The role of Members responsible for complaints

Elected Members have an important role and play a key part in the overall accountability and governance of complaints data and trends. Their role is to:

• Ensure complaints data and trends are analysed and routinely considered as part of data about the organisation’s wider performance.
• Provide challenge and hold senior staff to account for the organisation’s performance in complaint handling and management.
• Provide strategic leadership to drive a culture of openness where complaints are welcomed and valued.

Organisations should ensure that all elected Members are aware of the complaints processes as part of their induction and training. This will help elected Members support local people when they have cause for complaint, ensuring their concerns are dealt with under the most appropriate process. Providing elected Members with information about complaints in their areas will also help them scrutinise local services and identify areas for learning and improvement. The Local Government Association has produced a workbook for Members on how to manage complaints they receive from constituents.

Scrutiny meetings are not usually appropriate forums for considering individual complaints. However, part of the role of elected Members is to ensure that the public can access the complaints process and have their voice heard. Therefore, it is important Members are able to scrutinise information about complaints an organisation has rejected and listen to feedback from members of the public who claim their complaint has not been accepted or who have experienced difficulties in raising complaint. There is more information about how to consider this as part of scrutiny processes later in this guide.  

The Code gives organisations the flexibility to decide where the responsibility for scrutiny of complaints should sit depending on how governance arrangements are structured.