We believe in the power of complaints in transforming public services. Everyone should be able to complain, regardless of who they are, how they identify or where they come from.
Our equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) principles are embedded in the way we work and how we handle complaints.
Our legal framework
Our work is underpinned by the Equality Act 2010 and the Human Rights Act 1998, which require us to uphold people’s rights and dignity.
We recognise and support the nine protected characteristics, which are:
- age
- disability
- gender reassignment (which includes gender identity or expression)
- marriage and civil partnership
- pregnancy and maternity
- race
- religion or belief
- sex
- sexual orientation.
Our EDI responsibilities
This statement supports our strategy for 2025 to 2026 and will help us to achieve our three objectives over the next year. Our objectives are to:
- improve access to our service by removing barriers, developing our relationships with the advisory sector, and building trust with groups who do not often access our service so that they feel able to come to us
- provide an exceptional user experience by making it easier to bring complaints to us and improving the standard of complaint handling in public services
- deliver impact from our casework by reviewing whether we are making the right types of recommendations and whether they are having the impact we want to see.
You can also download our statement as a PDF (PDF 326KB).