or reconsideration of a decision. 

If there is still a significant outstanding injustice or it has not been possible to put the person back in the position they would have been in, the organisation should consider whether a symbolic payment may be appropriate. Symbolic payments usually remedy: 

• distress – significant anxiety, frustration, upset or pain. A payment for distress will reflect more than simple inconvenience or moderate disappointment with any fault. 

• harm or the risk of harm – where the fault caused, or risked causing physical injury, material damage, ill or adverse effects including mental harm on the person(s) affected; and 

• time and trouble – this can be used for injustice from mistakes in how the organisation considered the complaint (for example taking much too long or delays in carrying out agreed actions). We do not recommend time and trouble payments just for having to complain through the organisation’s complaint procedure. 

Many complainants tell us they want to make sure what happened to them doesn’t happen to someone else. In some cases complaint handlers may be able to agree service improvements to processes. Where a complaint highlights key learning for the organisation, the complaint handler should discuss service improvements with a person in the organisation who is able to agree and action these. These should be communicated to the complainant.

Any action the organisation agrees to take following a complaint should follow SMART principles. This applies to both personal remedies and service improvements. Actions should be:

• Specific: Clear action written in plain language that directly relates to addressing the fault found and the consequences of that fault.

• Measurable: Action that can be easily tracked with a clear end point. This avoids actions drifting and allows organisations to demonstrate that action has been completed.

• Achievable: Action that can be taken within the legal powers and resources of the organisation. If actions require input from third parties how will this be managed?

• Realistic: Action that can be taken within realistic timescales. Some service improvements may take longer to achieve than personal remedies.

• Time limited: Organisations should avoid agreeing to take open ended action. If learning from a complaint is being used to inform a wider service review that will take more than six months, the organisation should explain this and ask the complainant if they wish to be kept informed of progress. If action can be taken within six months the organisation should offer to inform the complainant once this has been completed.