Consideration of individual complaints

The Member responsible for complaints should not hear individual complaints or have any direct involvement in how the organisation responds to individual complaints. This supports the importance of separating the administrative functions of the organisation from scrutiny mechanisms. It also prevents the risk of a breach of data protection legislation as sharing details of every complaint may make it easy to identify those complaining.

However, it is important that the Member is able to hear feedback from citizens and officers about their experiences of raising and handling complaints. It is also the case that learning from a single complaint can result in significant changes in practice within an organisation.

The Member may receive feedback in the following ways:

• Contact from individual members of the public
• Contact with other locally elected representatives (including MPs)
• Customer satisfaction surveys and feedback about complaint handling

Contact from members of the public

If the Member receives feedback from an individual member of the public or a group about difficulties in raising complaints with the organisation, they should explain they are unable to deal with the complaints directly and signpost to the complaints process or the Ombudsman. However, the Member may advise that they will use the feedback to ask questions about how the organisation handles complaints.

If appropriate, the Member may wish to consider inviting members of the public to speak at a relevant committee or other public meeting to share their feedback. However, it should be made clear that the meeting is not a forum through which the complaint will be considered.

Contact from other locally elected representatives

MPs and councillors will regularly receive contact from members of the public who are unhappy with the actions of the organisation.

The Member should be open to receiving feedback from other elected representatives and use this information to support the scrutiny of complaint handling.

If appropriate, the Member may wish to consider inviting other elected representatives to speak at a relevant committee or other public meeting to share their feedback.

Customer satisfaction surveys and feedback

The Member should have access to anonymised customer feedback information about complaint handling in the organisation. This could be in the form of responses to surveys or a summary of positive and negative comments received from complainants.

Organisations are also encouraged to ask staff for feedback about their experiences of the complaints process. Members should also have access to this anonymised feedback. This feedback helps organisations understand the impact of complaints on the wellbeing of staff members. Where staff are engaged in the complaints system and feel they are treated fairly, they are more likely to view complaints positively and welcome the insight they bring.

This feedback will allow Members to understand how individuals inside and outside the organisation are experiencing local complaints systems.