Agenda item

            The Director of Finance and Resources informed the Members that the Northern Ireland Public Services Ombudsman had, in recent years, undertaken research with all public sector bodies, including the Council, under it remit. It had subsequently engaged with them to identify complaint management improvement opportunities, in partnership with each sector, with a view to introducing a public sector model complaints handling procedure.

 

            He reported that the Ombudsman had been granted approval by the Northern Ireland Assembly, under Part 3 of the Public Services Ombudsman Act (Northern Ireland) 2016, to produce a set of principles and procedures to help standardise complaints handling by public bodies. The Ombudsman had, in June, launched its Complaints Handling Standards Public Consultation, which was open to public bodies, advocacy and support groups, politicians, members of the public and anyone with an interest in improving complaints handling and public services in Northern Ireland. 

 

            The Ombudsman had, alongside the consultation, launched its  Research Report on ‘Complaints Handling in the Public Sector in Northern Ireland’, which had addressed the complaints handling procedures of public bodies in Northern Ireland, including the experience of complaining to a public sector body in Northern Ireland, barriers to improved complaints handling and improvements which might be made to complaints handling in the future.

 

            The Director reported further that Party Group Leaders had been invited to complete the consultation questionnaire and he submitted for approval a draft Council response, which also reflected previous feedback from Chief Officers and senior management, as well as ongoing discussions with Departmental complaints officers, in preparation for both the consultation and subsequent co-design phases. He added that, once the consultation process had concluded, the Ombudsman would collate the responses, consider any changes and return to the Northern Ireland Assembly to seek final approval for its plans.

 

Consultation on Creating Complaints Handling Standards

for the Northern Ireland Public Sector

 

Council Response

 

This questionnaire provides an opportunity for organisations and other interested parties to provide feedback on the Northern Ireland Public Services Ombudsman’s (NIPSO’s) proposals for a set of principles and procedures aimed at standardising complaints handling by public bodies. If you haven’t already done so, you may wish to read the consultation document before providing your feedback by clicking here.

The Statement of Principles

 

The draft Statement of Principles (SOP) consists of six basic principles that NIPSO believe all public bodies should follow when handling a complaint. The full SOP is available by clicking here.

 

The six key principles are:

 

1. Start off right

 

2. Fix it early

 

3. Focus on what matters

 

4. Be fair

 

5. Be honest

 

6. Learn and improve.

 

For each of the six principles above, NIPSO has set out what it expects public bodies to do when they receive a complaint. These include: acknowledging mistakes at the earliest opportunity, providing clear reasons for decisions, investigating complaints fairly, and using complaints as an opportunity for improvement.

 

Is there anything you would like to see added or changed in terms of the content of the principles? If yes, please indicate which principles and provide details.

Please enter your response below

Model Complaints Handling Procedure

 

The draft Model Complaints Handling Procedure (MCHP) is designed to: make sure complaints to public bodies are dealt with in a straight-forward and simple way; provide a general complaints handling procedure that all public bodies will broadly follow where complaints are resolved early, and where this is not possible, complaints are thoroughly investigated. The draft MCHP also makes it easier for public bodies to analyse and learn from the complaints they receive. The full draft MCHP is available here.

 

Please consider each element of the draft MCHP outlined below and comment on any changes or additions.

 

A Complaint Handling Procedure should contain an agreed definition of what is and what is not a complaint.

 

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A register of all complaints received should be kept by public bodies.

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Complaints should be dealt with in no more than two stages; an initial ‘frontline response’ based on early resolution and a stage 2 ‘investigation’ where early resolution is not possible and a complaint needs to be thoroughly investigated.

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Based on experiences in other places, a ‘frontline response’ should be responded to within a maximum of 5 working days, with the possibility of an extension in exceptional circumstances of up to 5 additional working days.

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All complaints escalated to stage 2 ‘investigation’ should be acknowledged within 3 working days.

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A full response to stage 2 complaints should be provided as soon as possible but no later than 20 working days from the time the complaint was received for investigation

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In more complex cases, if it is not possible to meet the 20-day timeframe, a revised timescale should be provided, and an update at least once every 20 working days on the progress of the investigation.

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Information about complaints received should be reported and publicised.

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Public bodies should demonstrate active learning from complaints.

 

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Suggested approach to implementation

 

NIPSO feels standardisation is necessary across all public bodies, however it also recognises that circumstances may sometimes differ between sectors. It is therefore expected that detailed discussions will be needed with public bodies within each sector, to decide precisely what their complaints handling procedures should look like.

 

Five distinct sectors have been identified: health and social care, councils, government departments, housing, and education.

 

NIPSO is proposing to introduce MCHPs for public bodies on a sector by sector basis. Do you consider this is the most effective approach? If not, what would you propose?

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NIPSO has yet to decide the first sector(s) it will work with to introduce the MCHPs. Some of the factors being considered in this decision are: the number of complaints received by the sector, size/complexity of the sector, risk attached to public service provision. Do you have any views on this issue?

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Are there any issues or concerns specific to any particular sector or area of work, that you feel NIPSO should take into account when refining MCHPs?

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If you have any further comments on these proposals, or any other suggestions or

comments about NIPSO’s Statement of Principles, MCHP and/or approach for implementing complaints standards and ensuring compliance with them, please provide details below.

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            The Members of the Committee agreed to recommend that, in accordance with the Council decision of 4th May, the Chief Executive exercise her delegated authority to agree that the foregoing comments be forwarded to the Northern Ireland Public Services Ombudsman as the Council’s response to the consultation on complaints handling standards.