COMPLAINT MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK - …

1 COMPLAINT MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORKM arch 2016 COMPLAINT MANAGEMENT FrameworkMarch 2016SA Ombudsman Level 9, 55 Currie Street Adelaide SA 5000 General enquiries: (08) 8226 8699 Toll free (outside Adelaide Metro Area) 1800 182 150 Email: web: : 978-1-925061-55-0 Crown Copyright, NSW Ombudsman, June 2015 This work is copyright, however material from this publication may be copied and published by State or Federal Government Agencies without permission of the Ombudsman on the condition that the meaning of the material is not altered and the NSW Ombudsman is acknowledged as the source of the material. Any other persons or bodies wishing to use material must seek permission. COMPLAINT MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK | March 2016iForewordAs recognised in the Australian and New Zealand Standard Guidelines for COMPLAINT MANAGEMENT in organizations (AS/NZS 10002:2014), everybody has a right to make a COMPLAINT about government services.

2 Willingness to correct errors and learn from mistakes is essential to improvement of services and accountability standards in the public sector. An effective COMPLAINT MANAGEMENT system enables us to promote fairness and integrity in our decision-making processes. The attitude of the general public who use government services will be strongly influenced by their perceptions of the fairness of the procedures we use to handle complaints . Providing information about COMPLAINT outcomes and reasons for decisions is also important to openness and building trust in FRAMEWORK and Model Policy are intended to assist public sector agencies implement a COMPLAINT MANAGEMENT system that will ensure the efficient and effective handling of complaints made to or about am indebted to the NSW Ombudsman and his Office for the excellent work that has condensed a broad range of printed materials and guidelines into this up-to-date and concise FRAMEWORK commend the FRAMEWORK and Model Policy to COMPLAINT handlers across the government and local government sectors in South Lines SA OmbudsmanComplaint MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK | March 2016iiTable of contentsPART 1 Introduction to the COMPLAINT MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK .

3 1 PART 2 Components of the FRAMEWORK .. Commitment: Develop a culture that values complaints .. Facilitation: Make it easy for people to make complaints to your organisation .. Resourcing: Appropriately train, empower and adequately resource staff managing complaints .. Learning: Analyse complaints and their outcomes to improve systems and processes .. Guidance: Develop policies and procedures to guide staff in the MANAGEMENT of complaints ..12 Annexure 1 Organisation self-assessment checklists ..131. Commitment ..142. Facilitation ..153. Resources ..164. Learning ..175. Guidance ..18 Annexure 2 COMPLAINT handling Model Policy ..19 How to use this Model Policy ..201. Introduction ..212. Terms and definitions ..233. Guiding principles ..244. COMPLAINT MANAGEMENT system ..285. Accountability and learning ..311 PART 1 Introduction to the COMPLAINT MANAGEMENT FrameworkComplaint MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK | March 20162 Nobody is perfect.

4 Mistakes can, and invariably do occur. What matters is how an organisation responds to such incidents. The most effective response is to fix the mistake and improve services, systems, practices, procedures and/or products to reduce the likelihood of incidents occurring again. complaints , as defined in the Australian and New Zealand Standard Guidelines for COMPLAINT MANAGEMENT in organizations (AS/NZS 10002:2014), are "expressions of dissatisfaction made to or about an organisation related to its products, services, staff or the handling of a COMPLAINT , where a response or resolution is explicitly or implicitly expected or legally required." complaints are a valuable source of information about how and where mistakes have occurred and can pinpoint weaknesses in the system. While many organisations have a COMPLAINT handling policy and a way to collect and record complaints , they often fail to integrate the essential components of an effective COMPLAINT MANAGEMENT system, leading to lost opportunities for improvement and continued client satisfaction.

5 The essential components of an effective COMPLAINT MANAGEMENT system are: 1. Commitment 2. Facilitation3. Resourcing 4. Learning5. FRAMEWORK aims to assist organisations think about these components and how together, they can support effective COMPLAINT MANAGEMENT and improve general business FRAMEWORK also provides organisations with guidance on best practice principles of COMPLAINT MANAGEMENT , as outlined in the Australian and New Zealand Standard on COMPLAINT MANAGEMENT in It aims to help organisations understand what is involved in establishing a comprehensive and effective COMPLAINT MANAGEMENT system and provides a self-assessment checklist for each component of such a system. Finally, the FRAMEWORK includes further reading and resources, including a Model COMPLAINT Handling AS/NZS Standard: Guidelines for COMPLAINT MANAGEMENT in organizations (AS/NZS 10002:2014)CommitmentLearningFacilitatio nResourcingGuidance3 PART 2 Components of the Framework4 COMPLAINT MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK | March Commitment: Develop a culture that values complaintsGuiding principles for appropriate culture and organisational commitment:People focus: Be open to complaints from members of the public about standards of service delivery and organisational policies, procedures and practices.

6 Be committed to promoting and implementing an accessible complaints system as a means to address problems with service delivery and to enhance the performance of the organisation and its : Respond to complaints in a timely manner. Recognise and reward good COMPLAINT handling by and fairness: Address each COMPLAINT with integrity and in an objective and impartial detriment: Take all reasonable steps to ensure that people making complaints are not adversely affected because a COMPLAINT is made by them or on their that promote and encourage complaints and respond to them fairly and promptly are more likely to: strengthen relationships identify problems improve service delivery and systems, and improve customer service. A commitment to good COMPLAINT handling is needed at all levels within an organisation. It is the foundation on which all other components of the COMPLAINT MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK are built.

7 The head of the organisation and senior MANAGEMENT should champion effective COMPLAINT handling as a way of achieving the organisation s corporate purpose as well as the Government s commitment to good customer service. Ways the head of the organisation and senior MANAGEMENT can achieve this goal include: COMPLAINT MANAGEMENT system: Support the development of a system that promotes the right to complain and enables the organisation to receive and respond to complaints promptly and fairly. Develop and make publicly available a policy on how complaints can be made to the organisation and how they will be managed. Advise all staff that people making complaints are not to be handling staff: Ensure that frontline staff and staff dedicated to handling complaints are well trained, supervised and supported in the MANAGEMENT of complaints . Recognise and reward good COMPLAINT handling by from complaints : Send a clear message to staff that complaints can be a valuable source of feedback on the organisation s systems, services and staff.

8 Emphasise to staff and the public that the focus of COMPLAINT handling is on fixing issues and improving systems, not apportioning blame. Foster a culture of disclosure when mistakes are made ( that disclosed mistakes will result in rectification action, not punishment). Implement changes to services, systems, practices, procedures and/or products where weaknesses are identified through the MANAGEMENT and analysis of complaints , and Communicate to staff and the public changes and improvements brought about through the handling of complaints and their analysis so that all may see the tangible benefits flowing from MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK | March 2016 Note: It is not possible to be definitive about time frames for dealing with complaints as there are many variables that can affect an organisation s response time. This includes: the complexity of the issue/s raised in the COMPLAINT , the availability of evidence and the size and COMPLAINT handling/investigative resources of the organisation.

9 What an organisation should note, however, is that research shows that: People are likely to expect a substantive response to a letter of COMPLAINT within 14 days, and 24 hours for emails and, Timeliness is the single most important driver in customer satisfaction across all services and levels of , organisations must manage the expectations of people who make an organisation is likely to take longer to respond than what is reasonably expected (or documented in the organisation s COMPLAINT handling Policy) this should be explained in the acknowledgement letter. Other than for very simple complaints , appropriate inquiries, assessment of the evidence, the drafting of a response and decision-making may well take some reading and resourcesAustralian and New Zealand Standard: Guidelines for COMPLAINT MANAGEMENT in organizations (AS/NZS 10002:2014), Appendix: A: Guidance for small organizations D: Objectivity, and O: Role of information in reducing Ombudsman Better Practice Guide to COMPLAINT Handling 1, April 2009 Ombudsman SA An Audit of State Government Agencies COMPLAINT Handling November 2014 NSW Ombudsman Good Conduct and Administrative Practice Guidelines (2nd edition) 20062 NSW Ombudsman COMPLAINT handling at Universities.

10 Best Practice Guidelines 2015 NSW Ombudsman COMPLAINT handling toolkit for community service organisations (CS-CRAMA) 2013 Disability Services Commissioner Victoria Good Practice Guide and Self Audit Tool 2nd Edition 20132 See the research project called Citizens First undertaken under the coordination of the Institute of Citizens-Centred Service, Canada for more 2 - Components of the frameworkComplaint MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK | March Facilitation: Make it easy for people to make complaints to your organisationGuiding principles for facilitating complaints :Visibility and transparency: Widely publicise information about how and where complaints may be made to your : Implement a system to manage complaints that is easy to understand and accessible to people who may require : Support and assist people who need help to make a : Be flexible in how complaints may be made to or about your organisation.