The complaints procedure for councils and NHS organisations is set out in the Local Authority Social Services and NHS Complaints (England) Regulations 2009. The provisions of the regulations mean that anyone who is dissatisfied with a decision made by a council or social care provider or the NHS is able to make a complaint about that decision and have the complaint handled by the council, social care provider or NHS. Section 9 covers complaints that concern more than one responsible body. It states that, in these circumstances, the responsible bodies must co-operate in handling the complaint. This includes duties to: establish who will lead the process; share relevant information; and provide the complainant with a coordinated response.

When assessing a case for prematurity, PHSO and LGSCO have agreed that it is generally not reasonable to expect a complainant to have exhausted two separate complaints procedures where the initial local response should have covered all elements of the complaint. However, there may be exceptions to this in cases where, for example, the complainant has a statutory right to a specific procedure and has opted to exercise that right. If it is better to allow the local procedure to go ahead, but it would also be preferable for the investigation to cover both jurisdictions at the same time, we have the option to close one side of the case to wait for the process on the other side to be completed. We should be clear with the organisations that we expect them to deal with the complaint promptly and to advise the complainant of their right to come back to the Ombudsmen once local complaints processes have been concluded.

We may also decide a complaint is too early to look at where other processes are still ongoing, for example, safeguarding investigations, a Coroner’s   inquest or a Serious Case Review. In such cases, these may again be closed on a holding decision whilst waiting for the other processes to conclude