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Where am I now? Lawlink > homepage > Frequently Asked Questions > Complaints Policy
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Complaints Policy
Information about how you can make a complaint is available at Making a Complaint
Introduction
Premier’s Memorandum No. 95-29 requires all frontline officers of Government agencies to be equipped to handle complaints. A complaint can be defined as: “An expression of dissatisfaction, however made, about the standard of service, actions or lack of action made by a Business Centre or its staff, affecting an individual client or group of clients.”
Complaints can be about a variety of different types of conduct, or about policies or procedures. For the purposes of this Policy and for the Department a complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction that calls for action on the part of the complaints handler.
This Policy sets out minimum standards that should be incorporated into each Business Centre's complaint handling processes and sets out a system for recording and reporting on information collected at the local level. The overarching aim of this Policy is to ensure that complaints are dealt with fairly and expeditiously within the Department, and that the data extracted from the complaints received is accurate and useful for reporting and business improvement purposes.
The better an organisation handles complaints, the higher the esteem in which that organisation is held by its stakeholders and the community generally. Those organisations handling complaints well save on costs incurred when complaints escalate, sometimes to the point of litigation.
An effective, Department-wide complaint handling procedure will provide the following:
- Feedback on problems being experienced with the Business Centre about which that organisation may not be aware.
- Intelligence within the Business Centre and across Business Centres about particular complainants and particular issues, to reduce double handling of complaints and deal with issues in a co-ordinated fashion.
An effective complaint handling system will help resolve client dissatisfaction about the services received and help prevent client dissatisfaction from occurring in the first place. Information obtained through client feedback and complaints can inform policy, the allocation of resources and service delivery strategies.
Each Business Centre is required to implement effective complaint handling mechanisms involving, so far as possible, the devolution of decisions concerning client service to staff in direct contact with the Business Centre’s clients.
Uniform procedures and minimum standards must be adhered to in order to ensure that both clients and staff have confidence that the complaint handling process will be fair, transparent, consistent and effective.
A system of reporting is also required in order to maximise the potential of the information collected and, so that problems and trends can be identified and used in program improvement planning.
This Policy should be read in conjunction with other Departmental policies and programs and is subject to relevant legislation regulating the manner in which information is collected, stored, disclosed and destroyed.
This Policy does not apply to decisions made by, or the conduct of judicial officers and tribunal members. Complaints should not be accepted where they are about a decision of an independent statutory body although complaints can be accepted about the administrative functions of these bodies and the conduct of Departmental staff members.
When a complaint is made direct to a Business Centre, that Business Centre must take the opportunity to resolve the complaint/grievance raised by a client by means of an internal complaint-handling process before referral to the Community Relations Unit, or an external review mechanism.
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