In this month’s edition of the Ombudsman’s findings, we highlight the importance of taking good notes during a complaints investigation and using these to help communicate openly with the complainant.
This month we published decision reports from 18 complaints investigated by the Ombudsman. Fourteen of these were about Health services and four were about Local Government.
The outcome of these 18 complaints were
- Fully upheld: 8
- Some upheld: 6
- Not upheld: 4
Recommendations and feedback
We made 47 recommendations to public bodies. Twenty-five of these were about steps public bodies could take to learn and improve from the complaint. A further eight recommendations were made to help public bodies improve their complaint handling.
Several of these recommendations were made to ensure that correct guidance, policies and/or procedures are followed. This is critically important, particularly in a healthcare setting where these are in place to ensure patient care and safety is maintained.
We also made several recommendations that highlight the importance of taking good notes, recording discussions as best as possible, and that outcomes of any investigations are fed back to relevant staff
for learning and improvement.
Did you know – we run two training courses for complaints handlers?
- Good Complaints Handling for those handling stage 1 complaints
- Complaints Investigation Skills for those handling stage 2 complaints
Why not take a look and if you have any questions or would like to know more, get in touch.
All our published decision reports can be read in full on our website.