Improving access to our service
The people who need our service have often been through traumatic experiences. It is vital that they are able to find us in the moments that matter and that we make it as easy as possible for them to submit complaints.
Improving awareness of our service has been an objective in previous strategies. We have made good progress through increasing our media presence, developing our stakeholder engagement approach and undertaking research into the users of our service. These activities will continue to be core activities for the year ahead.
Over the next year, we will focus on developing our relationships with the advisory sector that helps people day to day on issues relating to public services. We want closer partnerships with these organisations to make sure that they are effectively equipped to signpost people to our service when they need us. In doing so, we hope to gain insights into emerging issues before they become complaints.
It will continue to be our objective to remove or reduce potential barriers to our service such as the ‘MP filter’ which means a government department complaint has to be submitted by a Member of Parliament (MP).
For many years we have lacked a detailed understanding of the characteristics and demographics of the users of our service. Over the next year, we will increase the data that we collect and undertake analysis about who submits complaints and who does not. From this, we will be able to develop strategies and implement them to target engagement and to help those who do not currently use our service to access it when they need to.
Our aims on access for 2025 to 2026 are to:
- continue our engagement programme and media work so that people and stakeholders understand what we do and the service we provide
- make it easier for people to send complaints directly to us by redesigning how people submit them
- extend our data collection to understand who submits complaints and who does not
- use data to develop a targeted approach to help those who do not currently use our service.
The MP filter
The MP filter is a piece of legislation that makes it compulsory for complaints about government departments or their agencies to be referred to us by an MP. As a parliamentary body, we believe this needs reforming so that individuals have the option of submitting complaints directly to PHSO. MPs could continue to work closely with us to make the best use of our experience in navigating the complex web of complaints systems to help the public.