A service complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction from one or more customers or members of the public about the standard of service we have provided. Bodies in jurisdiction can also make a complaint about the service they have received from us. It is not a complaint about a draft decision. Concerns about the content of draft decision should be dealt with by the investigator as part of their continued consideration of the complaint before issuing a final decision.

Service complaints should generally be submitted within one month of the event being complained about, or a month from when the complainant discovers they have reason to complain.

Staff should try to deal with a service complaint at the outset if at all possible. If this is not possible, and the case is either not yet at final decision stage or the case is closed but the feedback is only about the standard of service received, service complaints will normally be considered by the individual’s line manager who will issue a response within 20 working days of receipt, unless extra time is needed If so, the manager should send a KIT email at 20 working days explaining the need for extra time. The manager or reviewer’s decision is final and there are no appeal rights or further stages.

If a service complaint is submitted in conjunction with a challenge to a final decision, the Complaint about us (CAU) and review will be dealt with together by the reviewer who is next on the review rota (the individual’s line manager would not respond in this situation). If a service complaint is submitted in conjunction with an invalid review request for Assessment the member of staff should discuss with their AM how the response will be managed. For Investigation the Investigator should draft the review response and the AO will add the service complaint response. We should record, in N&A, the outcome of the discussion about how the response to the CAU and PDR will be managed.

To illustrate, with some examples:

1. We have issued a final decision. The complainant responds saying they want to make a complaint to us about the time the Investigator took to deal with the case. Even though we have issued a final decision, this would be a CAU, normally dealt with by the Investigator’s line manager.

2. We have issued a final decision. The complainant says we have ignored evidence they provided and that the investigator was rude in phone conversations. This is a review and a CAU, normally both dealt with by the reviewer who is next on the review rota.

3. We have not issued a final decision. The complainant says we don’t understand the law and complains that the Investigator hasn’t kept them informed about the conduct of her investigation. The complaint about our service (keeping them informed) should be dealt with by the Investigator’s line manager. The complainant should be told, by the line manager, that the substantive issue (about the law) will be considered by the Investigator through the remainder of their investigation. The line manager could also refer to the post decision review process.

The Challenge/staff conduct complaint information form 

Where a member of staff receives a complaint about their conduct they should complete the Challenge/staff conduct complaint information form. Examples of service complaints include:

• Delay in dealing with a complaint
• Failure to respond to communications or keep in touch appropriately
• Discourtesy/rudeness
• Insensitivity towards the complainant’s circumstances or feelings
• Bias
• Discrimination
• Other employee conduct
• Requests to change Investigator

All incoming and outgoing telephone calls made by employees in Intake, Assessment and Investigation, both internal and external are recorded by the LGSCO. Our protocol explains the approach we take.

Where we receive a complaint that an employee was rude or discourteous during a telephone conversation within the last month, the manager responding to the service complaint should submit an IT helpdesk request for the telephone recording and upload it to the ECHO record. The telephone recording will be retained on the ECHO record in line with our file retention policy. This will ensure recordings are retained for 12 months after the date of the final decision and be made available to the External Reviewer. Please note our telephone recording system only keeps recordings for 30 days. If we receive a service complaint beyond this timeframe telephone recordings may no longer be available but we do ask complainants to complain within a month of the event or call complained about.

If the recording is too large to upload (maximum 20MB) you can save the file on the casework folder on the K drive. However, you must remember to go back and delete the file 12 months after the date of the last action on the case.

A challenge to a review rejection letter is not grounds for a service complaint. Nor is disagreement with a reviewer’s response although a complaint about their conduct could be a service complaint.

It is not necessary for a complainant to complete a form to submit a service complaint. Written complaints ensure there can be no misunderstandings, but if a complainant wishes to submit their service complaint by telephone then this will be adequate. Where a verbal service complaint is received, a copy of the service complaint procedure should be sent to the complainant if it has not already been sent. Staff should also give a complainant the opportunity to submit any further comments in writing if they wish to do so. The staff member receiving the verbal complaint should ensure a note is made whether the complainant has said they will send in further written comments or not.

The ‘fluency duty’ 

From 21 November 2016, a service complaint can also include issues around the proficiency and standard of spoken English by a staff member. More information can be found in The Code of Practice on the English language requirement for public sector workers. A legitimate complaint under this Code will be made by a member of the public or someone acting on his or her behalf. A complaint about the strength of a public sector worker’s accent, dialect, manner or tone of communication, origin or nationality would not be considered legitimate as a complaint about the fluency duty.

Where we receive a legitimate complaint about a staff member’s standard of spoken English, we must assess its merits against the necessary standard of spoken English required for the role in question. If the complaint is upheld, we must consider what steps can be taken to meet the fluency duty. Steps may include specific training, retraining or assessment, re-deployment or dismissal. When considering these types of complaint, we should take account of:

• The nature of the complaint
• English language provision for public sector workers
• The information received from the complainant or their representative
• The complainant’s expectations of an outcome

Offensive language, including racist language in complaints about us

Where a complainant uses racist or other discriminatory language in their complaint, or where the phone or other communication records show evidence of their use of racist or other discriminatory language, the manager should always robustly challenge that in their response, even if upholding some or all of their complaint.

10.1 The service complaint screen

Access to this screen is restricted. The only people who have access are managers and the case owner of the particular complaint. The Service Complaint screen in ECHO has a breakdown of the options available under ‘Nature of Complaint’. Any field marked with a red star on this screen is mandatory. If the CAU is about more than one person, you must create multiple entries on the screen. One for each person complained about. If it is about a general matter, such as delays caused by a backlog in allocating casework, there is an option to pick ‘general’ under ’staff concerned’.

The ’lessons learnt’ box should be used, only when we uphold a CAU, to summarise significant quality concerns about customer service (including discourtesy), delay, transparency and bias.

It should answer/comment on particularly significant issues with respect to the following quality standards, even when this is picked up in other fields. This is so the quality standards Echo report captures relevant information:

• Our service is easy to access, we take full account of what people tell us and treat them with courtesy and respect
• We deal with each case promptly, from first contact to final decision.
• We exercise discretion fairly and consistently and are transparent about the process we follow
• Our investigations and assessments are impartial, and we make clear, evidence-based decisions

10.2 Upheld Service complaints

We will normally try to resolve problems in line with our published customer service complaints procedure.

The reviewer or manager will consider what, if any, action is justified when they uphold a complaint about us. Often a simple apology will be enough. An explanation of any learning to prevent reoccurrence may also be appropriate and helpful, emphasising how we use complaints about us to improve our approach for others.

We do not normally make financial payments as compensation for upheld complaints about us. In very rare circumstances, for example where there is evidence that additional, otherwise unnecessary postage costs have been incurred because of our mistake, we can offer to reimburse those costs.

The manager will also need to consider whether the relationship between the complainant and Investigator has irreparably broken down and, if so, whether it is appropriate to reallocate the complaint to another Investigator.