In the latest episode of Making Complaints count, our Outreach and Engagement Officer Alison Smith is joined by Lisa Cowley, CEO of sight loss charity Beacon Vision. Lisa attended one of our Complaint Champions workshops that support organisations with the tools they need to help people that use their service to navigate the complaint process. They discuss what Lisa found out during the workshop and:
- the barriers people with sight loss face when accessing public services
- the value of complaints in making improvements
- the 150-year anniversary of Beacon Vision.
Listen below, or find us on iTunes, Spotify or your preferred podcast provider.
Alison Smith: Hello and welcome to Making Complaints Count, the podcast from the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman where we explore the power of complaints and how organisations can use them to learn and improve.
My name is Alison Smith and I'm an Officer on the Outreach and Public Engagement Team and I'm your host for this episode. Today we're going to be speaking to Lisa Cowley, CEO of Beacon Vision, a service that provides support for people impacted by sight loss.
We recently visited Wolverhampton to deliver one of our Complaint Champions workshops, which Lisa attended. The workshops help to arm people from organisations like Beacon with the skills to navigate the NHS and government complaints processes, which can be quite complex. We've invited Lisa to join us today to talk about her experience of taking part in the workshop and what she learned that will help people who use Beacon Services.
Hi Lisa, thank you so much for joining us today. We loved meeting you at the roadshow and we're really keen to hear a little bit more about you and about Beacon. So to begin with, I thought maybe you could tell us just a little bit about your early life and career and what inspired you to pursue a career that supports people with sight loss.
Lisa Cowley: Hi, lovely to see you again, and thanks very much for inviting me on. For any of you that watch Peaky Blinders, if you listen to my accent, I grew up in the Black Country. Lived in Wolverhampton, went to school there and went away to Liverpool Uni and volunteered the whole time I was at Uni. Did a whole range of different things from supporting victims of domestic abuse to tea dances for the elderly and then having to find them when they disappeared off into the depths of the Student Union to get a drink.
I then applied for a summer job with the RSPB just before my finals and got asked to come back the next day and interview for a manager's role and that started my career in the voluntary sector. So ever since I’ve worked in the voluntary sector. I've done some absolutely amazing and bonkers things.
I've been away to Iceland where I worked in environmental science work. I was deputy chief executive at Black Country Living Museum, where Peaky Blinders was filmed. I was part of the team that saved the world's first skyscraper in Shrewsbury.
I ended up at Beacon really by accident, rather than design. I'm not one of those people that had a five-year plan.
I've been incredibly lucky to have done loads of wonderful different things, and often people have seen my path before me. This job came up and a number of people said, “You'd be great at that, why don't you go for that job?” So I did. And then when they offered me the job I was slightly in shock.
I joined in December 2018, and it's been absolutely fabulous. I've loved every minute of it. People say, you know, do something you love and you never do a day of work. There were days when I think I'd much rather sit in the sunshine or lie on the beach, but there's never a day I think I don't want to go to work.
We do a whole range of support for people that are impacted by sight loss. So not just an individual with sight loss, but their friends, their family, their employers, as well as people who are at risk of sight loss, so they might have a family pre-indication to have it, they might have another health condition. We also do a huge amount of collaborative work, which is my real passion, working in partnership, working together to ultimately make things better for communities.
Interestingly, the primary school I went to in Wolverhampton, Castlecroft Primary, has the visual impairment support unit in it. When I was at primary school, it was completely normal for there to be children there that had a whole range of visual impairments and had canes. And when you’re a kid, whatever you experience is normal. And I actually went back there last year to do an event and fabulously met a lot of my teachers that were there when I was a small child, which is amazing that they are still there quite a few years later.
Alison: That is amazing. Talk about full circle. That is really fantastic. Could you tell us a little bit more about the services that Beacon Vision offer and how you support the local community?
Lisa: Beacon Vision operates across the Black Country. For those that aren't based in the Midlands, that is Wolverhampton, Walsall, Dudley and Sandwell as well as Mid, East and South Staffordshire in terms of all of our direct delivery. And then we also do some regional and national work in terms of collaborative work. We provide a whole range of support for people impacted by sight loss. We are a CQC regulated social care provider. We have a residential extra care facility on our site and have 71 apartments and support a number of people there.
We also provide a whole range of day provision for people that are impacted by sight loss, which might be a regular provision or one-off. So that might be social activities, it might be coming in so that their families and carers can have respite, but also engaging in a whole range of different activities to build their independence and confidence.
The great thing for me, if you've met me, I'm incredibly greedy. I love to eat. Our teams are always cooking, so there is always food. We were doing cheesy bread the other day, we do cakes, we do Christmas cakes. So really kind of breaking down some of those misconceptions that if you've got site loss, you need somebody to do something for you all of the time and building people's confidence.
We provide a range of support, both practical and emotional. We support people in terms of their learning and skills development. For a lot of people, they might need some additional support or awareness in terms of how they might access further education or higher education. Or if they've got degenerative sight loss or sight loss that is developed later in life, they might need to go through a career change. So how do we support them through that process?
We support people into employment. We support people to remain in employment, both by working with them and their employers. And increasingly we do a huge amount of digital tech support. We all know post-COVID that most things are online. We're able to have this meeting on Teams, you know, that never would have happened pre-COVID, which is fantastic for a lot of people with sight loss. It means that they can access things, but they do need a little bit of support to understand what accessible tech is there.
We also do a whole range of completely bonkers things because I'm utterly terrible at saying no. If something sounds like a good idea and there's a partnership of people that want to do it, Beacon are often at the forefront.
We are the lead provider for community mental health support, working with the NHS. We deliver a program looking at how voluntary sector, local authority and NHS can come together to tackle health inequalities. And I also with another chief exec deliver a leadership program for health and social care sector across the Black Country and Staffordshire, because it's all about empowering people to make a difference for themselves and others.
Alison: You've been there a while now, since 2018. Now that sounds like a long time and it probably is for a lot of people who move around in their careers, that's almost a decade. But actually Beacon is about to celebrate a really big anniversary, isn't it?
Lisa: Yeah. So it's the longest I've ever been in a post and I absolutely never thought when I went that I would be there for this long.
But you know, I always say there's a push and a pull whenever you leave and there's absolutely no push for me for Beacon. And I equally think I've done three jobs. I came in and there were lots of financial challenges and operational challenges that we needed to resolve. And then we had COVID. And obviously as we’re a regulated social care provider that was incredibly challenging for us in terms of managing that process, and then we've come out of that.
But yes, you are right, 2025, is our 150th anniversary, which is just amazing. So the organisation began in Wolverhampton and then expanded its reach across the Black Country and Staffordshire and it's an amazing achievement for the organisation to be there that long and to have achieved so many things and grown and evolved.
It's amazing in some ways how different we are. Things are incredibly different 150 years later, but sadly there are a lot of challenges that are still the same. It's still incredibly challenging for people with sight loss to secure employment. Only 25% of people who are of working age who would like to work are in work, who have sight loss.
But it's also lovely. Some of the things that people still want to do. We still teach people Braille, we still do a whole range of craft activities. We even did basket weaving, which is the very kind of classic, ‘this is what people with sight loss would do’. Actually, they loved it. They loved the whole exploration of the heritage.
And one of the things we are doing as part of our 150th anniversary is exploring the heritage of sight loss across the Black Country. Understanding what are those stories, making sure we don't lose those memories and they don't become a part of our lost heritage and making sure that we make those accessible to everybody. It can be an incredibly challenging world if you're impacted by sight loss, every day there can be a new accessibility challenge. And we don't want to mean that there are stories inaccessible to future generations.
Alison: So talking about those challenges, then. At the Parliamentary Health Service Ombudsman, we investigate complaints about health providers, health care and treatment and government services. So what are some of the biggest barriers or challenges that face the people you work with when it comes to using or accessing those health and government services?
Lisa: I'm absolutely an optimist and I always see the best in people, and I think probably sometimes to my detriment. But I think actually a lot of people face ignorance. You know, a lack of exposure to people without sight loss means that people make the wrong decisions. One of the biggest pieces of feedback we get is about accessible information. So actually, my appointment information wasn't accessible or it came in a format that I couldn't understand or I couldn't access the digital systems because the website didn't work with the screen reader.
Things that are really easy and simple to resolve and actually we work really well with a lot of our partners. We’ve reviewed two of the local authority social care websites to make sure they're accessible. And we've just reviewed one of our acute Trust’s websites to make sure all of that is accessible. We worked really collaboratively with our Integrated Care Board (ICB) around the NHS app and how we make sure that's an accessible tool for people.
But also that people don't see them, they talk to the person that is with them, they ignore them as an individual, they don't listen to the things that they say, and they forget about what those challenges might be.
So actually, if you can't travel independently, getting to a hospital appointment at 7:30am is reasonably challenging, especially if your disability bus pass doesn't kick in till 9:30am. Being told, with sight loss, to go and sit on the orange chair down the corridor. Again, if you can't see the chair, you don't know what colour it is.
I think one of the things we see a lot with people is that once they are in the system, actually they get really good support generally. Once people understand them as an individual, it's okay. It's episodic in that how do they initiate that interaction?
I think equally from a health perspective, we see challenges in relation to inpatient provision. Obviously if you are impacted by sight loss, you can't see, you know, your water in a clear glass, you can't see the food on the table, you don't know where the toilet is. We see an increase in falls. One of our acute trusts did some work and I think it was 28% of their inpatient falls, the individual was also under ophthalmology.
So actually how do we work collaboratively to remove some of these barriers? I think in terms of broader access to government departments and support, access to welfare and benefits - obviously especially poignant at the moment in terms of what might be happening in terms of those benefits - we see a lot of misunderstanding in terms of what the challenges our people face and also misunderstanding about disability.
We've had individuals that have gone to a PIP face-to-face assessment and the assessor has said, “Well, they looked at me so clearly they don't have sight loss,” rather than thinking that perhaps they're just following where that voice is or that sound is or equally that it is not a black and white thing, you don't either have full sight or no sight. You might have very limited central vision or you might have periphery vision depending on what condition that you have.
And I think a lot of people with disability don't want to complain, so they feel that they might be treated more negatively if they need to continue. So I think actually if you have a one-off interaction with any organisation, you're probably much more likely to complain and go, “I'm never going to have to use them again, so I'm quite happy to go through a complaints process.” If you've got to engage with a hospital on numerous occasions because you're going to have to have ongoing care, or if you've got to engage with the benefit system on numerous occasions in relation to either a specific benefit or applying for access to work, these sorts of support provisions, I find you're much less likely to complain.
You're also much less likely to complain in terms of how accessible is that format. If you've got to ask for something in different formats, or if you've got to ask for somebody to support you, it can all feel a little bit hard. And I think when lots of things are more challenging for you as an individual, if you've got sight loss, so you've often got to ask for support, you pick your battles, you pick which one you want to address, and I think it's for all of us to look at it.
And I think, you know, we as an organisation don't always get it right. We're all human. We all make mistakes. But it's about meaning that people feel that they're listened to. And also where are the people that can advocate for them and support them through that process, which is absolutely what we are trying to do.
Alison: Yeah, absolutely. And so before you attended our workshop earlier in the month, had you heard about PHSO before and did you know much about well, service?
Lisa: Short answer, no. I had heard of you but didn't really understand the process, didn't really understand the relevance and how much you covered. And I think equally, one of the things that we try and do a lot is be a hub for information and support for individuals.
We work really collaboratively, we're a hate crime reporting centre. So anyone, whether they've got sight loss or anything, can come into our centre and report hate crime to our team. They're trained up on that. And I think really it was around how could we sort of replicate this sort of activity? How could we encourage people to become more aware of where the various routes are? We've dealt with other ombudsman in terms of supporting individuals, housing, and also in terms of kind of finance, those sides of it.
But I think equally there is a lot of information regarding health complaint processes. It's probably much more in the media. There's more of a clear process. If that then doesn't work out coming to yourselves and going through that process, I had a bit of awareness. But in terms of that much broader across interaction with a range of parliamentary services, I wasn't aware at all.
Alison: So was there anything that you were particularly surprised to learn from the workshop?
Lisa: I think one of the things I was really surprised about at the time was when you were saying that you got really low level of complaints in relation to benefits and specifically in relation to access to work. There was a number of individuals in the room who were raising challenges around Access to Work. It's been very much in the media at the moment. I don't think we've ever gone through a smooth Access to Work process with anyone we've supported. But I think on reflection and having had conversations with colleagues, I think it goes back to my earlier point that people don't want to complain because they think they're going to lose what they've got and actually I’d rather have this little bit that doesn't work very well than all of it.
And I think actually what we need to be focusing on is about making the system better for everybody. Not just the people that are recipients, but also the people that work in it. Because again, I suppose this goes back to me seeing the best in everyone, no one wants to do a bad job. Nobody goes to work to annoy people and not help them. And by not providing that feedback and sharing those concerns, we can't understand what the fundamental issues are.
I think we had a really great conversation around systematic issues. Some of those have been picked up in terms of The Green Paper. But actually there are some real issues in relation to how our benefit system works for people with a disability. I won't be political as to whether I agree with what the ones are or not. I think specifically around Access to Work, it's a real challenge. It's there to support people. It's really difficult to get it right. No one is an expert in everything, and we're asking those Access to Work assessors to be an expert in every type of disability, in every type of job.So how do we change that system to mean that people have a better experience on both sides of the stage?
Alison: It sounds like you got a lot out of the workshop, which we love to hear. How will you be able to apply what you've learned in the work that you and Beacon Vision does?
Lisa: We have a range of staff and volunteers that support people across the organisation, so I've disseminated some of that information around what your role is and what that goes through.
We've looked at what is our support process, in terms of how do we support people through this complaints process? We often are supporting people around a complaint they're making in relation to a local authority or health provider. How do we update some of our resources and documentation internally so that we as staff and volunteers know what that process flow is for each of those pathways so we can advise and support people?
Broadening out that awareness around actually saying, “Look, if you've got feedback about your experiences, come and have a conversation with us. Let us help you navigate that.” They're much more likely to come and talk to us potentially if we're a trusted organisation, they've got a trusted relationship with somebody, than go either directly to an organisation or if they've had a poor relationship experience with an organisation, directly to yourselves. So for me, it's about upskilling and then looking at where does that fit into some of the work we do.
We do a lot of awareness work. So we've just got a piece of work that's going to be starting next month in relation to women's health and specifically looking at the barriers that women find around that. We've talked about weaving this into that aspect. Looking at how we really identify who are those groups that are least likely to take up the baton and might need that piece of support, and how can we weave into things that are more enjoyable. Most people are not going to want to go to an hour on how to complain about something to an ombudsman, but actually people come to a range of our different provisions, and how do we build into that as part of our support program.
Alison: And how valuable are complaints in making changes to services, do you think?
Lisa: I think all feedback is absolutely essential, but only if the organisation learns from it. I think one of the challenges that any organisation can face is if it becomes defensive. I think post-COVID, I’ve seen an increased level in that. There was a lot of conversation about litigation against house providers, litigation against social care providers, litigation against the government. And almost that feeling of when you learn to drive you get told when you have an accident, don't say sorry because you're admitting liability. Well, actually often all you need to do is say, “I'm sorry. That wasn't our intention.”
Nobody goes out for someone to have a poor experience. I think it's as much about managing that complaint, managing that individual's experience. Whether that is positive in terms of your relationship with that individual, that they carry on engaging with the organisation or engage with you, or whether they at least go away feeling they've been heard as a bare minimum.
But what does the organisation do? Does the organisation go through that process of going what's our complaints pattern? Are we seeing themes in certain areas? And one of the things we do as an organisation is look at that data and almost sort of go, “We've had no complaints about this. We've had no accidents in this area. That's very odd. We need to go and speak to some people because surely it can't be 100% perfect.”
So almost having that professional curiosity and looking at it, I think equally for yourselves as the Ombudsman, you've got that wealth of data to be able to go “Hmm. We're not getting many complaints from this area. What do we do?” Or, “We're getting a lot of complaints on this theme. Are those organisations learning, how do we share and disseminate this?” Not just with that organisation but other similar organisations. Because otherwise, isn't the saying, ‘If you do the same thing and expect something different, that's the beginning of insanity’?I think it’s probably not quite right but we all need to change and grow that way.
Alison: Yeah, absolutely. At PHSO, we know that making it easier for people to complain when things do go wrong and making sure that organisations listen and learn from those complaints is absolutely vital. That's what's going to improve public services for all. So what support would you like to see introduced to help your service users make complaints?
Lisa: I think the number one aspect is make it easy to complain. Make it really obvious as to how you do that process and make it variable.
Some people are going to want to pick up the phone. Some people are going to want to fill a form in. Some people are going to want to email you. Some people want to sit and have a chat. Often we go down one route. You can only complain if you fill this form in, you can only complain if you email this number, you can only complain if you physically come into the building. You've got to meet that person halfway. You've got to say to them, “I'm interested in you. How does this happen?”
Be really clear when using simplistic language. We're all guilty of it. You start talking in acronyms, you start using phraseology that you know doesn't mean anything to somebody. How does that process go?
But also being really clear about what do you do if you're not satisfied? And there is a difference between being happy and being satisfied. You can go through a process and go, “Actually, I didn't get the outcome I wanted to in the first place. I'm not very happy. But I am satisfied.” And I also think - and I had this a personal experience in terms of a personal situation where I had where I made a complaint about a health organisation - don't make it so exhausting that they give up. There is that aspect of going, “I can't go through another form. I can't go through another meeting. I don't really have any confidence you're going to do anything different. I'm just going to give up because it's easier.”
And sometimes that can be a tactic - let's just, you know, exhaust them until they give up. But actually you've got to get to a resolution and you've got to make it as easy as possible to get there. Using formats that are relevant to the person that’s complaining rather than relevant to you as an organisation.
I see things both in terms of things I'm involved with in various roles and people we support. And it's a very statutory type organisation, a very organisational focused document, a report that comes out and you think, well, this means absolutely nothing to this person. You might need to have that for your internal processes, but it means nothing to them. You might be giving them the resolution they want, but if they can't understand the format and they're still not going to be satisfied.
Alison: If there's someone listening to this today who's been impacted by sight loss, is there any advice that you'd give them about making a complaint about the services that they've received?
Lisa: I would absolutely say reach out to a sight loss organisation to support you. If you're based in the Black Country or Staffordshire, reach out to us. If you're not, reach out to us and we'll tell you who is your local organisation. RNIB are absolutely fantastic in terms of welfare and benefits guidance. They're brilliant. They understand the process we work with them really collaboratively on it.
Don't feel like you have to do it on your own because whether you've got sight loss or any other disability or whether you've got no disability, making a complaint to a big, giant, professional, enormous public sector organisation is a frightening thing to do. So reach out and get that support. And there are hundreds, probably thousands of people out there that will help you to go through it. You don't have to do it on your own.
Alison: Absolutely. What would you say to organisations like yours that might be thinking about taking part in Complaints Champion training?
Lisa: Absolutely get your teams to do it. Offer to host it. Get some people in your building. I think one of the things that's really interesting about it is not just what we will learn from you and your colleagues, but also the other people in the room and the themes that come up. There are things that I took away from a deaf organisation in terms of accessibility, where we've looked at things in the past and there’s been further developments.
So I found it a really interesting session. It was great to kind of meet up with people that I knew and people that I didn't know in the area locally. And I think equally if you're an organisation that's based somewhere and you’re thinking, this might be beneficial for you absolutely reach out and say, “We'd be willing to host,” or “We'd be willing to have an event here. This would be something they'd be interested in,” to look at how you can make things better for your communities.
Alison: Yeah, I think from our perspective, whether we're delivering it online or in-person, my colleague Chloe and I, we love that last half hour that we leave for open discussion so that everybody can learn from each other. We try to make the sessions as interactive as possible.
And it's not just listening to us and learning from us but learning from each other. And we love it. Even in the online workshops where people are putting in in the chat, “We've got some resources that might help you with that. Here's my email address.” Being able to facilitate people making those connections and expanding their network is a really rewarding part of it for us.
Lisa: I would absolutely agree. You know, none of us are islands. We’re all a network. And as I said at the beginning, I'm really passionate about partnerships and collaboration, and only by learning from each other and growing together can we make that lasting difference for people.
Alison: It has been fantastic to speak to you today Lisa. I could ask you so many more questions just about how you ended up at Beacon Vision because it sounds like you had a really fascinating career before that. But we're going to have to wrap up.
Lastly, just to go back to the 150th anniversary, because that is an incredible, incredible achievement. Is the organisation doing anything special to commemorate it?
Lisa: Yeah, so we were doing a whole range of fabulous things. All of our teams are doing a team fundraising challenge. Me and my leadership colleagues are walking 1,500 kilometres over the year, which sounds slightly petrifying but I'm sure it will be enjoyable.
Brilliantly our team have come up with really great ideas around things that they love doing, things that they want to do. We're also doing a whole range of public events, so we have our colour run on 11 May, which is a great opportunity to run around the park with your friends and family and get covered in paint. It's a really brilliant day and also raises awareness of colour vision. It's a great day.
We also have our 150th ball, which is on 19 September at Park Hall. A real celebration. We've got a fabulous compere and also a fabulous speaker who is the most decorated blind footballer in the UK.
Have a look at our website, all the information is on there and we love people to get involved. We love to share their ideas.
But also our big thing is just to raise awareness of sight loss, raise awareness of the impact that it has, but also to raise awareness of eye health. It’s estimated that 50% of sight loss is preventable. And lots of people don't take action to look after their eyes. They don't go to their optician, they don’t wear sunglasses. There's a lot of really simple things you can do that can make a massive difference. It's the sense that we fear losing the most, but we probably do the least to protect.
Alison: Yeah, I’d not thought about it like that. And I must confess I am overdue an appointment at the opticians so I will rectify that today. Thank you very much. I consider myself reminded.
Lisa, thank you so much for your time today andcongratulations to you and all of your colleagues on the 150th anniversary. And thank you for coming to Complaint Champions and for all of the great work you're doing to support your local community.
Thank you very much. Goodbye.
Lisa: Thanks. Bye.
Alison: We deliver Complaint Champions workshops twice a month online. In them, we explain:
- what an ombudsman does
- how to find the right ombudsman for your complaint
- what we can and cannot investigate
- the journey of a complaint at our organisation from calling our intake team to publishing our final decisions.
We can also deliver bespoke workshops for organisations with more than ten team members, and we may be able to do those in person. Whether you are an individual or a group participating in-person or online, the workshops are always free of charge.
If you would like to reserve a place at one of our workshops, please visit our Eventbrite page and select a date.
If you're interested in a bespoke workshop for your organisation, you can contact us.
That's all for this episode of Making Complaints Count. If you enjoyed this discussion, please subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss future ones.