The role of parent departments: overseeing complaint handling

The Complaint Standards say: 

Promoting a learning culture 

• Parent departments have meaningful strategic oversight of how their related organisations are performing. They know how the organisations handle complaints and how they meet the expectations set out in the Standards.

Managing Public Money and the Corporate Governance Code explain what is expected of colleagues. 

Managing Public Money says: 

• ‘The framework … agreed between an [arm’s length body – ALB] and its sponsor always provides for the sponsor [parent] department to exercise meaningful oversight of the ALBs strategy and performance’ (chapter 3, section 10, paragraph 2). 
• ‘Best practice for boards in central government departments … [the board] keeps an overview of its ALBs’ activities’ (chapter 4, box 4.1). 
• ‘Key decisions for boards [include] … control and management of associated ALBs and other partnerships’ (chapter 4, box 4.2). 

The Corporate Governance Code says: 

• ‘[The parent department] … has general oversight of other bodies on whose behalf they may answer in parliament, including the department’s arm’s length bodies … the board’s regular agenda should include scrutiny of the performance of the department’s sponsored bodies … ALBs are accountable to their sponsor department for performance’. 

This guidance aligns with the National Audit Office’s guide ‘Improving operational delivery in government: a good practice guide for senior leaders’.

The Cabinet Office guide on Handling of Parliamentary Ombudsman Cases says: 

• ‘Sponsor teams in ministerial departments have an assurance role with regard to complaints standards in the Arm’s Length Bodies (ALBs) they sponsor. The PHSO’s UK Government Complaint Standards recommend that departments have strategic oversight of complaints standards in their ALBs.’

The UK Central Government Complaint Standards provide simple, consistent good practice in complaint handling across the government sector. To deliver this, all government organisations should work together (regardless of relationship) to capture and share learning from complaints so services improve for everyone. 

Your conversations and agreements with your related organisations should make it clear that your strategic oversight under the Complaint Standards is about: 

• making sure correct and consistent complaint handling processes are in place 
• making sure colleagues who deal with complaints are sufficiently resourced, supported and trained 
• making sure insight from complaints is captured and learned from so that mistakes are not repeated and services improve for everyone 
• saving time and resources by making sure complaints are dealt with well, as early as possible, delivering what service users want. 

You should clearly explain what is expected from them as a related organisation and what help and support they can expect from you. 

As part of your strategic oversight, you should make sure there are systems and processes in place that show you what is happening across all of the organisations you are responsible for. 

First, check that each organisation knows about the UK Central Government Complaint Standards. Signpost them to the website if they are unaware of the Standards so they can find the information they need. 

Tip
There is a four-step guide for organisations to follow when they deliver the Standards. This can be a useful starting point for discussions when you are starting to oversee complaint handling in each organisation. There is also a checklist you can use to guide these conversations.

Once you are satisfied that your related organisations are on the right track to meeting the Complaint Standards, you can focus on what you need to continue your strategic oversight and support.

Each organisation should follow the Good complaint handling guide on capturing and reporting on learning from complaints. It should share this information with you at least annually but preferably quarterly. This will help you identify any themes or patterns across your organisations. 

As a minimum, you should focus on making sure each organisation captures and reports on: 

• the number of complaints received - this can be broken down into areas or different services 
• the subject matter of those complaints to help identify themes or trends 
• the number of complaints where it was found that something went wrong 
• the action taken to put things right
• the learning that has been identified and how it has been used to improve services
• details of how that service improvement will be measured or evidenced 
• how details of that service improvement have or will be shared with service users to show the organisation has listened and learnt 
• a summary of feedback captured on the organisation’s complaint handling service from: 
  
  - service users who have complained 
  - any colleagues who have been specifically complained about 
  - colleagues who have worked on the investigations. 

This information will allow you to reassure yourself that each of your related organisations: 

• has appropriate complaint handling procedures in place 
• supports and trains colleagues to deal with complaints 
• captures and acts on the insight they get from the complaints to improve services for everyone. 

You will also have a unique opportunity to share any learning with all your related organisations and potentially the wider government sector. 

Help and support for the organisations you are responsible for should not only happen at set review points. It should be ongoing throughout the year.

Tip
Set up, support and lead a forum for the complaint managers from each of your related organisations. The forum should focus on: 
- sharing good practice and learning 
- open and honest discussion about the challenges colleagues are facing and the problems they need to solve. 

The forum can then help resolve those issues and identify any learning that applies across all organisations. 

Your senior leaders should listen to this forum and pay careful attention to any suggestions and feedback. The forum’s outputs should be part of the evidence your board considers when carrying out its role. 

Some departments or organisations have an independent tier as part of their complaint procedure. These are a valuable source of insight into how you and your organisations are dealing with and learning from complaints. 

If you have an independent tier in your procedure, an appointed non-executive board representative responsible for overseeing complaint handling should meet with it regularly to: 

• hear its views 
• examine its evidence on how each organisation is performing in terms of complaint handling and learning from complaints. 

The Cross Government Complaints Forum is a good practice example of a complaint handling improvement forum. It was set up to raise standards in complaint handling across the Government. It aims to: 

• collectively advance customer service standards 
• improve the quality of complaint handling across the Government 
• encourage departments to value and maximise the use of insight and learning from complaints.

The forum is sponsored by the Government’s complaint champion and works at three levels: operational (working) level, director level and senior strategic level. 

It has an online knowledge management and collaboration platform called Knowledgehub (Khub) that is free to join. It allows members to connect digitally with each other to: 

• share knowledge, insight and best practice 
• learn from experiences 
• inspire innovation and new ways of working. 

• Checklist: conversations about strategic oversight 
• Template: complaints, feedback and learning report