Working with others

We work with other organisations to make the complaints system better and to improve public services.

Where we identify serious or repeated mistakes in our casework we share our learning with other organisations to help make public services better. We also work with organisations to establish what needs to change to avoid similar problems affecting other people.

For instance, we worked closely with organisations such as the UK Sepsis Trust, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the College of Emergency Medicine to develop solutions to the issues highlighted in our report on sepsis. Our work has led to changes that will help improve outcomes for patients with sepsis.

We also share our insights with Parliament to help it hold organisations to account for improvements in public services. Parliament's Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee has followed-up on our published reports, including our reports on sepsis, midwifery supervision and regulation and HS2.

One of our aims is to ‘Lead the way to make the complaints system better’. In order to achieve this, we work with other organisations and stakeholders, holding round table discussions, developing joint working agreements or commissioning research.

One of our closest relationships is with the Local Government Ombudsman, with whom we have established a Joint Working Team to investigate the most complex joint health and social care complaints. Following its first year carrying out 180 investigations, the team discovered that many of the problems experienced have been caused by the complex way in which health and social care is provided at a local level. The Joint Working Team is a first step towards a unified Public Service Ombudsman.

Policies and working agreements