Earlier this month, we held our latest roadshow event in Wolverhampton. We wanted to hear directly from NHS staff and local community members about the challenges members of the public face when using public services.
Making complaints count at the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust
Ombudsman Rebecca Hilsenrath and colleagues from across the organisation started the roadshow by visiting the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust. We were keen to hear more about the Trust’s recent 2024 PENNA (Patient Experience Network) award.
Their project, Care at the End of Life: Unlocking the Learning in Letters of Formal Complaint, won the ‘Making Complaints Count’ category. The project used guidance from the Complaint Standards to welcome feedback and create a learning culture to improve its end of life care services. The team evaluated complaints they had received about this care to make improvements to the service they provided.
We also learned about how the Trust engages with the local community through partnerships such as the Hope project. This initiative showcases the benefits of social prescribing in combating loneliness and was also nominated for a PENNA award.
We caught up with Judith, their Deputy Head of Patient Experience after the visit to hear her thoughts on the day and how it had changed her perception of the Ombudsman.
Hearing from local leaders and advocacy groups
On day two, we held a roundtable discussion with Wolverhampton Members of Parliament (MPs), Warinder Juss and Sureena Brackenridge. We were also joined by representatives from local public and voluntary sector organisations, including the Department for Work and Pensions, advocacy services and charities.
We talked about the barriers advocacy and charity groups face when supporting people to access public services and make complaints. Key issues raised included:
- young people struggling with the transition from child to adult services
- knowledge of the NHS complaints process and the need for greater awareness
- a lack of understanding about the support MPs can offer to help people use public services.
We’re grateful to Healthwatch Wolverhampton who played an important role in helping us to connect with the organisations who took part.
Complaint Champions for local organisations
As part of our commitment to raise awareness of our services, we also delivered Complaint Champion workshops to voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations across Wolverhampton and the Black Country. These workshops give organisations the tools to help the people who use their service find their way through the complex complaints process.
During these sessions, we heard about the significant challenges people face, including:
- a lack of clear guidance on how and where to raise complaints
- getting support for people who need reasonable adjustments
- the particular difficulties hearing and visually impaired people have when accessing public services.
We are running Complaint Champions workshops throughout the year. If you’re a member of a voluntary, community or social enterprise organisation and would like to take part, see our upcoming dates.
Acting on feedback
The roadshow was a great opportunity to hear directly from NHS staff, local community members, MPs, and other representatives about local issues. Raising awareness of the services we provide will also help to address some of the barriers people face when raising complaints.
We’ll use the feedback we gathered to help shape the support we provide to these organisations and to the local community.