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Building a culture that values complaintsPaul McFaddenComplaints Standards Authority (CSA)

Academic Registrars’ CouncilDeveloping a Good Practice Framework for student complaints

6 June 2013

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The need to improve“Not fit for purpose”

Complex and confusing: Need to make complaining more straightforward. Reduce the complexity of the current complaints handling systems. SPSO premature rates as an example of this.

Inconsistent and lacking co-ordination: within and across sectors. Need to remove potential for duplication and overlap.

Too slow: need to reduce the time taken

Not Getting it Right First time: reduce unnecessary customer interaction. Need to deal with complaints more locally

Focused on organisational need not on customer

Inconsistent learning: need to enable the lessons learned to be applied more easily across all public services.

Lack of focus on performance and costs - value for money

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Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act (2010)

Complaints Standards Authority

Model Complaints Handling Procedure for each sector Standardised, simplified Consistent for service user Sectoral approach

Centre of best practice Develop and share best practice

across sectors Building networks Providing training and support

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Building a culture that values complaints

Quick, simple process

Roles and responsibilities are well defined from frontline to boardroom with empowered staff and effective governance

Effective complaints resolution is embedded in the culture of the organisation

A performance culture drives complaints handling

Organisational learning from all complaints informs service improvement

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One standardised CHP

What is / is not a complaint

2 stages, standard timescales

Clear roles and responsibilities and good governance

Standards for recording, reporting, learning and publicising

Dealing with unacceptable actions

Share complaints performance and lessons learnt throughout organisation

Share outcomes and action taken with customers

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Quick, simple process

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Quick, simple process Empowered, customer-focused frontline

Complaints well defined

Resolve quickly at, or close to, point of delivery

Local, easily accessed

Telephone / face to face DWP 80%

Brings challenges – quality of record is crucial

Get it right first time culture - One co-ordinated investigation

Removing safety nets

Making the right decisions

learning lessons

training staff

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Quick, simple processWhy?

Less confusing – customers understand the process and get a quick response

Customers are happier - customers want problems fixed quickly (or explained)

Things don’t ‘snowball’

Cheaper / takes less time

2010 OFWAT report – 15 minutes to resolve complaints at the

frontline; 70 hours at final stage

NAO report on DWP - frontline resolutions 40 times cheaper

DWP 50% reduction

Less senior staff time

Less duplication of reviewing same facts and issues

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Complaints handling roles and responsibilities are well defined

Frontline staff are empowered Know when, how and in what

circumstances they can act Know when authorised to say sorry and

take corrective action

Senior management ownership Signing off investigations – the final

decision Monitoring complaints info – concerns

and trends Are staff making right decisions? Board reviewing individual cases Right management and governance

processes in place? Leading culture

Ownership and responsibility

Governance and management

culture (See Mid-Staffs)

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Effective complaints resolution is

embedded in the culture of the organisation

All staff - welcome and ‘own’ complaints

Don’t see them as a threat or act defensively

Mind-set of quick resolution - staff automatically and instantly contact customers

Admit failings – all staff empowered to apologise and put things right

Move away from the legalistic mindset: ‘apology = liability’

Organisation - Value Complaints

Need a clear, very visible signal from the most senior level

Complaints on agenda - throughout organisation : team meetings, executive team, frontline, performance targets

Plan and improve service delivery on basis of customer insight

Give sufficient status and weight to complaints managers – professionalise

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What customers want when they complain

1. An acknowledgement of the error2. Confirmation that they, the customer, were right3. An understanding of why things went wrong4. An acceptance of responsibility and a meaningful and

timely apology5. Reassurance that the problem has been addressed and

will not happen again6. A reconciliation of a relationship7. The restoration of the customer’s reputation

Department for Communities and Local Government June 2009‘Getting it right, righting the wrongs’

www.communities.gov.uk/documents/communities/pdf/1258299.pdf

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The power of apology

A meaningful apology

Accept responsibility for failings Not blaming anyone else and not making excuses accept total responsibility for action or inaction.

Express regret Empathy, acknowledgement of the injustice caused.

Resolve the matter, or commit to take action to prevent reoccurrence

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A performance culture drives complaints handling

Not all about reducing the numbers Focus on resolving more, more quickly at the frontline -

Monitor and reduce proportions resolved at frontline Target phone contact / on-the-spot Reduce number of escalated complaints Reduce ‘lost’ complainants – e.g. SPSO prematures Average times Reduce uphelds Measure customer satisfaction Measure responsiveness - what and how often have you changed as a

result of complaints?

Base-line and benchmark performance – private and public sector

Focus on costs

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Organisational learning Record, analyse and report on all complaints

You can’t manage what you don’t measure

Managers act on regular reports - identify, action and review quarterly

What are we getting wrong and why? Service failures identified, actioned and reviewed quarterly

Root cause analysis

How do we improve? Share with staff stories of poor service / customer journeys

Allow staff to make quick changes to service delivery

Communicate learning to customers Publicly report complaints outcomes, trends and action taken

Student awareness of value of CHP

Put complaints on the agenda – from the board room to team meetings

“Such an approach completely ignoredthe value of complaints in informing the Board of what was going wrong and what, If anything was being done to put it right.”

The Trust Board was limited in the learning it received from complaints. In particular, it did not receive details of any individual complaints and, indeed, the Chair of the Trust did not review any of them personally. Her reason for this remote approach was that:

“As far as complaints are concerned, … individual complaints always risk giving a biased and partial view of what’s happening in the trust. A complaint that’s investigated properly and resolved is then put to bed and doesn’t need to come to the attention of the hierarchy in the organisation, actually.”

Report of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry, volume one, page 250

“However, it is far from certain that a more penetrating look at complaints would have shaken her confidence in the management of the Trust because her instinctive reaction to complaints appears to have been a combination of scepticism about their substance and a tolerance, borne of a belief that such complaints were not uncommon in the NHS.”Report of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry, volume one, page 250-251

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Challenges Culture Change

Frontline and senior staff Are HEIs customer focused? Consensus on CHP

No. of stages – no review stage

Training and staff awareness ‘All frontline staff?’

Decision making and learning 10 years of SPSO – same messages

Recording ALL complaints Definition of complaint / service request ‘Informal’ complaints Systems Mobile staff

Publicising complaints performance Higher Education - competitive market place

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Supporting and promoting best practice

Online resources - www.valuingcomplaints.org.uk Complaints handling developments and good practice resources Ask each other – cross-sector discussion forum / community Ask CSA – implementation advice

Networks of complaints handler

Training E-learning modules

Module 1: Understanding the Model Complaints Procedure

Module 2: What Is A Complaint?

Module 3: What Customers Want When They Complain

Module 4: Getting It Right From the Start

Module 5: Active Listening

Module 6: Finding the Right Solution

Module 7: Learning From Complaints

Module 8: Managing Difficult Behaviour

Investigation and Frontline classroom-based courses

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Compliance / performance

Compliance SPSO Act Regulatory structures

Performance

Transparency

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How do you match up? Quick, simple process?

Is it accessible?

Easy to navigate?

How efficient? Do you know?

Roles and responsibilities well defined from frontline to boardroom?

How empowered and authorised are your staff?

Governance post-Francis?

Complaints culture of the organisation?

Welcoming, valuing complaints?

Legalistic?

Does a performance culture drives complaints handling?

Do you report, publish, target, IMPROVE?

Organisational learning from all complaints informs service improvement

What processes in place to analyse, report and learn from all complaints?

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UK Public Administration Select Committee

Cross-departmental inquiry

1. What objectives should Ministers adopt when considering how complaints about Government and about public services provided by Government are handled?

2. How effectively do Government departments and public service providers use complaints to improve the service provided?

3. How quickly do complaints systems deal with legitimate grievances and provide redress?

4. How easy is it to make a complaint about a Government department or agency, and how could this be improved?

5. What lessons from Francis Report?

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Any Questions

?

www.valuingcomplaints.org.ukCSA@spso.org.uk