The Complaint Standards have had a hugely positive impact on complaint handling in the NHS England and UK Central Government since they were introduced in 2021. Now we’re asking for your help to spread that success across the public sector.
The Standards give organisations the tools and guidance to handle complaints more effectively. They also make it easier to capture and act on the learning that prevents mistakes happening again and improves services.
Making an impact
Many of the organisations we investigate have told us about the improvements they’ve see in complaint handling since they’ve been using the Standards. Here's what some of them said:
"I use the guidance to shape our approach to complaints and the learning we get from them."
DEFRA’s Improvement Customer Delivery Team
"The organisational assessment tool helped us focus resources where they’re needed most. It’s making a real difference for our customers."
Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency
“Following release of the Complaint Standards, we spent a year improving our process in the Trust and everything else associated with complaint management... The Standards have made it much easier to interpret the Complaints Regulations 2009.”
Head of Patient Experience at an NHS Trust
Help us spread the word to #MakeComplaintsCount
We’re on a mission to #MakeComplaintsCount and would love to see even more NHS England and UK central government organisations use the Complaint Standards. This will make complaining about a public service a better experience for everyone involved and make a vital contribution to improving services.
To do this, we want to spread the word about the Standards and the difference they make. But we need your help!
Has your organisation adopted the Complaint Standards? If so, we want to hear how the Standards have made a difference to your organisation and the people who use your service.
Join the conversation on social media with #MakeComplaintsCount.
Share your experiences so:
- colleagues in your sector can see how the Complaint Standards can help improve the way they handle complaints
- the people who are using your service can see that you’re listening and learning from their feedback.
Use our social media toolkit to help you spread the word. It includes images, videos and content you can use across social media channels and on your website.
What’s new and what’s next
In 2024, we released updated guides to make the Complaint Standards easier to use. We've also added guides on handling challenging situations in the NHS and UK Central Government and on the role of parent departments in overseeing complaints.
These guides came about as a direct result of your feedback and we’ve already had comments about how useful they are. We’ll keep developing new guides to support complaint handlers as needed.
We’re also developing new workshop resources for senior leaders. These will help identify goals and actions for improving their complaint service and learning from complaints.
In the meantime, don’t forget to join our campaign and stay connected! To see how others are using the Standards and share your own success stories, follow us on:
Together, we can #MakeComplaintsCount.