Key points

• High performing organisations view complaints as opportunities to learn and improve services.
• Good complaint handling promotes a positive relationship between the organisation and local people and improves perceptions of the organisation locally, regionally and nationally.
• Scrutiny arrangements will vary between organisations depending on what structures are already in place.
• Organisations should focus on providing good quality outcomes to complaints rather than being overly focused on quantitative metrics like number of complaints received.
• Consistent reporting of complaint performance data allows organisations to benchmark performance and develop expected performance standards for their local authority over time.
• Feedback from individual members of the public about their experiences of making a complaint can play an important part of the scrutiny process.