We are the final stage for complaints about the NHS in England and public services delivered by the UK Government. We look into complaints where someone believes there has been injustice or hardship because an organisation has not acted properly or fairly or has given a poor service and not put things right. Our service is free for everyone.
We are not part of government, the NHS in England, or a regulator. We are neither a consumer champion nor arbitrator.
We normally expect people to complain to the organisation first so it has a chance to put things right. If someone believes there is still a dispute about the complaint after the organisation has replied they can ask us to look into the complaint.
We were set up by Parliament to provide an independent complaint handling service. We share findings from our casework with Parliament to help them scrutinise public service providers and share these findings more widely with others to help drive improvements in public services. We are accountable to Parliament and our work is scrutinised by the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee.