Unreasonable behaviour policy
The Ombudsman is often the last resort for customers who feel that their complaint has not been addressed and we are concerned to ensure that we have fully understood the issues which they raise with us.
We are committed to dealing with all customers fairly and impartially and to providing a high quality service. As part of this service we do not normally limit the contact customers have with this Office. However, we do not expect our staff to tolerate behaviour by customers which is, for example abusive, offensive or threatening, or which because of the frequency of the contact with this Office, hinders our consideration of complaints and we will take action to manage such behaviour.
We will make every effort to ensure that our service is accessible to all of our customers. To achieve this outcome we will make reasonable adjustments to meet the individual and particular needs of anyone who contacts us.
When we consider that a customer’s behaviour is unreasonable we will tell them why we find their behaviour unreasonable and we will ask them to change it. If the unreasonable behaviour continues, we will take action to restrict the customer’s contact with our Office.
The decision to restrict access to our Office will only normally be taken after we have considered possible adjustments to our service which may help the customer to avoid unreasonable behaviour. The decision will be taken at Director level (or above). Any restrictions imposed will be appropriate and proportionate. The options we are most likely to consider are:
- requesting contact in a particular form (for example, letters only);
- requiring contact to take place with a named officer;
- restricting telephone calls to specified days and times;
- asking the customer to enter into an agreement about their future conduct; and/or
- asking the customer to contact us through an advocate.
In all cases we will write to tell the customer why we believe their behaviour is unreasonable, what action we are taking and the duration of that action. We will also tell them how they can challenge the decision if they disagree with it and we will consider any challenge under our ‘complaints about us’ policy.
Where, despite any adjustments we have made, a customer continues to behave in a way which is unreasonable, we may have to decide to terminate contact with that customer.
Where the behaviour is so extreme that it threatens the immediate safety and welfare of the Ombudsman’s staff or others, we will consider other options, for example, reporting the matter to the Police or taking legal action. In such cases, we may not give the customer prior warning of that action.
