Every complaint counts. We know your complaint is important to you and it’s important to us too. Even if we cannot investigate, the information you share will help us spot any wider problems in public services that need to change.
We have a three-step process for dealing with complaints. An investigation is the final step in our process, but not all the complaints that come to us go through this step.
If you need help understanding these steps, call us on 0345 015 4033.
Step 1: When we first get your complaint
What we do
We do some checks to make sure we can look into your complaint. We check that:
- we can look into the organisation and issue you’re complaining about
- you've already been through the organisation’s own complaints process.
We’ll also look at what you want to happen as a result of complaining to us.
We aim to complete this step within five working days of getting your complaint.
We need to have a good understanding of your complaint so if we need more information from you, we’ll let you know.
What we can decide
- If we can take your complaint forward, we’ll let you know and move it to step two.
- If we cannot take your complaint forward, we’ll explain what you can do next. This might include advice on how to complain to the organisation if you’ve not done this or signposting to a different organisation.
You can give us feedback at any point. As a first step, speak to the person handling your complaint or their manager.
Step 2: Deciding whether to investigate
What we do
We take a closer look at your complaint to decide if we should investigate. We look at several things, including:
- how much the issue affected the person involved by using our severity of injustice scale to make sure we are consistent and transparent for everyone who uses our service.
Find out more about how we prioritise cases to have the most impact.
- whether the organisation may have got things wrong, and this has had, or continues to have, a negative impact on the person affected that has not been put right
- if you complained to us or an MP within 12 months of knowing about the issue
- whether you have (or had) the option of taking legal action instead.
At this stage, our caseworkers will also check whether mediation might help. Mediation brings you and the organisation together, with someone from our team helping you both try to reach an agreement.
What we can decide
- If we decide to investigate, we’ll let you know what happens next.
- If we decide not to investigate, we’ll explain why and let you know what other options you might have.
Step 3: Investigating your complaint
A more detailed investigation is the last step in dealing with your complaint. Only a small proportion of all complaints that come to us reach this step.
Our investigation is split into five stages. We’ll keep you and the organisation updated on which stage your complaint is at. Every complaint is different so the time it takes will vary.
1. We get started
We’ll talk to you about your complaint and what we’re going to investigate. We’ll listen to you, focus on the facts and make sure everything is fair and transparent. We’ll tell you how long we expect the investigation to take and keep you updated.
2. We gather the information we need
We’ll gather all the information we need from you and the organisation before making our decision. We collect evidence like records, letters and emails.
We might ask an independent specialist, like a medical professional, for advice at this stage. This will always be someone who is not involved in the issue you’re complaining about. Find out how we use clinical advice.
3. We look at the evidence
We look at what the law, guidance and specialists say should have happened at the time and compare it with what actually happened. If we find something went wrong, we look at how it affected you or other people involved. We also consider whether the organisation has already tried to put things right.
4. We share what we think
We’ll tell you whether we think the organisation made a mistake or not and share a draft report. You and the organisation can then share your thoughts with us before we make our final decision.
5. We give you our final decision
We set out our final decision in a report and share it with you and the organisation.
If we uphold your complaint, it means we found the organisation got things wrong and you were negatively affected by this. It means things have not been put right and we can recommend what the organisation should do.
This might include:
- accepting its mistakes and saying sorry
- making a payment to you to put things right
- taking action to learn from your complaint and stop the same thing happening again.
We follow up to make sure the organisation does what we’ve asked. This is the end of our investigation and when we’ll close your complaint.
We may publish your complaint to help people understand our work and help organisations improve. We’ll remove your name and personal details before sharing anything.
Our Service Charter explains what you can expect from us when you ask us to look into a complaint. This is to give you confidence in our service. It also explains what we need from you in return.
