Issue - meetings

Francis Carroll, Chair of Healthwatch Barking and Dagenham, introduced the report and explained that Healthwatch had been asked by the Public Health Team to undertake some primary research into how complaints were managed when local people had felt cause to complain about the delivery of health and social care services.  Healthwatch explained their investigative methodology and that they had looked at the annual complaint reports of six local organisations. 

Francis indicated that the complainant’s experience and feedback would allow the Board to consider ways in which the expectations of complainants could be more central to the complaints process.  Healthwatch had found that complainants often viewed the stages of complaint in a different way to the organisation(s) investigating the complaint.  Whilst complaints were recorded by service, department or timescale for operational needs, there was not any easy way for a complainant to know if a complaint had any effect on service ethos or delivery.  From the complainant’s view, organisations needed to be clearer about what changes were implemented as a result of service users raising concerns.  Francis drew the Board’s attention to the details in the report and recommendations set out in Appendix A.

The Board:

(i)  Noted the recommendations set out in Appendix A of the report, namely:

(a)  That service providers make it a priority to engage with complainants at least once a year,

(b)  That the views and experiences of complainants contribute to any re-design of complaints procedures.

(c)  That organisations wishing to make their complaints procedures more user friendly follow the advice given in the report of the Complaints Programme Board ‘My expectations for raising concerns and complaints’.

(d)  Organisations should consider including in their annual complaints reports more testaments from complainants as to how the process worked for them.

(e)  Organisational annual complaints reports should be clearer about what their analysis is saying and what changes will be brought about as a result.  This should be fed back to complainants who have contributed through highlighting the situation.

(f)  Complainants should be advised of agencies or advocates who can help them with their complaint.

(ii)  Agreed that partners would take the recommendations back to their organisations and would actively consider implementing them within their organisation’s processes.