Executive summary

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman is responsible for dealing with complaints about local councils in England. The Ombudsman has issued a Complaint Handling Code to local councils which sets out expectations in relation to complaint handling and the oversight of the complaint handling process. The Code is also considered good practice for other organisations.

This guide sets out our view on good practice in relation to scrutiny of complaints and complaint handling performance within organisations. This is relevant to complaints covered by our Complaint Handling Code but is also relevant to complaints about adult social care and children’s services covered by statutory complaints processes.

The Complaint Handling Code says organisations says:

“… organisations should assign lead responsibility for complaints in  governance arrangements to support a positive complaint handling culture. We refer to this as  the ‘Member Responsible for Complaints”’(the Member). This role could be carried out by an individual or committee depending on the governance arrangements in place.”

This guide gives examples of how responsibility for scrutiny of complaints can be delivered depending on how the council or organisation is organised. Responsibility may sit with individual elected Members or groups of Members (e.g. a committee). The guide explains how recommended key performance indicators can be interpreted and gives examples of questions Members can ask officers to get a better understanding of complaint handling performance.    

Good complaint handling requires effective procedures and well-trained staff alongside a positive complaints culture that enables those procedures to achieve maximum impact. Member involvement is vital to achieving that culture: by encouraging an environment where complaints are treated as important feedback and learning opportunities Members can not only make their organisations more effective but can also increase resident satisfaction with services.

Organisations should embrace complaints through increased transparency, accessibility, and complaint handling governance. Demonstrating individuals are at the heart of service delivery and good complaint handling is central to that.

High performing organisations view complaints as opportunities. There are many benefits to be gained from having an effective and efficient complaints process:

• Good complaint handling promotes a positive relationship between an organisation and local people and improves perceptions locally, regionally and nationally.
• Complaints allow an issue to be resolved before it becomes worse. Those issues not resolved promptly can take significant resource and time to remedy.
• Involvement in complaint resolution develops Member involvement and influence, staff ownership, decision-making and engagement.
• Complaints provide senior staff and Members with essential insight into day-to-day operations, allowing them to assess effectiveness and drive a positive complaint handling culture.
• Data collected about complaints can be analysed and used to inform key business decisions to drive improvement in service provision.

Although this guide refers to “elected Members”, organisations with different governance arrangements (e.g. board) will still find this guide helpful in understanding good practice in scrutinising data about complaints.