Authority Social Services and National Health Service
Complaints (England) Regulations 2009 makes clear the
duties and responsibilities concerning complaints and
how they should be managed. The Department of Health
(DH, 2009a) recommends that, in order to carry out good
practice, the organisation should:
n Make public its complaints procedures
n Acknowledge a complaint when it has been made and
offer to discuss the matter
n Deal efficiently with complaints, investigating them
properly and appropriately
n Write to the person making the complaint once it has
been dealt with. Explain how it has been resolved and
what appropriate action was taken. Remind the person
of the right to take the matter further to the Health
Ombudsman or Local Government Ombudsman if they
are still not happy
n Ensure that a senior member of the organisation takes
on the responsibility for the complaints policy and
learning from complaints
n Offer help to the person making the complaint to
understand the procedures associated with this process
n Produce a report each year about complaints that have
been received and what has been done to improve
things as a result.