The Complaints Improvement Framework has been developed to help organisations assess and demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of their overall complaints handling arrangements. This includes how well the organisation handles and responds to complaints, how accessible the complaints procedure is and the effectiveness of its governance and monitoring arrangements.
It enables the organisation to self-assess its performance in relation to six themes of good practice and provides a holistic assessment of whether and to what extent the organisation operates a culture and system that values complaints.
The framework may be used by people at different levels within the organisation (service delivery, complaints teams, auditors, senior management, and board level). Comparing and analysing the results may identify where there are any gaps or different perspectives of how the organisation is performing. It can be used as an annual snapshot of an organisation’s performance or for assessing performance on a rolling basis, for example choosing one theme to focus on each quarter.
Six themes of good practice
1. Organisational Culture
2. Process and Procedure
3. Accessibility
4. Quality
5. Learning from Complaints
6. Complaints Handling Performance
We have developed an Excel-based spreadsheet that accompanies the Complaints Improvement Framework document.